Picture-taking perv in Bed, Bath & Beyond

Yesterday I was walking around Bed, Bath, and Beyond to look at things for the house my boyfriend and I are going to move into in a week – I just relocated after a stressful year of being hundreds of miles away from him. I was stopped in the middle of an aisle when I felt something brush my leg – I look down and there was a man crouched behind me. My first reaction was to ignore it as someone who accidentally bumped into me while looking at items on the bottom shelf, but then I realized that it was my inner thigh that had been bumped. All at once the image of his cellphone shot into my head and I realized what had happened – he had been taking a picture or a video of me up my dress.

By this point he was walking away from me quickly and I started walking towards him and I called out loudly and angrily, “Excuse me!” He didn’t even flinch and just kept walking faster.

On the floor next to me an employee was crouched and I told her, “I think that man just took a picture up my dress!” She looked alarmed and went to the front of the store, where she picked up a phone.

I stood in place for a moment, and the shock set in. A million questions went through my head, the most important one being, “What do I do now?” My first instinct was to call my boyfriend, but I decided to walk up to the front to see what was going on. I assumed that someone was calling security.

I will stop my story to say that I realize now this moment is what caused the majority of my pain. I needed to call 911 right then, not rely on someone else to do it for me. But I didn’t.

A few minutes passed of the employees up front looking at me woefully and some skeptically. Then the woman who had seen him rush away from me pointed him out – “That’s the guy. That’s the guy, isn’t it? He’s going out the entrance.”

It was the guy, and I got a better look at him now. He was tall and older, about 60, with light brown skin and a long, ugly, cold face. He made a point of not making eye contact with anyone and walked straight out of the door.

I felt my panic increase – he was getting away! No one was doing anything! -I- wasn’t doing anything!

I just shook and tried not to cry. At some point, a manager approached me. What he said to me is a slur of “we can’t help you.” He was nice, but not in any way helpful. I prodded at them for a while because I felt like something needed to happen, but nothing did.
I walked a few paces away from them, outside of the store, and sat down to call my boyfriend.

“Something really creepy just happened to me.”

A day later, I feel angry at myself for not acting, and angry at the people around me for not acting. I feel disgusted with that man’s very existence, I can’t believe that someone is possibly currently getting off on my humiliation, and has a relic to remember it by. I eventually called the police, but have little hope that they will be able to do anything. All they have is a tape. I realize, too, that all he has is a tape. I am thankful that he didn’t physically assault me. But what he did was painful – he made me feel duped, he made me feel powerless, he made me feel disgusting and made my vagina feel disgusting.

I don’t really know what to do now. I guess I just get on with my life an accept that it was not that big of a deal, but I feel so hopeless.

– Anonymous

Location: Bed, Bath, & Beyond in Charlottesville, VA

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