Aussie woman rages over neighbour's 'creepy' act

An Aussie mum has accused her neighbour of being "a creep" after spotting a surveillance camera she says is pointed directly at her bathroom window.

In a photo taken of the set-up, a white and black camera can be seen poking out from underneath a blind behind a window on the property next door, which operates as a physiotherapy practice. The resident said she first noticed it there weeks ago, but at that point it wasn’t a problem.

"It was facing the car park, and now it's facing my window [and it has] been there for the last four days," she wrote online, explaining that she lived on a private property and was at a loss as to what to do. "It's facing my bathroom window. Disgusting. I have two young kids here."

The NSW woman's Facebook post has since blown up, with almost a hundred comments from worried locals urging her to take action, from speaking to her neighbour to putting up privacy screens or tinting her windows, which didn't go down well with the mother. "I shouldn't have to tint my windows to feel safe enough to have a shower," she responded. "I live on private property, he comes off as a creep."

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Despite revealing that she'd had issues with the neighbour in the past over her dog and didn't feel comfortable speaking to them again, the woman said she had talked to the neighbour.

"[I] went and spoke with them," the Hunter Valley mum of two added. "Apparently it's not facing my backyard, only theirs, but clearly it is, so I will be taking it further. It isn't for a backyard, it's for a car park that never gets used, only during the weekdays, but it's not even pointing anywhere near that direction anymore. It's legit right into my windows."

Is the camera legal?

Here's where it gets a little murky, according to property lawyer Monica Rouvellas, who explained that the Surveillance Devices Act was amended in 2014.

"You're allowed to have cameras that overlook a public area, and a public area is defined as anything where any sort of public person can be seen or be heard," she told Yahoo News Australia. "As for the cameras, like on boundaries and things like that, you are allowed to have cameras on your boundaries, however, they cannot be pointed or directed at people's bathrooms and windows."

Rouvellas went on to say there are a couple of things the woman could do. "One of them is to contact the local police and they can come out and actually request to view that person's footage to see exactly what's been looked at," she explained. "And then the police can actually, I believe, request that the camera be taken down or repositioned."

The resident could also try going through councils, although they might just refer the matter back to police.

"The other takeaway is, you know, these days everybody has a camera on their house," Rouvellas said. "So you know, if you don't like that then don't do things you shouldn't be doing. But yeah, if it is directed at a person's house or window then that's a violation of that person's privacy."

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