WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- A five year old girl is now terrified to use the restroom after discovering a hidden camera taking her picture on the toilet in a DC Starbucks. Her parents are furious, suing Starbucks, in part because they say this kind of thing happens at Starbucks all too often.
Apparently the unisex restrooms at the Penn Quarter Starbucks seem to attract the perverts. The little girl went with her family to use the bathroom there and when she got up to wash her hands, she noticed a camera tucked under the sink and pointed right at the toilet.
READ: Starbucks Complaint/Lawsuit Details (PDF)
The five year old's mother talked to us on the phone from her home in Norfolk. She's still furious and she's suing Starbucks, alleging baristas failed to clean the restroom and failed to do the most obvious kind of checks for hidden cameras.
"It's completely unethical. It's disgusting. And the fact that the manager didn't know what to do. 'I don't know, would you like a free coffee?' is really really pathetic," she told 9NEWS NOW.
The camera captured a blurry, unidentifiable image of the man who may have placed it there. Police have yet to find him.
As for the little girl, her mother says, "It's not something she's forgotten. She questions every time I take her into a public restroom -- is something like that going to happen?"
Starbucks says it's impossible to forsee this kind of criminal act. But it's hard to see why...a simple Google search turns up all kinds of cases all over the country, going back years.
Near L.A. earlier this summer, using a camera disguised as a coathook, a man allegedly captured 45 women and children using a Starbucks bathroom. In Florida in June, Eric Efaw killed himself after police busted him planting a camera in a Starbucks restroom.
The girl's mother said about her lawsuit: "It's not about money. It's that they need to take a stand and do what's right and take care of stuff."
Starbucks said in a statement on Monday:
We take our obligation to provide a safe environment for our customers and partners (employees) very seriously. Our store partners took swift action as soon as they became aware of the issue - immediately alerting the police department and assisting in the investigation. We continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement on this matter; however, because there is pending litigation, we cannot comment on the specifics of this case. However, we can tell you that as a part of regular store operations, we monitor the seating areas and rest rooms in our stores on a regular basis to identify potential safety or security concerns.