What two baristas did after finding hidden camera in public restroom

Nov. 30—TRAVERSE CITY — For the better part of a week, Eva Davis found herself staring at the wall socket every time she entered the women's bathroom at Morsels coffee shop.

"I didn't say anything the whole week because it's like, why would that be a camera?" the 27-year-old barista said. "Why would there be a camera in there? It doesn't make any sense. I just talked myself out of it."

But after helping to open Morsels early on the morning of Monday, Aug. 28, Davis finally decided to show a colleague, 21-year-old Marlee Rickert, a photo of the light socket that she had taken with her cellphone.

"It had been eating away at me all week," Davis said. "I finally told Marlee: 'I took this picture. It's in the bathroom. What do you think of it?' She looked at it and said, 'What else would that be?' "

Thus began a remarkable day that would see the two young Morsels baristas transform themselves into would-be detectives. Fueled by a shared fury that their privacy and the privacy of female customers had been violated in such a shocking manner, they took photographs, recorded phone conversations and then handed over their evidence to the Traverse City Police Department.

The actions of the two women, who agreed to separate interviews with the Record-Eagle earlier this week, laid the groundwork for a police investigation that ultimately led to the Nov. 10 arrest of their boss.

The evidence collected by the women and the police connected the camera to Edward J. Witkowski, who is facing five felony counts — one count of using a computer to commit a crime, three counts of capturing/distributing images of an unclothed person and one count of lying to a police officer.

Nearly three weeks after his arrest, Witkowski, 49, was arraigned Wednesday before Magistrate Tammi Rodgers. He remains free on a $50,000 bond, $12,500 of which he was required to post. Neither he nor his attorney Michael Naughton responded to requests for an interview for this story.

BARISTAS BEGIN GATHERING EVIDENCE

Wanting to confirm her suspicion that there was indeed a camera embedded in the wall socket, Rickert said she removed the cover plate and took several photographs.

According to a police narrative, those photos show "a lens, consistent with a surveillance camera lens ... in the lower receptacle ground hole." The photos also show "a black ribbon cable, thicker red wire and smaller red wire ... protruding from behind the suspected surveillance outlet."

Rickert, who is currently working at a ski resort in Utah and was interviewed by phone, said she was fueled by anger at the invasion of privacy. She noted that the Morsels' staff was comprised entirely of women — including her younger sister — and said all of them had used the bathroom at some time while at work.

"I mean, the fact that my 15-year-old sister was working there grossed me out. ... If you want to watch me do that in the bathroom, that's weird," Rickert said. "But the fact that it's a public restroom and little kids are using it every day and so many people, it's disgusting."

After deciding that there was indeed a camera hidden in the women's restroom, Davis and Rickert put several layers of tape over the lens. A short time later, Davis reported that the lights had gone out in the restroom. Witkowski went in to check it out, the lights were restored and he exited the bathroom.

After that, Witkowski left Morsels to run errands, Rickert recalled. That's when she went into the bathroom, noticed that a new outlet had been installed and took photos of the new installation. She also went into Witkowski's office and photographed an old electrical outlet and other electrical supplies that were sitting on his desk.

By mid-afternoon that day, Traverse City Police Officer Austin Copenhaver, having been called by Rickert's mother, had already visited Morsels and inspected the women's bathroom while Witkowski was out. Detective Matt Verschaeve also had interviewed both Davis and Rickert and the women had gone home after their shift ended.

At about 3 p.m. that day, Rickert said, Witkowski called her. She said she refused to answer, but texted him back asking what he needed. He responded by text, saying, "I've learned the police were here today."

Rickert said she never responded to that comment, but texted him that she wouldn't be coming to work the following day. She said her sister resigned and that she followed up with a text to Witkowski that said, "This job isn't working for me and I'd like to be removed from the schedule."

She said she made a point of not writing anything that sounded accusatory.

Davis said Witkowski also called her that afternoon. She said they had a 15-minute phone conversation that she recorded and turned over to the police.

Davis said Witkowski told her that "a woman on the street" had approached him and told him that "his building was under surveillance." Asked what she thought Witkowski meant by that comment, Davis said, "I was assuming that he was trying to find more information and what we knew. He also asked about where in the building they (police) had been. He asked if they were in the bathroom and I didn't tell him. He was really fishing for information the entire conversation."

