Smile! You're A Criminal Caught on Camera

A New York City woman caught a pervert trying to take cellphone camera photos up her skirt on a New York City subway staircase. She chased after the guy and took his photo and then forwarded the photo to the NYPD.

She said she followed the man onto the southbound No. 1 train, walked through several cars and found him on a seat. She prepared her cellphone camera. He looked at her and mumbled something. “And I told him ‘smile’ because I am going to the police,” she said.

She took a picture, e-mailed it to the police and filed a report. On Tuesday, an officer at the 110th Street subway station at Central Park West approached a man matching the photograph, the police said. According to the police, the man, identified as Aaron Olivieri, 36, told the officer, “I hope I am not the person you are looking for.” Then he said he knew why he was being stopped: because a woman on a train had taken his picture and accused him of a crime.

Mr. Olivieri was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of unlawful surveillance, attempted sexual abuse and harassment, a criminal complaint said. A man who answered the phone at his apartment referred calls to Mr. Olivieri’s lawyer, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday afternoon.

The NYPD caught up with the guy, who at first denied knowing anything about the situation, and then admitted to having taken the photos.

He was arrested and charged with unlawful surveillance, attempted sexual abuse and harassment, all misdemeanors. I'm sure that this wasn't the first woman that Olivieri took photos of either, but she was the first to go chase the guy down.

She was definitely pressing her luck running after the guy, and had no way of knowing what the guy would do. She was lucky that the guy didn't attack her, but her persistence paid off by getting a photo that the cops could use to track this pervert down.