LAKEWOOD, Colo. – A Colorado woman took action last week when she caught a Peeping Tom filming her in a changing room when he slid a cellphone beneath her door.
Michelle Chandler said the encounter took place in a department store dressing room on Saturday, May 11. The changing area is designed to accommodate both men and women, KDVR reported.
Video shows the assertive mother of five sitting on top of the stranger as he desperately tried to wrangle out of her hold.
During the afternoon incident, Chandler used her knee to restrain the man as store associates came to assist, even using a belt to constrain the peeper’s movements until mall security arrived and handcuffed him.
“You need to be held accountable,” Chandler recalled telling the suspect during an interview with KDVR. “It’s not OK what you did.”
The unnerving encounter took place as Chandler was trying on Mother’s Day outfits, an otherwise joyous occasion that turned sour.
The woman first smelled the pungent odor of dirty feet before spotting the cell phone aimed in her direction as she was changing.
“Funny thing, I noticed someone’s feet stinks really bad,” Chandler said. “As I went to take these pants off, I bent down, looked over, and I saw men’s shoes, socks and his phone pointing right at me.”
As a result, she took it upon herself to capture the voyeur, saying she couldn’t risk the thought of him escaping and committing the act again, reported the New York Post.
“I grabbed him, threw him down on the ground, put my knee in his back and held his head down,” she said.
“This is why men don’t belong in women’s fitting room(s),” Chandler noted.
The Lakewood Police Department confirmed that officers responded to the crime.
“Sadly this is legit,” a police spokesperson told KDVR.
It’s unclear specifically what charges were brought against the 19-year-old Peeping Tom.
