Downtown resident David S. Zarett, 44, was arrested the afternoon of Aug. 15 for allegedly filming up women's skirts in the Metropolitan Market on Mercer Street and for knocking over an elderly man during an escape attempt.
His filming method wasn't exactly subtle, according
to Aug. 20 court documents, which indicate Zarett
used a 3-foot-long postal tube with a hole cut in the side at one end to conceal the lens to a video camera he had concealed in his clothes.
Zarett also had a remote control he used to turn on the camera, and his activities came to light after he creeped out a woman who was in the store with her boyfriend. Zarett did that, according to court documents, by putting the cardboard tube on the floor near her and by standing "uncomfortably close" to the woman while her boyfriend was in a different part of the store.
The woman later told police that Zarett was giving off a "weird vibe," so she moved away and joined her boyfriend, only to have Zarett again position himself uncomfortably close to her.
The woman notified her boyfriend that Zarett was the same man who had weirded her out earlier, so the two moved away and decided to watch Zarett to see what he was doing.
What they saw was Zarett slither up behind three other women in skirts and dresses and drop one end of the tube so it was positioned under the women without their knowledge, according to court documents.
At that point, the boyfriend decided he'd seen enough and confronted the alleged perv by asking what was in the tube. The boyfriend later told police that Zarett immediately had an "oh (poop) face" and froze momentarily before throwing his grocery basket and making a run for it.
He didn't get far. The boyfriend called for other people in the store to stop Zarett because he was filming up women's skirts, according to court documents. The documents further note that the boyfriend and other outraged shoppers chased the man, who allegedly bowled into an 81-year-old man, knocking him to the ground before the witnesses tackled Zarett and held him for police.
The elderly man needed stitches, and both eyes were blackened and swollen shut for five days as a result of the encounter, according to court documents
Zarett threw away the tube when he was tackled, and the tube burst open, spilling out cable wires and what appeared to be a remote lens.
But Zarett was still was holding the camera under his body, so one of the outraged shoppers, fearing that Zarett might be trying to erase the tape, grabbed the camera, according to court documents.
The videotape from Zarett's camera was reviewed by police after a search warrant was signed, and it showed Zarett getting out of his car and walking into the Met Market, where he adjusted the lens and filmed numerous views of the store, along with up-skirt shots of three unidentified women, according to court documents.
Police only watched the video for about 10 minutes because of fears the battery would die, but the camera reportedly can hold up to 13 hours of material. It was sent over to the SPD video unit for a full review.
Zarett has since posted his $2,500 bail and is out of jail. He was scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 3 on two counts of voyeurism and one count of assault in the third degree for allegedly injuring the elderly man.
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