A Grandview Heights man has been charged with voyeurism after authorities found hundreds of videos of naked women he is accused of filming from outside their windows.
About 50 women were the targets of John W. Hayes, 38, of 1523 Lincoln Rd., according to the Franklin County sheriff's office.
Investigators with the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were looking for child pornography when they searched Hayes' home and computer last Wednesday. Instead, they found hundreds of videos showing women dressing, nude and, in some cases, having sex.
Hayes was arrested on Friday and charged with two counts of voyeurism, a second-degree misdemeanor. He posted a $1,500 bond.
Yesterday, task-force members with a second warrant searched for camera equipment in Hayes' home.
Each video was categorized on Hayes' hard drive by the location or intersection where it had been recorded, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. Each woman was recorded several times, so deputies think that Hayes learned the women's schedules to know when they were likely to be nude.
Investigators think Hayes had been filming women since 2004.
The sheriff's office is hoping that women who lived near Hayes -- either at his Lincoln Road address or at 1407 Doten Ave. on the Northwest Side, where he lived from 2002 to 2010 -- will contact the task force at 614-525-3448 if they think they might have been victimized.
"We're trying to get these people identified," Sheriff Zach Scott said. "If you knew John Hayes, if you lived in these areas or were a neighbor of his, if you felt at some point someone was videotaping you and you thought you were being paranoid, maybe you weren't."
Investigators found videos filmed near the following intersections or areas, mostly in and around Grandview and Upper Arlington: Hollywood Place and 2nd Avenue; near Trinity United Methodist Church in Marble Cliff; 3rd and Grandview avenues; Brexton Place and Northwest Boulevard; and along Wyandotte Road, King Avenue, Westwood Avenue and Northwest Boulevard.
Two victims have been identified, including one woman who was Hayes' neighbor in 2008 and was videotaped through her window from Hayes' window.
"I would deem this as extra weird," Scott said.
The child-pornography investigation is still ongoing.
@allymanning
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