A shopper’s August 9 visit to H Mart in Irvine, California, prompted a police search for a man suspected of trying to photograph beneath her shorts. NBC Los Angeles published her account and newly obtained store surveillance footage on October 9.
The 23-year-old shopper had gone to the store at Culver Drive and Alton Parkway to buy groceries. With other customers around, she initially did not notice anyone following her.
She spoke without identifying herself because of concerns about her safety and privacy. By sharing what happened, she wanted other shoppers to pay attention to their surroundings, even in crowded public places.
“I really don’t wish this on anyone,” she said. Similar incidents documented by police include an earlier case at another Irvine retailer and a 2026 prosecution involving schoolgirls in Wales.
A Close Pass
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The shopper described turning toward frozen food when the man came close, bent down and extended his phone beneath her shorts.
Irvine Police Department spokesperson Kyle Oldoerp told NBC that police believed the man deliberately followed her through the store and extended his phone on at least three occasions in an attempt to take photographs.
After releasing the man’s photograph, police received a tip from someone who recognized him from a store in another city. Oldoerp said police believed other women might have been targeted.
Other Aisles
Nearly a decade earlier, a HomeGoods customer in Irvine felt her skirt move and turned to see an employee holding a cellphone toward and beneath it, Irvine police reported in November 2016. When she confronted him, he ran toward a restricted area of the store.
The employee admitted the conduct and consented to a phone search after officers arrived on November 12. Officers found numerous photographs, and the customer identified images of herself. He was arrested, and police appealed for other customers to come forward, believing there could be dozens of potential victims.
In Carmarthen, Wales, Dyfed-Powys Police received a report from a Poundland employee on February 10, 2026. The employee was concerned that a man was attempting to photograph beneath a schoolgirl’s skirt.
Police identified him through surveillance footage. A digital examination uncovered images of schoolgirls aged 13 and 14, and he pleaded guilty to three attempted recording offenses involving three separate victims.
He received an 18-month prison sentence, along with a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender registration requirements lasting 10 years each.
After the Visit
Detective Sergeant Carl Pocock described contacting the Welsh victims and their families, who had been unaware that the offenses had occurred. He emphasized that their initial lack of awareness did not lessen the impact on them.
The Irvine shopper said: “It’s giving me creeps and very eerie feelings that I always have to be aware of my surroundings.”
In the October 9 report, Irvine police were still seeking the man’s identity and asking anyone with information to contact the department.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.