WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – A 19-year-old man was arrested after he secretly recorded women using the restroom at a coffee shop — and had been doing so for weeks, Winter Garden police said.
On Tuesday, officers arrived at Axum Coffee, on West Plant Street, after a woman alerted staff that a man was in the women’s restroom with his pants down. Upon arrival, police found Brian Larios-Perez inside the upstairs women’s restroom, according to an arrest affidavit.
Officers reviewed Larios-Perez’s phone — with his consent — and found multiple videos of women using the restroom. The recordings appeared to have been made with his phone propped on the floor and angled toward the neighboring stall. The earliest video was dated April 3.
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The building’s owner told officers he had previously caught Larios-Perez in the men’s handicap restroom near holes in the wall that overlooked the women’s restroom. The owner said he had warned Larios-Perez to leave the property on multiple occasions, but he kept returning.
“You wouldn’t have thought walking in there that would have happened,” one person outside the coffee shop told News 6. “It’s scary. Like that would make me not want to go inside any public bathroom again because this happens so much.”
Larios-Perez was charged with one felony count of video voyeurism and one misdemeanor count of trespassing after warning.
“You can’t trust anybody now,” William Marat said. “Obviously, they are targeting small towns where people come out here feeling safe.”
Marat said the allegations are especially troubling in a community like downtown Winter Garden.
“Because you are like family neighborhood. You get to walk around. You feel safe,” he said. “Your kids ride their bikes. You are not worried about some stalker creeper guy recording or even following you around.”