VIDEO: Two men help catch Peeping Tom red-handed in Union Square

Lyanne Melendez Image
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
2 men help stop Peeping Tom in San Francisco's Union Square
Two passers-by in San Francisco saw something they didn't feel right about and got involved.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two passers-by in San Francisco saw something they didn't feel right about and got involved. Their actions and the video one of them filmed helped police arrest a man accused of using a hidden camera to capture images of women in their underwear.

Last Thursday Jason Juniel took out his cellphone and began recording 67-year-old Gary Brooks, who was looking at a video he had just shot.

"I just couldn't stand by and let that guy just go like that," Juniel said.

Juniel and another man behind the cellphone were relentless, following Brooks for several minutes. The other man, Broadus Parker, first spotted Brooks getting close to girls while holding a shopping bag with a hole in one end.

"One of the girls was rather young and he was behind her and she had on a little schoolgirl skirt," Parker recalled.

"He's recording, he's got video holes and he's recording ladies under their dresses. He's got a hole in his bag. I've been following him," they yelled at Brooks.

Juniel and Parker work for a tour bus company on Union Square. They kept at it until they finally got the attention of police, who then detained Brooks.

"The camera was in the bag angled up perfectly toward the hole cut about the size of half a dollar so the lens of the camera could see directly up a skirt," Juniel said.

According to SFPD, one of the officers took his camera and found more incriminating evidence, but only cited him under Penal Code 647 J2, disorderly conduct using a camera to look at women's undergarments.

This offense carries misdemeanor charges. Brooks is expected to appear in court next month.