Houston police say a quick-thinking worker at the Walmart on the North Freeway helped shut down an alleged aisle creep who was secretly recording women from a low, upward angle while they shopped.
Officers arrested 23-year-old Gabriel Silva Valerio on Monday after an employee reported that he was walking down an aisle filming multiple women from below. Witnesses told investigators Valerio had his hand inside his pants while recording and trailed shoppers to capture images of their buttock areas. By the time officers got to the store, many of the women who had been recorded had already left.
According to Click2Houston, police were called to the Walmart at 4412 North Freeway around 3:30 p.m. Valerio was arrested and charged with invasive visual recording, then released on a personal bond. Court records show he was scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday morning. The station reports that store employees, along with a witness, confronted Valerio and notified security before officers arrived and took him into custody.
What police and store officials said
A Houston Police Department spokesperson told the outlet that “many complainants” were involved, although several of them did not realize they had been filmed. A Walmart spokesperson told Click2Houston the company contacted security and is cooperating fully with investigators, adding that the store takes the safety of customers and employees seriously. Investigators are reviewing both store video and the contents of the suspect’s phone, according to the report.
State law and penalties
Invasive visual recording is a crime under Texas Penal Code §21.15, which classifies the offense as a state-jail felony. The statute prohibits recording or transmitting images of another person’s intimate areas, as well as recording someone in a bathroom or changing room, when that person has not consented.
How this fits a broader pattern
Houston-area law enforcement has been seeing more of these invasive-recording cases pop up. In January, prosecutors charged a restaurant worker after a hidden camera was discovered inside a bathroom at a Lupe Tortilla location, according to the Houston Chronicle. Cases like that, and the Walmart arrest, highlight a growing focus by authorities on secret filming at restaurants, retailers and other businesses open to the public…