Santa Monica police arrested a 33-year-old Long Beach man on Tuesday, June 24 after being caught using a concealed camera to film up young teenage girls’ skirts.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a call at 2:30 pm on this day informing them a man was acting in a strange way with his video camera on the Third Street Promenade.
The witnesses had reported that they had followed this man as he visited four different stores on the Promenade.
The witnesses had noticed this man had his camera concealed in a shopping bag and that he was placing the bag and camera under the skirts of young teenage girls and presumably videoing them.
The officers detained this man in the 1400 block of Third Street Promenade and interviewed potential victims of the crime.
The victims stated that they had no idea that this man had been videoing them under their skirts and stated that they most certainly had not given their permission for him to do that.
Officers placed the man under arrest for unauthorized use of a recording device and juvenile annoying.
Evidence to the filming was recovered on the man’s video camera as well as his cell phone.
This man was arrested and charged with lewd or dissolute conduct in a public place. Bail was set at $25,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.