AUSTIN, Texas - A warrant has been issued for a Hutto man who Austin police say used his cell phone to record under a woman's skirt in a Walmart.
Federico Perez Jr, 36, has been charged with invasive visual recording, a state jail felony.
Court paperwork says the victim was shopping at Walmart with her two small children on the evening of March 26, 2019. She was pushing a shopping cart with her children in the shoe department and noticed a Hispanic male looking at boots.
The victim was shopping in the flip flop and children's shoe aisle with her kids and bent over looking for flip flops for her children and noticed a Hispanic male position himself close to her while he pretended to look at men's shoes in the aisle next to her, says court paperwork.
She noticed the man had crouched down and had his phone under her skirt when she bent over. She was startled and upset and confronted the man, asking him in Spanish, "What are you doing?" says court paperwork.
She told him "You were taking photos of me," believing the suspect was taking photos of her and under her skirt. The man told her "I do not speak Spanish" and she told him to give her his phone. She watched him try to delete something off the phone and the paperwork says he was extremely nervous and fumbling with his phone, according to court paperwork.
She grabbed his phone away. Court paperwork says the woman did not give the man permission or consent to take photos or videos of her and that she remembered the phone was an iPhone.
The victim said her kids were nervous and scared, and that she was nervous, distraught and crying. After the incident, she heard the suspect apologize to the police at the store.
An off-duty officer working at the store took custody of the phone and turned it over to Austin police. A search warrant was issued and detectives reviewed a video showing the victim shopping with her kids, the clothing matching the victim's statement of what she was wearing that day. The video showed the phone was upside down and recording the victim while she shopped. The video then showed a close-up view of the victim's skirt and then under the skirt, says court paperwork.
At the end of the video, the victim is heard saying "Excuse me, show me the telephone" in Spanish. The victim then identified two screen photos from the video, says court paperwork.