Suffolk police arrest Best Buy worker in Huntington Station photo case

A Huntington Station woman who went into Best Buy for help with a phone problem later received an AirDrop notification showing intimate photos had been sent without her permission, turning an ordinary service visit into a criminal case for Suffolk County police.

Police said the woman, 36, visited the store at 148 Walt Whitman Road at about 10 a.m. on April 17 and was helped by Kaelem Von Camper, 31, of Greenlawn. After she left, investigators said she learned that intimate photos had been sent to an unknown number. The Second Precinct Crime Unit later determined the images were sent to Von Camper’s phone, according to Suffolk police.

Von Camper was arrested May 20 at the Second Precinct and charged with unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image, a class A misdemeanor under New York Penal Law Section 245.15. He was issued a desk appearance ticket and is scheduled to be arraigned later at First District Court in Central Islip.

The case underscores how vulnerable customers can be when they hand a phone to store staff for troubleshooting. Best Buy’s Huntington Station location is listed as a Geek Squad site and offers Apple Shop, Windows Store, Samsung Experience and Amazon Alexa Experience services, making device access a routine part of the business. In this case, police say that access crossed into a criminal privacy complaint.

Suffolk police also asked anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Von Camper to contact the Second Precinct Crime Unit at 631-854-8275, a sign investigators think there may be more affected people. For residents in Suffolk County, the arrest is a reminder that a private image can become evidence fast when a transfer can be traced to a specific phone and a specific person.

New York’s intimate-image law requires that a person intentionally disseminate or publish the image with intent to cause harm and that the person knew or reasonably should have known the depicted person did not consent. The law also covers images taken with consent if the person had a reasonable expectation the image would remain private.

The broader legal landscape has been shifting as lawmakers and advocates focus on image-based sexual abuse. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative said Congress passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act in 2025, criminalizing the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images and requiring covered platforms to remove such content within 48 hours. For Suffolk County, the local case shows how quickly a privacy violation in a retail setting can become a police investigation, a criminal charge and a lasting warning about who can reach a phone once it leaves a customer’s hand.