Patron finds security camera underneath bar at Sacramento restaurant, concerned about placement
SACRAMENTO -- A Sacramento woman says she feels violated and angry after finding a security camera underneath the bar at a local restaurant.
"I feel like it was incredibly concealed," said Lindsay Lahargoue.
She and her husband sat down at the bar at Sampino's Kitchen on Thursday night, July 6.
Lahargoue says she went to hang her purse on a hook and while bending down beneath the bar she found the white security camera.
"It would be directed right up my skirt," said Lahargoue.
She confronted the bartender, who she says claimed they were not aware of the camera and they brought the owner of the restaurant out to speak with Lahargoue.
She says the owner was combative with her when confronted and claims he threw her and her husband out of the restaurant after this confrontation.
The owner of Sampino's Kitchen declined to comment on camera to CBS13. His attorney Dillon Fleming issued this statement, saying in full:
"It has come to the attention of Sampino's Kitchen at Joe Marty's Italian Restaurant & Bar that a person who was in the restaurant on July 6, 2023, is making allegations that patrons were inappropriately recorded by a camera in the restaurant. This is absolutely false. The facts are there were not cameras operating in the patron area of Sampino's Kitchen at Joe Marty's Italian Restaurant & Bar. The camera in question was inoperable and this was confirmed by law enforcement. This was also explained to the patron in question and verified by several witnesses."
So why was the camera placed under the bar in the first place?
One of the owners, Gaby Sampino, wrote on Facebook that it was put there during the COVID-19 pandemic when indoor dining was shut down. Her social media comment reads in part,
"During covid while we had no indoor seating and no barstools at bar, the camera was placed there to keep an eye on the crosswalk. We had many incidents of break-ins and theft when our kids were manning the front and we were stuck in the kitchen. As soon as indoor dining was allowed we turned it off. If you look to your right while sitting at the bar you can actually see the monitor with the footage of our cameras facing the parking lot and such, and you will see that there is no feed coming from that camera. We should have taken it down instead of just turning it off and we apologize for scaring anyone. It was not our intention at all, it is simply something that escaped mind."
Lahargoue says still, she is not comforted by that explanation.
"My expectation of privacy supersedes his expectation of surveillance," Lahargoue said.
Lahargoue wants proof the camera could even capture the street from inside the restaurant, under the bar.
She says she is a victim of past sexual assault and this whole incident was triggering.
"That shot me into the most extreme PTSD, anxiety," said Lahargoue.
Sacramento Police did come to Sampino's Kitchen Thursday night to investigate. They found that camera was not actively recording and had not been recording the previous 24 hours.
