Father tackles 'upskirt' pervert after spotting him taking pictures of unsuspecting female shoppers
The authorities in Los Angeles have announced that a suspect has been arrested after being accused of taking upskirt pictures of unsuspecting women. On July 29, shortly after 8 pm, officers from the Cypress PD were called and notified that a male suspect had been taking a lot of upskirt images of women at a Target store located on 6835 Katella Avenue. The man ran away after a man saw what he was doing and took matters into his own hands by tackling him to the ground. The authorities heard from at least two of the victims and multiple other witnesses that this is what happened. The authorities were then able to identify the suspect as 29-year-old Jorge Anthony Ibarra Jr.
According to the police, Ibarra was the same man who had been accused of taking upskirt photos at another Target, 20200 Bloomfield, on the same day. Investigators with the Cypress PD arrested Ibarra on August 1 and booked him for invasion of privacy, reported KCAL9.
The authorities believe that there are many more victims of Ibarra's upskirt antics and have asked anyone with any additional information to immediately contact Detective Cassie Miller at (714) 229-6631. The suspect has been booked into the Orange County Jail and is currenty being helf on a bail of $25,000.
Stacey Butler from KCAL9 spoke to the man who jumped into action and tackled Ibarra to the ground. Ismael Duarte, the good samaritan in question, told the news channel that he first saw Ibarra being shifty when the man started approaching his own 15-year-old daughter. He said in the interview: "What caught my attention...when he got close to my daughter [his phone] was in camera mode."
Duarte can then be seen, in the CCTV footage from the store, blocking Ibarra from getting any closer. However, Ibarra was not going to give up. Duarte said that he saw the man trying to take pictures up another woman's dress just minutes after he confronted him. He said: "We were coming over to the register and he pops out following another girl."
The heroic father can be seen kicking the phone out of Ibarra's hands. Ibarra grabbed his phone and fled after being tackled to the ground but Duarte and his wife were also not ones to give up easily. They followed Ibarra outside where they were able to take pictures of him and his license plate.
Target issued a statement on August 1 that reads as follows: "At Target, the safety and security of our guests is very important to us and we have no tolerance for this behavior in our stores. Immediately upon learning of these recent incidents, our teams called police to investigate and shared video footage with them. We will continue to help law enforcement in any ways that we can be of support to their investigation."