My wife noticed a blinking light on our Airbnb’s smoke detector. At first we thought it was just the battery indicator, but something about it felt off. The blinking was steady… almost deliberate.
Curiosity got the better of me, so I grabbed a chair and carefully unscrewed the detector from the ceiling.
Inside, hidden behind the plastic casing, was a tiny camera.
For a moment we just stared at it in disbelief.
Our stomachs dropped.
We packed our bags immediately and left the apartment without even finishing the night we had paid for. Sitting in the car, still shaken, I decided to write a review on the listing to warn other people.
I described exactly what we found and told future guests to be careful.
A few minutes later, my phone buzzed.
The host had replied.
“You fool, this is why you should have asked before touching it.”
My heart started racing as I read the rest.
“That detector is part of a new smart security system. The camera is only activated when the property is vacant. The blinking light means the system was OFF.”
I went cold.
Because if the system was off…
That meant the camera wasn’t recording.
Which raised a much worse question.
Why had someone gone through the trouble of hiding it there in the first place?
