Shadyside Gap employee accused of secretly taking photos of customer in changing room

A employee of the Gap clothing store in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside was accused of secretly taking photos of a woman in a changing room in September.

Police responded to the Walnut Street store after a caller reported trying on clothes in a dressing room when she saw a phone camera appear under the door several times.

The customer said that Jimmy Almaraz, 24, was the one who let her into the dressing room.

Police confiscated Almaraz’s phone and reviewed surveillance footage from the store. After obtaining a search warrant for all of his electronic devices, they said Almaraz remotely wiped his phone with the aid of a computer on the day of the incident.

Investigators also discovered that he searched “charges for videotaping customer without consent in changing room in Pennsylvania” and “is it illegal to record someone without their permission?” on Google, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

Almaraz is being charged with misdemeanor charges of possessing criminal instruments, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and attempted invasion of privacy. He had not been arraigned as of Thursday morning.

The complaint said Almaraz had been employed at the store for only three days when the incident happened.

A Gap spokesperson said Almaraz is no longer an employee.

The alleged Gap incident is the latest in which a person was accused of hiding cameras. Todd Bueschen, 35, was arrested in November 2022 after police said he planted a hidden camera in a restroom at The Frick museum and other locations.

Moon resident Justin James Stokes, 34, was accused in October of planting a hidden camera on a toilet to film a 12-year-old girl showering and possessing pornographic images of other children.