Man accused of using hidden camera to record woman in Shadyside Gap dressing room

PITTSBURGH — A man is accused of using a hidden camera to record a woman in the dressing room of a store where he worked.

According to court documents, the suspect, Jimmy Alamaraz, 24, worked at Gap in Shadyside for just three days.

Wednesday, Pittsburgh Police criminally charged Almaraz for allegedly filming a woman changing inside the dressing room of the Gap store on Walnut Street in Shadyside.

The alleged incident happened on Sept. 17, while Almaraz was working at the store.

“Gross. Creep. I’m glad they caught him,” said Nina Celmo, one of several shoppers who spoke to Channel 11 about the incident.

“I think it’s terrible. I can’t imagine,” added fellow shopper, Diane. “You trust employees, you think that they’re there to help you and they’re violating someone’s privacy. That’s horrible.”

According to the police report, Almaraz had worked at the store for just three days when a woman caught him allegedly trying to film her while changing.

The report states, “She saw the cell phone appear from under the door several times, for extended periods of time.”

“When you go in a dressing room you don’t really expect someone to be watching you undress. I mean, I never think about it when I’m changing and trying on clothes at a store, you just expect to feel safe,” said shopper Paige Sharifi.

The woman reported the incident to the store manager and police.

After officers seized Almaraz’s phone, police say he remotely wiped it.

But suspecting the video footage was saved on another device, officers raided Almaraz’s Shadyside apartment, seizing five more cellphones, two laptops, two tablets, three USB drives, and an external hard drive.

According to police, on the night of the incident, Almaraz Google searched “Charges for videotaping customer without consent in changing room in Pennsylvania.”

“People like that should be locked up. It’s disgusting,” Sharifi said.

A spokesperson for Gap Inc. told Channel 11 that Almaraz is no longer employed by the company.

At last check, Almaraz has not yet been taken into custody.

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