{"id":46802,"date":"2021-05-13T20:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T02:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-business-owner-suspected-of-putting-hidden-camera-in-bathroom\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:34:28","slug":"durango-business-owner-suspected-of-putting-hidden-camera-in-bathroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-business-owner-suspected-of-putting-hidden-camera-in-bathroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango business owner suspected of putting hidden camera in bathroom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wade Allen Bigall, owner of Element Window and Door, is suspected of placing a hidden camera inside a bathroom to capture images of unsuspecting individuals.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango business owner is suspected of placing a hidden video camera in a business bathroom and capturing images of four people in various states of undress, according to the Durango Police Department.<\/p>\n

Police have served Wade Allen Bigall, 59, with a summons accusing him of four counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, a Class 2 misdemeanor, said Detective Sgt. Bobby Taylor with the Durango Police Department.<\/p>\n

A person commits invasion of privacy for sexual gratification if they \u201cknowingly observe or take a photograph of another person\u2019s intimate parts \u2026 without the person\u2019s consent in a situation where the person observed or photographed has a reasonable expectation of privacy,\u201d according to state statute.<\/p>\n

Bigall declined to give a statement to police on the advice of his attorney, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

The camera was placed in a unisex bathroom inside Element Window + Door, which sells windows, doors and hardware at 360 South Camino del Rio, Suite 200, south of downtown Durango. The camera was positioned in a way that it could capture images of people when they had a reasonable expectation of privacy, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hid the camera behind an item in the bathroom that was strategically placed to take photographs,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

The Durango Police Department learned of the situation March 9. The police department contacted Bigall, who cooperated with investigators by turning over a laptop computer and giving police permission to search his computer. The camera had already been removed from the bathroom, but police could tell where the camera had been placed based on footage recorded by the camera, he said.<\/p>\n

Police also obtained a search warrant to seize Bigall\u2019s electronic devices, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

A forensic examination of the computer found still photographs and short videos clips of people in the bathroom, he said. Police ultimately identified four victims, one man and three women, he said. Police are unaware of additional victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no information that he downloaded them (videos) to any other sites or anything like that,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe think it was just for personal use, to our knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely not normal surveillance, and you wouldn\u2019t put that in a restroom anyway,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThis was definitely a hidden recording device.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recordings occurred in 2020 and 2021, he said.<\/p>\n

The four alleged victims have filed a lawsuit in District Court accusing Bigall of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWade Allen Bigall\u2019s actions were in whole or in part motivated by his sexual desires and gratification,\u201d according to the lawsuit filed by Durango attorneys Matthew Campbell and Amos Soignier.<\/p>\n

Campbell did not return a phone call seeking comment, and Soignier\u2019s legal office declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Bigall\u2019s defense attorney, Bobby Duthie of Durango, said Bigall\u2019s actions were wrong and he is seeking therapy. He said Bigall offers his apology to his victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve cooperated fully with law enforcement, and we\u2019re going to work through this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach Bigall were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Police served Bigall with a criminal summons April 29. The case has since been turned over to the 6th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office for review and possible filing of formal charges.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Christian Champagne said his office has not yet reviewed the case for charges, but he expects to know more by next week.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

faces four counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,1065,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87035,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46802\/revisions\/87035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46802"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}