Update: The Salt Lake City Police Department announced they had arrested the suspect, who is accused of taking inappropriate photos of women at City Creek Center.
SALT LAKE CITY -- A day of shopping turned ugly after one woman says a man tried to snap pictures up her dress at City Creek Center.
A woman was shopping at City Creek mall Saturday when she said a man brushed up next to her and then tried to take a picture under her dress with his cellphone. For security reasons, she did not wish to have her face or name shown in this story.
“I felt like a deer caught in headlights, I feel like I couldn’t get my phone out fast enough to take a picture, I was just stunned… I just kind of froze there for a second,” said the woman standing outside of the fountains at City Creek Center.
“He seemed like he knew what he was doing,” she said recalling how calm the man was who tried to snap a picture under her dress. “He walked right up to me, there was no hesitation.”
The whole situation seemed suspicious. The woman said she was in the women’s section of American Eagle Outfitters store when the man brushed up next to her.
“Why would someone need to get that close to me?” she wondered.
She said the man then grabbed a pair of jeans from a shelf that was directly below her.
“Why would a guy need to pick up a pair of women’s jeans?” she said.
She looked down and saw the camera on his phone pointed directly at her.
“I immediately saw what he was doing, saw the phone and I moved away from him, moved my dress,” she said describing the moment.“I was shocked.”
The woman wasn’t sure if what she thought she saw actually happened.
“It happens to other people, not me,” she said. “You hear it on the news, but you don’t think that it could actually happen to you.”
The man went about his business. She went to get her husband.
They staked out near the back of the store, and a few minutes later, they saw it.
“He did the same thing, he knelt next to a woman and took a picture underneath her dress,” she said.
“At that moment I knew for sure what he did to me,” she added.
At that point, she said her husband got mad, walked right up to the man and took his picture.
They told store employees and mall security, but according to police, the man ran, hopped on a TRAX and got away.
The woman filed a police report and shared the picture on Facebook hoping other would be aware, it has since been shared more than 1,600 times.
“It can happen anywhere at any time,” she said.
“I hope by doing this I can stop him from doing it to anybody else,” she added.
Thanks to that picture, police were able to identify him.
Salt Lake Police said they are waiting to contact him. If they can prove that he has been taking these pictures he could be charged with voyeurism.