Chapter 166 - 164: Take Him Away
Mall security quickly arrived at the scene, and the store manager had called the police immediately.
As a renowned international brand, they had to react instantly to such an incident to protect their customers’ rights and safety. If handled improperly, the brand could easily get caught in a public relations storm.
The man wanted to keep arguing, but the tall and sturdy sales associate stood in the way, shielding Cecilia Sterling and Jane Sterling behind him.
"Can’t I just delete the video and apologize to you? I swear I was just filming randomly. It was only of your back."
Even at this point, he was still claiming he had just been filming randomly. Cecilia Sterling looked at him and said, "Whether you were ’filming randomly’ or not, you can explain it to the police when they get here."
Before long, police officers from a nearby substation arrived on the scene after receiving the dispatch.
The moment the man saw the police, he rushed forward, playing the victim. "Officers, they stole my phone!"
Jane Sterling glared at him and cursed, "You damn pervert! You dare try to twist the facts in front of the police?"
"Who called this in? What’s going on?" an officer asked, scanning the store.
The store manager stepped forward, stated that the store had made the call, and explained the general course of events.
"Let me see the phone."
Hearing this, Cecilia Sterling handed the phone she was holding to the officer. "He tried to secretly delete the video, but he didn’t have time to clear the ’Recently Deleted’ folder. I found it."
"Officer, I was really just filming randomly. I saw her looking in the mirror and just filmed a little longer," the man rambled on, insisting on his innocence.
The officer ignored him. After opening the photo album, he quickly found the secretly recorded videos in the "Recently Deleted" folder.
There were two videos in total. The first one showed Cecilia Sterling sitting on the sofa, browsing items for a while, before getting up and going into the fitting room.
The second video was of Cecilia Sterling looking at herself in the mirror after changing into a new outfit.
The two videos totaled about five minutes.
The subject of the videos was clearly Cecilia Sterling, and this evidence was enough to establish that he had indeed been filming her surreptitiously.
However, the content of the videos made it difficult to determine the severity of the offense. In such cases, the standard police procedure was to have the video deleted and an apology issued. If the impact was severe, a fine might also be imposed.
Seeking a more severe punishment was basically impossible.
The officer pulled Cecilia Sterling and Jane Sterling aside and sighed softly. "First of all, I commend your courage. You did the right thing by standing up and stopping this behavior."
"But this is a public space. Even if his filming was highly targeted, as long as he doesn’t admit to it, it’s hard to get an indisputable outcome. Do you understand what I mean?"
Cecilia Sterling frowned and asked, "So he can just get away with it by being shameless?"
The officer looked helpless but still nodded. "If he were filming up your skirt, or filming in a private space like an opposite-sex restroom, he wouldn’t be able to argue his way out of it. But filming your back in a store... it’s really hard to prosecute. So, the most we can do is make him delete the video and apologize to you."
"Tch." Jane Sterling couldn’t help but scoff. "Who wants an apology from someone like him?"
The man watched from a distance as the officer spoke with them. Noticing the displeased looks on the two women’s faces, he knew he was probably in the clear.
’What’s wrong with filming in public?’ he thought. ’Even if I don’t admit it, what can they do to me?’
At that thought, a smug, triumphant expression crept onto his face. ’She wore such a short skirt, wasn’t that for me to look at anyway?’
’What’s with the act!’
’I should have synced the video to the cloud right away. Then I could’ve recovered it even if it was deleted and savored it later.’
"Officer, we suspect he’s a repeat offender. There are probably other videos in his hidden album. Make him unlock it. If there’s nothing there, I’ll drop the matter. I don’t need his apology either."
Cecilia Sterling suddenly made another request. She wasn’t backing down; instead, she was taking a step back to advance. She firmly believed there were secrets in his "hidden album."
It was a woman’s innate sensitivity to creeps.
Jane Sterling nodded repeatedly. "He definitely has something!"
The officer nodded at her words, turned, and walked back to the man, holding the phone out to him.
Seeing this, the man snorted, looking at Cecilia Sterling with a provocative expression. "So? I told you I was just filming randomly. You just had to trouble the officers. Got a lecture, did you?"
He finished speaking and reached for his phone, then looked up at the officer. "Officer, can I go now?"
The officer watched him gloat with a deadpan expression before saying, "Open the hidden album."
"W-What?"
The man was startled, unable to hide the panic on his face. "H-Hidden what? I don’t have anything like that."
"All iPhones have one," Jane Sterling said. "Look at you, acting all guilty. There’s definitely something shady in there."
Seeing this, the officer became even more suspicious. The man’s reaction was a clear giveaway.
"Unlock it!"
The sharp command made the man’s small frame tremble. But facing two police officers and several mall security guards, he had no choice but to obediently open the hidden album.
It would have been better not to look. With just one glance, the investigating officer’s expression turned icy.
There were all sorts of covertly filmed videos—from different locations, at different angles, and of varying explicitness. It had everything, including a massive collection of adult films.
The police would need to investigate further to determine which ones he had filmed himself, but one thing was certain: this man wasn’t going anywhere today.
"You’re going to have to come with us," the officer said to the man with a serious expression.
"No, I just saved these from the internet! It has nothing to do with me."
"We’ll find out whether it has anything to do with you or not. You just need to cooperate. Take him away!"
Seeing this, Cecilia Sterling and Jane Sterling couldn’t help but exchange a look. They both raised an eyebrow slightly, clearly unsurprised by the outcome.
"I don’t have to go with you, do I?" Cecilia Sterling asked the officer.
He had just said that her case was difficult to prosecute. That meant the disgusting things in the man’s hidden album had nothing to do with her.
And she didn’t want to waste any more of her time on such a disgusting person.
The officer nodded. "No, you don’t. But thank you for the tip. We will conduct a thorough investigation, and once the criminal acts are confirmed, he won’t escape the arm of the law."
Jane Sterling seemed to remember something else and chimed in with another reminder, "And don’t forget to check his cloud storage. I’m sure there’s stuff in there, too."
The officer finally cracked a smile. ’Young people these days. They really know the ins and outs of all this "modern technology."’
Once the police left with the man, the store quickly returned to normal.
The store manager came forward and apologized profusely. "Miss Sterling, I am so sorry. For something like this to happen in our store... it must have been a terrible shopping experience for you."
Cecilia Sterling smiled lightly and shook her head. "It’s not your fault. You handled it very well."
Then she turned to Jane Sterling and thanked her sincerely. "Thank you so much. If you hadn’t warned me, I would have never even noticed."