A 31-year-old man, identified as Luca DiMichele, was arrested after an incident in a Miami Beach Forever 21 store where he allegedly recorded a mother and her 10-year-old daughter in a dressing room. According to 7News, DiMichele was caught on Saturday afternoon and has since bonded out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
The mother, who her daughter and six-year-old son accompanied noticed a cellphone camera lens directed towards them from the floor of the stall next door. DiMichele reportedly repositioned the phone on a pile of clothes when the victims realized the gravity of the situation. CBS News Miami reported that when the mother grabbed the phone, DiMichele attempted to retrieve it, claiming the situation was a misunderstanding. Despite this, the mother kept the device and stopped it from recording.
According to CBS News Miami, the mother's refusal to return the phone led her to seek a store manager, to whom she explained the incident. Police were summoned, whereupon DiMichele remained in the store. He was arrested after the victims provided a description and the dressroom encounters were confirmed.
Charged with video voyeurism, DiMichele was held on a $2,500 bond before his release on Sunday. As he exited the correctional facility, he avoided questions by feigning ignorance of his own identity, telling a 7News photographer, “No,” in response to being asked if he was DiMichele. The mother and her children, meanwhile, have dealt with an invasion of privacy that occurred in a space of presumed safety, and intimacy.
