Good Samaritan Aids Arrest Of Suspect Clicking Upskirt Pictures At Cypress Target

A Good Samaritan tackled a person suspected of clicking upskirt pictures at a Target store in Cypress, California, and took photographs of him, which finally led to the latter's arrest Wednesday, reports said.

Twenty nine-year-old Jorge A Ibarra Jr. was arrested on suspicion of invasion of privacy, Cypress police officers said. They added the same man might be involved in a similar incident that took place at a Target store in Cerritos on Tuesday.

Police were notified of the situation at Cypress on Sunday, where Ibarra was reportedly caught taking upskirt pictures of women at the Target store. By the time they had arrived at the scene, the suspect had fled, CW-affiliated KTLA reported.

The police said they heard further details of the incident from at least two victims and multiple witnesses.

Ismael Duarte, his wife Angelica and their 15-year-old daughter had been shopping at the store when the incident happened. Duarte said he went into “protect mode” when they noticed Ibarra behaving strangely around their daughter. He said he was the man who tackled Ibarra as was shown in the surveillance video.

Angelica said Duarte intervened when he saw Ibarra follow their daughter and blocked him from getting close.

“What caught my attention,” Ismael Duarte said, “when he got close to my daughter [his phone] was in camera mode.”

But soon after, they saw him try the same thing with another female.

“We were coming over to the register and he pops out following another girl. … My daughter and the girl that actually was getting their picture taken without her being known — that’s what got me,” Duarte said.

He tackled Ibarra to the ground and kicked his phone away. Ibarra managed to flee, but not before Angelica took pictures of him and his license plate.

"So how much, if any, video did he get of my daughter? I’m not sure," Angelica said. “It’s very disgusting. It’s disgusting that he knew exactly what he was doing. If he went to different Targets to do this, how many other stores did he go to?”

“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,” a statement from the department store issued Wednesday said. “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.”

Ibarra was finally caught by the authorities Wednesday and he was booked at the Orange County Jail on $25,000 bail.

Officers are actively seeking any additional information on similar incidents involving Ibarra. They have also asked victims to come forward.