Posted Oct 11th 2009 9:20AM by TMZ Staff
There's a war raging between people and peepholes at the Ramada Conference Center Hotel in Milwaukee -- one of the places where ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was unknowingly filmed naked in her room.
We spoke to a member of the Ramada staff -- who told us ever since the hotel was linked to the Andrews case, housekeeping crews have had to remove all sorts of items taped to multiple peepholes -- from paper to Kleenex ... even Band-Aids.
Andrews' alleged Peeping Tom is currently under house arrest in Chicago -- so the only peephole anyone should really be worried about is the one at his house.
Filed under: TMZ Sports, Exclusives, Erin Andrews
Tags: erin andrews, ErinAndrews, espn, peephole
Posted Oct 3rd 2009 6:39AM by TMZ Staff
TMZ has learned an arrest has been made in the Erin Andrews Peeping Tom case -- the one in which the ESPN reporter was secretly videotaped walking around naked in various hotel rooms ... and the suspect has been charged with the federal crime of felony stalking.
48-year-old Michael David Barrett was arrested at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Friday.
According to the FBI, Barrett allegedly stalked Erin "with the intent to harass, to place under surveillance with intent to harass and intimidate, and to cause substantial emotional distress to a person in another state."
The videotapes surfaced in July. At least six clips showed Erin walking around two different hotel rooms in the nude, and were shot with a peephole camera. It was virtually impossible to tell when or where the videos were shot.
Andrews' lawyer, Marshall Grossman from the law firm Bingham & McCutchen, tells TMZ Barrett allegedly contacted hotels in the various venues "where Andrews was working in order to locate her and her room number -- and some of the hotels revealed that information, permitting him to target her." Grossman says Barrett would remove the peepholes from the doors -- or as the complaint states, "hacked off" -- and inserted tiny camera devices to secretly film her.
Someone tried to sell the clips to TMZ, but we refused to buy or air them because they were an obvious invasion of Erin's privacy. The federal complaint notes that the videos were offered for sale to TMZ.com through his email account.
The complaint says Andrews was so upset when the tapes began to circulate elsewhere she was "having trouble breathing and felt sick all of the time." The complaint adds, "She was concerned there might be more video and wanted to vomit just thinking about it."
UPDATE -- Barrett appeared in court today where he was ordered to be returned to California to face charges.
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, TMZ Sports, Erin Andrews
Tags: arrest, camera, eapn, Erin andrews, ErinAndrews, espn, hotel, peephole, peeping tom, PeepingTom, reporter, room, secret, tapes, video
