Sarasota man arrested; video shows him looking up women's skirts

SARASOTA (FOX 13) - The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office arrested a man after surveillance video captured him looking up women's skirts at a Sarasota Walmart.

According to the sheriff's office, a victim first reported on October 29 that the suspect had attempted to look up her skirt on two occasions while she was shopping at the Walmart on Cattlemen Road. 

Surveillance video released by the sheriff's office shows what looks like a typical shopper, wandering through the aisles, but after a few second, things take a drastic change.

Sgt. Mike Dumer with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said the video shows Alan Ralph following women shoppers, and, when no one is watching, he drops down and looks up their skirts.

"This was a purposeful event on his part," Sgt. Dumer said. "It wasn't something he did on happenstance. You can see him wandering around the store in various different shots, looking for potential victims."

Over a period of two days, Ralph is seen doing the same thing at a grocery store and a sporting goods store, too. He was almost caught by someone shopping for vitamins, but it didn't seem to phase him.

"He is moving around that customer, and when opportunity presents itself, he is getting down on the floor and looking up the females' skirts," Sgt. Dumer explained.

Deputies arrested Ralph after an investigation that started in October. They said he was caught on camera on October 3 and 29, looking up women's skirts.

A judge set his bond at $15,000 on Tuesday. Once he bonds out, he's not allowed to have contact with any of the victims and he's not allowed to return to that Walmart. Detectives believe there are more victims out there and they are working to identify them.

"It goes against the sensibility of the general public that you go into a public place with a certain expectation of privacy, and someone would easily, without any problem at all, violate that," Sgt. Dumer said.

Meanwhile, shoppers who saw the video were disgusted.

"It blows my mind that people can do that to other people and not care about other people's feelings or their personal bubble," said Tabitha Brown.

Ralph is charged with 3 counts of voyeurism. Deputies ask anyone with information to contact the Criminal Investigations Section at 941-861-4317.