Jeweler charged with peeping
On his cheerful Web site, Ben Sorkin describes himself as a jeweler and “chief optimist.”
Below is an excerpt of a story we're working on about a local jeweler who now finds himself in quite the legal bind:
On his cheerful Web site, Ben Sorkin describes himself as a jeweler and "chief optimist."
But according to police, the longtime Jeweler's Row shop owner might want to add another title to his list: peeping tom.
The 52-year-old was charged Wednesday with three counts of invasion of privacy after investigators concluded Sorkin had used a hidden camera to videotape three female employees in the bathroom of his store, Ben Sorkin Jewelers, on Sansom Street near 7th.
The employees, whose names were not released, contacted police on April 25 after they discovered the camera and found a VHS tape that featured them repeatedly using the bathroom, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.
Detectives from the police Special Victims Unit immediately confiscated the camera and tapes from Sorkin's store and also searched his house on Laramie Road near Cliffwood in Bustleton.
Vanore said the investigators found additional video equipment and tapes of "several unidentified young women" using the bathroom in Sorkin's house.