Davis said Witkowski "was frantic during the phone call. He was speaking very quickly and he was out of breath. He was in Morsels and he was going in and out of the bathroom."

Asked what prompted her to go to such lengths to document her findings and preserve evidence, Davis said, "To be honest, I watch a lot of true crime. The one mistake they always make is they don't have a paper trail. They don't have evidence; it's just their word against someone else's. I really wanted everything to be as concrete as it could be. ... I also didn't want to give any defense any wiggle room."

POLICE INVESTIGATION REVS UP

Armed with the baristas' photographs of the suspected surveillance camera, Verschaeve did some online sleuthing and found that the camera depicted in the photos was being sold on eBay.

Police reports show that the detective found Edward J. Witkowski, 49, of Traverse City, was a registered eBay user so Verschaeve obtained a search warrant for surveillance camera purchases made by the Morsels owner.

On Oct. 19, eBay produced records showing that Witkowski had purchased two wall outlet security nanny cam video recorders from eBay and that they had been delivered to the UPS Store at 801 S. Garfield Ave. — one on June 29 and the second one on July 23.

Nanny cams are commonly used by parents to monitor caregivers who are watching their children in their homes. Although it is legal in all 50 states for residents to install nanny cameras in their homes, 13 states, including Michigan, specifically prohibit the installation of cameras in areas where there is an expectation of privacy, such as bathrooms.

Michigan law says it is a felony offense, punishable by two years in prison, to "install, place, or use in any private place, without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy in that place, any device for observing, recording, transmitting, photographing, or eavesdropping upon the sounds or events in that place."

The statute "does not prohibit security monitoring in a residence if conducted by, or at the direction of, the owner or principal occupant of that residence unless conducted for a lewd or lascivious purpose."

Verschaeve followed up by drafting three more affidavits in support of search warrants — one for the UPS Store, one for Morsels and one for Witkowski's residence on North Oak Street in Traverse City. Police records show that a team of detectives and police officers hit all three locations on Oct. 26 after intercepting and briefly detaining Witkowski as he was driving on Division Street.

The records show that numerous items were seized at the three locations, including Witkowski's cellphone, various computers and thumb drives, iPads, a web cam and a digital camera.

Verschaeve's report says he turned Witkowski's cellphone over to the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit, which found three videos that depicted "three individual females being partially to fully unclothed in a restroom" that appeared to be the women's bathroom at Morsels.

The report says two of the videos were time-stamped July 21 and July 22, 2023. It says that "all three females appear to be post-pubescent; however, one female appears to [be] under the age of 18."

The report further notes that one of the videos was emailed from Witkowski's gmail account to his Morsels email address.

'I'M FINANCIALLY BOUND TO THIS PLACE'

Unlike Rickert, Davis did not resign from Morsels. In fact, she said she stayed until she was fired by Witkowski's wife on Nov. 14, more than two months after she and Rickert had gone to the police and four days after Witkowski's arrest.

Davis said Witkowski had tried to coax her into resigning, but said she resisted, telling him that she needed the money.

"I said, 'I'm financially bound to this place; I can't just leave,' " Davis recalled. "I said, 'I don't like it, but I also want to wait for the police to get back to us."

Asked how Witkowski responded, she said, "He said, 'I just don't want this to get out in the community. I don't want to have to shut down and it spirals from there.' He said he didn't want anything that's happening right now to happen."

If Witkowski is convicted, Davis said he should receive "the maximum amount of jail time ... and also be required to register as a sex offender because this is a sexual crime in nature."

As for Rickert, she's still angry about what happened to her and countless other women. She feels traumatized, saying the experience forced her to leave Michigan to normalize her life.

"Not to be vulgar, but it's just immediately, like, what the (expletive)?" she said. "Like, it's something that you don't expect to actually happen to you. You know it's out there, but it's not something that hits so close to home usually. And when it does, it's just a mind-blown type of feeling."

Even in Utah, she's haunted by the fear that a voyeur is watching her.

"Every time I go into a bathroom now, at this point I'm checking my surroundings," she said. "The other night, the room that I moved into, there's this weird hole in the wall and I took 50 photos of it trying to see inside. The whole situation has definitely left an impact on me."