On April 15th a local woman says she caught a man recording her while she was in a Kohl's dressing room trying on clothes. The woman then took matters into her own hands and used the power of social media to help identify him.
Though she wasn't expecting it, the video she posted of the man running away went viral.
She says she was trying on a pair of jeans when she looked down and saw a phone stuck underneath her side of the dressing room door.
She immediately called him out, and she says the man got scared and ran out of the dressing room. She got dressed and quickly went after him to make sure he didn't get away.
The woman's name is Stefanie Martinez, she tells us "I saw him just trying to blend in with all the other customers and I knew immediately I had to call him out and make a scene or he was just going to get away with it so I pulled out my phone and started recording a video and said "this man is recording people in dressing rooms" and customers are looking at me I don't care I want people to know what's happening."
Martinez says the man quickly ran away once he saw he was being recorded, and no one in the store came to her immediate aid.
However, she says "I went to the manager and filed a police report, and I told him about what had happened and so they took me back into the office and filed a police report and then they emailed their security people and said we're going to get that footage right now of what happened."
Martinez says she went home and was upset the man got away with no way to track him down.
She explains "First thing I thought was I have to post this on social media. Somebody knows him this can maybe spread around Reno I had no idea how far it was going to go but I knew somebody's going to identify him and we're going to get him."
The video she posted on April 21st, to her surprise went viral with over 700,000 views and counting.
The man was identified within one day of posting on April 22nd. She tells us "Somebody saw my video recognized him at the Sparks Marina, started following him took a video of him...guess he doesn't like being recorded without his consent."
Martinez says she was humbled by the community rallying around her and amazed at how quickly word spread, she says "This reached people in New Jersey, in Washington, in Oregon people I had lost touch with for years saw it in those places and said "I saw your video are you ok?"
Ultimately, she says she's proud of how she handled the situation "That's what I would like to encourage someone else to do in that situation is get other people involved call them out, because if the online community rallies around me, they don't know me, people around you who see what's happening hopefully come to your aid." Mentions Martinez.
As for the suspect, Martinez says he has been identified but not arrested.
Reno Police say they are investigating and hope to have the investigation wrapped up soon.
