‘Up-Skirt Voyeur’ Strikes Again
Repeat Offender Arrested for Sneaking Photos of Women's Underwear and Privates
Sijifredo Sotelo was arrested Thursday for invasion of privacy and taking photographs of women’s underwear and private parts with a concealed camera held in his palm, Santa Barbara police said Friday.
A resident saw 37-year-old Sotelo taking photos of women on the 1200 block of State Street and recorded the act with his camera phone. The resident then flagged down an SBPD officer and reported the incident.
Upon further investigation by Detective Charlie Katsapis and Detective Brian Larson, Sotelo was recognized as a repeat offender for taking up-skirt photographs in 2009.
Det. Katsapis obtained an arrest warrant for Sotelo for invasion of privacy, and at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, he and Det. Larson arrested Sotelo at his home and searched his room.
They found three small cameras and an SD memory card that contained 423 video files and one still image of legs, undergarments, and female victims’ body parts, police said. It appears that the photos had been taken without the subjects’ consent. The detectives are in the process of identifying the victims.
If anyone has information pertaining to this case, they are asked to contact Det. Katsapis at (805) 897-2344 or ckatsapis@sbpd.com.
