SoCal mall dressing room recording claim sparks search

A SoCal mall dressing room incident has sparked an online search after a California woman said a man secretly recorded her inside a Nordstrom at Cerritos Mall and then slipped away before police arrived. Sophia Schades said the encounter happened on July 21 while she was changing in the store.

Schades said she spotted a camera hidden inside a black shirt on the floor of an adjoining dressing room. She then pounded on the man’s door and confronted him. According to her account, he stepped out wearing a red shirt and black boots and covered his face with a black shirt as she began filming him on her own phone. Schades said he denied recording her even as she said she had caught the act on camera. She also said she told Nordstrom employees she wanted to press charges.

Police were called to the store, and Schades said mall security kept watch on the man while officers were on the way. By the time police arrived, she said, he had left the area. Schades later gave a statement to authorities. The Cerritos Sheriff’s Department confirmed that a report was filed and that a detective has been assigned to the case. The man has not been publicly identified.

After the incident, Schades turned to social media and posted footage from the dressing room confrontation, asking users to help identify the man she says was involved. Her post appears to have produced at least one lead. In a pinned Instagram comment, Schades said she believes she has a name, but said it is not one of the names being circulated publicly in the comments. She wrote that she planned to remove those names to protect innocent people.