A woman caught a pervert red-handed by filming his actions (5 photos + 1 video)
A brave visitor to a Target store in Greenville (USA) brought to light a 21-year-old man who was amusing himself by looking up women's skirts using his phone. Now he will have to answer for this in court.
Thomas Elliott, 21, was charged with five counts of surreptitious voyeurism after he was caught at a Target store in North Carolina.
Police are examining Elliott's phone for deleted photos, videos and information that can be recovered through forensic analysis.
The young man was caught thanks to a woman who noticed his strange behavior. First, she noticed that he seemed to follow her from one department to another, and then she saw how he placed his phone (with a working camera) under the skirt of another customer while she was looking at the goods on the bottom shelf, squatting.
- Sorry. What are you doing? the woman filming Elliot says in the video. “I just saw you put it under her dress.”
- No, ma'am. I didn't do that. Trust me.
- Absolutely they did. Then show me your phone. We'll call security now. You followed me to the children's section.
Despite continued assurances that he “didn’t do anything like that” and was in that part of the store because he was buying children’s toys for his pregnant sister, the woman called security, and then the police were called. Elliott was led out of the store in handcuffs.
It was later revealed that Elliott was a volunteer at one of the city's elementary schools, and had previously worked at other schools. Police are going to review CCTV footage from all these educational institutions to identify other potential victims.
And this makes sense, since more than one woman was hurt at the department store that day. After reviewing CCTV footage, police identified five of Elliott's victims who were in the store that morning and subsequently charged him with five counts of surreptitious voyeurism.
A search warrant for the man's phone said Elliott denied any wrongdoing and showed police recent photos he had on his cellphone.
“We are alarmed and deeply concerned by the footage of this individual that has been posted on social media and news outlets, and based on those records, he will not be returning to our campuses as a volunteer or staff member,” said Tom McClellan, Pitt County Schools spokesman.
McClellan added that before volunteers and visitors are allowed on campus, they are screened through the Raptor program, which determines whether they are listed in sex offender databases.