PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS — A Brooklyn man was caught by his own spy pen camera trying to record his roommate as she returned from taking a shower, prosecutors said.
Gutemberg Forestal, 26, placed the black and gold pen on the woman's TV stand in her bedroom in the Hawthorne Street apartment they shared as she was taking a shower around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to sources and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.
The victim, however, spotted the device as she returned to her room and took it apart, finding a USB drive which held a recording of Forestal in her bedroom "moving and positioning" the pen, according to the criminal complaint.
As she watched the video, the woman received text messages from Forestal asking if he could get into her room because “a contractor grabbed my pen and left it in your room” and he needed work files stored on the device, prosecutors said.
Later, he admitted to the woman that he had placed the pen in her room, then “realized how stupid I was” for putting it there and lied to her about the contractors in the text message, according to the complaint.
He also apologized to her, saying “it was sick, stupid and a betrayal of your trust. Please forgive me,” prosecutors say.
Forestal was charged with two counts of illegal surveillance, both felonies, “for the purpose of degrading or abusing a person” and for his own “sexual arousal or sexual gratification,” the charges read.
He faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, prosecutors said.
Forestal was arraigned Wednesday and released from custody with an order of protection against the roommate, court records show. He did not respond to email requests for comment on Thursday.
He is due back in court March 20.
