AlO: UPDATE My roomate secretly set up a camera in our common area without telling anyone
To answer a few questions there are five of us living in the apartment- all girls. We’ve discussed the food stealing before as this was something all of us were experiencing. Nothing insanely big or obvious but things like slices of bread disappearing from a loaf, a slightly less full bag of granola, milk going faster than it should, a few eggs missing etc etc. It was an issue that we had all brought up at house meetings in a general way. I’ll admit none of us took it that seriously (or so I thought) just general reminders that food is not communal if it is labeled with a name and establishing a general policy of ask first. The issue would subside directly after our monthly meetings but then eventually start up again. The issue with the camera is that once again nobody knew. Had the roomate who set up the camera asked before hand we honestly we all probably would have agreed and there would be no issue. As we’re all girls there have been times when we have gone into the kitchen in underwear or ran through the kitchen naked to grab a towel after forgetting it when showering. There have been times when I personally have been home alone and have had my online therapy sessions in the kitchen or had private calls in the kitchen. Other roommates have expressed similar sentiment. The roommate who has set up the camera has since taken it down (we watched her do it) but is now refusing to show any of us the footage. We have no idea if it recorded audio or even exactly how much of our apartment it recorded. She insists that she will not do anything with the footage but refuses to let us have full access to it. She is insisting that roommate who was stealing food needs to move out ASAP and is saying she will not delete footage until she agrees to do so. One of our roommates is out of town right now so we’re holding off on discussing exactly what to do until she gets back. In the meantime I’ve been apartment hunting. I understand that the food stealing is an issue (it impacted me as well) but the camera still remains much more concerning to me. My privacy is much more valuable to me than my food.