Man arrested after caught allegedly filming mother, 10-year-old daughter in Miami Beach Forever 21 dressing room
MIAMI – A man was arrested over the weekend after he was caught allegedly filming a mother and her preteen daughter changing in a dressing room in a Miami Beach clothing store.
Luca DiMichele, 31, was arrested Saturday afternoon and is currently facing one count of video voyeurism, arrest documents stated.
Around 3:10 p.m., Miami Beach Police was called out to the Forever 21 store on Lincoln Road to investigate the incident that happened within the fitting rooms.
According to arrest documents, the mother had been shopping with her six-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter when they had walked into the fitting room area. From there, the mother and daughter entered a single stall together so that they could try on pants together.
The mother told police that while they were putting back on their pants, her daughter noticed a cell phone with its camera facing up on the floor between their stall and the stall next door. At first, the mother believed that the phone was placed on the floor while the individual in the other stall was changing, the arrest documents stated. She then saw a hand grab the phone and remove it from view.
While the mother bent down to pull up her pants, she watched the hand reposition the phone on top of a clothing pile, pushing it further toward her and her daughter. It was then that she learned that she and her daughter were being secretly recorded by an unknown person.
The mother then grabbed the phone and turned it over, seeing that it was in video mode. She then walked out of her stall and was met by DiMichele, the arrest documents stated.
The mother and daughter confronted him about recording them while they were changing clothes, saying they watched the phone come from under their stall on multiple occasions. However, DiMichele denied the accusations and asked them to return his phone. Instead of complying to his request, the mother – keeping the phone recording – began to search for the store manager.
Once she found the manager, the mother and daughter explained what had happened, stopped recording the video and handed the cell phone over to store management while awaiting for police. DiMichele waited in the store when officers arrived.
Once police came to the store, they asked the mother to describe DiMichele and his phone before talking to him. After being read his Miranda rights, DiMichele was taken into custody.