A Florida probation absconder is accused of setting up a hidden camera in the restroom of a local convenience store. According to Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, 36-year-old Crawford Croxton of Panama City is in the Baxter County Detention Center on video voyeurism charges.
Sheriff Montgomery says his office received a complaint early this month from a convenience store after one of its employees located a hidden cellphone with its video camera activated beneath and behind a toilet. The camera reportedly recorded the suspect positioning the camera several times and moving several items to conceal it. There was evidence on the phone of a man being recorded using the restroom after the suspect left.
The sheriff’s office seized the phone, posted still shots of the suspect from the video online and asked for the public’s assistance in identifying him. A citizen tip came in Tuesday of the suspect being near a fast food restaurant on U.S. Highway 62 East driving a crossover SUV with a Louisiana license plate. Deputies observed the vehicle driving on Highway 62B near a used car dealership and followed him to a fast food restaurant on the east end of the Sheid-Hopper Bypass.
The vehicle went out of sight behind the building, but witnesses informed deputies the driver ran into the restaurant. He was later seen exiting the building on its other side and running across the highway. Deputies caught up with the suspect, later identified as Croxton, near a local tool store and took him into custody.
Croxton reportedly admitted to placing the phone in the restroom with the intention of catching his girlfriend cheating on him with another male. Sheriff Montgomery says he has a criminal history record in five states.
Croxton is charged with felony counts of video voyeurism and breaking or entering, a misdemeanor count of fleeing and a penalty enhancement as a habitual offender. Officials in Florida have decided not to seek extradition for the probation violation. Croxton is being held in lieu of $25,000 bond and will appear in Baxter County Circuit Court this month.
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