Couple accuses hotel of invasion of privacy

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (WSVN) -- A couple is seeking answers after they feel they were being spied on in a South Florida hotel room.

Amy Cali is a mother of four girls. Her story began on Valentine's Day. She had just arrived back from a cruise with her husband Aaron Cali.

They decided to spend Valentine's Day evening at a Quality Inn in Hollywood before they took off back home to Denver. The next morning, Cali woke up and noticed a light was coming in through the peephole.

The peephole was lower because the room meets the requirement for people with disabilities. The Cali's have no disabilities. "You check into a hotel room, you have a legitimate expectation of privacy, and the things you do in that hotel room should be private to you and anyone else in that hotel room," said attorney Scott Sobol.

Cali noticed that when one looked in the peephole, one could see in the bedroom. The peephole had been reversed. "I was furious, I felt extremely violated. I had no idea who had looked. We were actually able to take a photograph through the peephole of the room, so we don't know if photographs were taken, video was taken," said Cali.

To be able to see through the peephole one would have to get very low on the ground. The hotel assures that they have looked through countless of hours of surveillance tapes, and the couple was not peeked at. "She can feel proud that no violation was committed. No one looking in. It was immediately corrected. We have turned that evidence into the police department, and they also have not found anything," said Izzy Fintz, executive V.P. of hospitality for the hotel.

"I can see where if a guest were here, they would be upset if they believed that's actually what occurred, and unfortunately for us is very little in the way of physical evidence, so we're investigating," said Lieutenant Manny Marino of the Hollywood Police Department.

Officials said they cannot go further with their investigation until they find out who reversed the peepholes. "We had the engineer on site correct the problem, we took documentation of it and alerted the Hollywood Police to investigate for the alleged crime that somebody might have caused," said Fintz.

"For all we know there could be a video of us on the Internet, so I don't know how to put a monetary value to such violation of privacy," said Cali.

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