There's a ladies' room at Hi-Tide Sales, Inc., in Fort Pierce, Florida, and it shares a wall with the adjacent men's room. This past December, a female employee of the establishment -- a place that sells boat lifts -- noticed a hole in that wall while using the toilet. Maybe it caught her eye as she sat across from it, daydreaming. She might have been thinking about lunch, or the movies, or the fact that she needed a couple of new pairs of Victoria Secrets panties because the elastic on the pair she had on now was shot. Maybe it was when she tore the last remaining rubber string off the inside of its waistband that the hole caught her eye, doing so because light was shining through it.
She might have pulled up her pants and walked towards the restroom door in an attempt not to appear suspicious, but I can't say for sure. What I do know is that instead of leaving, she turned the lights off and went back towards the hole in the wall; and it was at this point that she discovered it was framing an eyeball, as reported in the Palm Beach Post.
I can only imagine the shock she felt as she stood back up and exited the restroom. She must have been confused at first. Then, as the realization that someone had been watching her go to the bathroom sank in, she might have experienced more than one emotion: disbelief, embarrassment, surprise, anger, or even shame. She might have started to cry. I don't know; the article didn't specify. However, it did specify that a male co-worker noticed she was upset and asked her if she was alright. She had him wait outside the men's room with her to see who came out.
When Jake Christopher Velardo, another employee at the Hi-Tide Sales exited the restroom in front of both her and her co-worker friend, she notified her supervisor of what had happened. He questioned the twenty year-old suspected in the event, but Velardo denied any wrongdoing. He was fired the same day.
Velardo turned himself in last week due to a warrant issued for his arrest in December on the charges of voyeurism. He was released the same day on $15,000 bail.
Investigators found the hole Velardo used to spy on his co-worker to be covered by a guard rail one might find in a basic public handicrapper. In order to look through it, Velardo had to remove the rail, which was held in place by single screw. This fact certainly seems to negate any claims one might have that he acted out of passing curiosity. It also seems to negate any claims one might have that he has a passing understanding of the Plight of the Shameful Shitter.
Over the past six year, this site has been routinely reminded through stories, comments, and forum posts that the world is full of Shameful Shitters -- people who are not comfortable voiding their bowels in the presence of others or in strange bathrooms. We've heard from someone as recently as this week who can't even take a crap outside his own home. We've even read about the wonders of the Japanese toilet and how one of the features is often a button that, when pressed, plays the sounds of a flushing toilet to mask the noises made when you doody.
Someone who doesn't mind crapping public, might ask why this is, what the big deal is about being in their workplace restroom and feeling comfortable when making Yellow or Brown. When I hear of stories like this young woman's, I know one of the reasons why some Shameful Shitters don't experience that freedom; it's because there are people like Jake Velardo on the other side of the wall. They threaten our sense of security and cause us to question just how truly intact our privacy is while in a position of true vulnerability. He represents a real-life manifestation of a familiar mystery movie prop, the picture on the wall with the eyes cut out that the bad guy uses to spy on you, the unsuspecting dope who was invited to dinner. And to the poor, beleaguered Shameful Shitter, that is enough to make experiencing the joy of foreign-stall pooping an impossibility.
Maybe that female employee scrutinizes the walls as like never before when deciding to enter a public restroom stall and still feels as if she's being watched; maybe she never completely takes her eyes away from the mirror while washing her hands afterwards either. Maybe she doesn't even use the restroom at her workplace, and instead goes elsewhere. It's possible that she sees public restrooms in a more sinister light than before, never to again sit down and pee with the same nonchalance as she once did. If this is true, then it is indeed a shame, because enjoying an unhindered, unmolested potty break is a right we all deserve, a right no one should take from us through their own invasive illegal behavior.