How to spot hidden cameras

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Go just about anywhere in public and there is usually a camera somewhere watching.

But from bathrooms to vacation rentals, we've seen cases of cameras hidden where they shouldn't be, recording private moments.

A couple staying at a friend's condo in the Las Brisas complex of Matanzas shores discovered a hidden camera in the master bedroom flower pot capturing them in various stages of undress.

The victim says outside her apartment window, she saw a flashing green light, decided to investigate and saw the light was coming from a small spy camera.

The FBI says Jeremy Froias got on the ship this spring to begin a seven-day cruise.

Investigators say Froias installed a Wi-Fi camera in a public bathroom.

On the camera, the FBI says they found hours of videos of more than 150 people. They say 40 of the victims were kids.

Some people may be well-meaning people who think they are keeping their vacation rentals safe from theft.

So how do you spot hidden cameras? Can you spot them before they spot you?

We brought a hidden camera detector we bought off Amazon to Bobby Brown's shop, Surveillance Plus. We wanted to put our detector and his to the test.

But first, we had to learn how to use it.

"So when I hold this up to the lens, it puts a red dot right where the lens is," Brown said.

A red dot means camera lens, and beeping is meant to detect a signal if a camera is hooked up to Wi-Fi, but here's where the problems start.

"Anything that's on a frequency, it will pick up," Brown said.

Both detectors beeped at doors and windows and ourselves but not always at cameras.

"There are some really expensive ones online. What do you think of those?" WESH 2's Anika Hope asked.

"Well, if you set the environment, it'll work. I'd have to go in your house and turn off all your routers, your Roku, your wireless printer, and then knock on your neighbor's doors. 'Hey, can we turn your routers off for a second?'" Brown said.

"That almost defeats the purpose," Hope said.

"Yeah, you're turning off all the wireless devices that's going to make that go off," Hope said.

"So if you went into the woods essentially," Hope said.

"That'd be a great spot to detect hidden cameras," Brown said.

The red dot seemed a little more reliable.

"It's kind of hard to tell even with this," Hope said. "You have to stick this into it almost."

"And if you're that close, you can see it," Brown said. "That's what people tell me, 'I want to be able to detect it across the room,' and no."

Brown told us that even though he sells them, he usually tries to talk customers out of buying detectors.

One, because there's a good chance you'll feel like you're on an episode of Candid Camera real fast without good reason.

Two, because you can learn how to spot hidden cameras yourself.

Start to look for common items.

"Type in hidden camera in your Google search and then click the images button and then go through here and look for all these in your Airbnb," Brown said.

"Look for anything that looks like travel clocks, cell phone chargers and then inspect it," Brown said.

Search for SD card slots and reset buttons.

"Turn it around and see if there's an SD slot for a micro SD card. A normal travel clock should not have a memory slot. That's a sign that it's a hidden camera. They also have reset buttons," Brown said.

Notice reflective spots.

"And it's like a working key fob. There's little infrared light right there that will illuminate in darkness," Brown said.

At the advanced level, you have to get hands-on.

"Like these are harder to detect because they're looking through the dark plastic. So you don't see a visible lens like you would in one of these where you see the lens," Brown said.

"There's almost no way to know," Hope said.

"So the only way to tell is do what I said. Look for a memory slot and see there's the SD card slot," Brown said.

"So a lot of it is lifting up things," Hope asked.

"Yeah, just spend the first five minutes in the AirBnB looking for hidden cameras," Brown said.

If you're just uncertain, Brown suggests packing sticky notes and sealing them over any possible camera in question.

"There's your line of defense," Brown said.

When it comes to vacation rentals, Airbnb says hidden cameras are not allowed.

VRBO only allows cameras outside, and they also must be disclosed to the renter.

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