BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A woman says a shopping trip at Abercrombie & Fitch inside Valley Plaza Mall left her feeling violated. She claims that while changing in a dressing room, she looked up and saw a man working above the ceiling while she was naked.
Vanessa Escobar says the incident happened in early March while she was trying on clothes inside a dressing room at the Bakersfield store. While changing, she claims she looked up and noticed a man standing above the dressing room door, working in the ceiling area. “I looked up, and I could see him fully, and I was like, even if he can’t see in the actual fitting room, the mirror is right in front of me, so he could just see in the mirror. He didn’t even need to look in there. He could’ve looked in all the fitting rooms because they are all faced the same way,” She said.
Escobar tells me the experience has left her extremely uncomfortable, adding that Abercrombie & Fitch wasn’t much help after the fact. “Is there really a man on a ladder outside my fitting room? And she looked at me like, yeah, and she said I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do about that. I said what do you mean? There’s customers changing their clothes. He can literally see in my fitting room. I was completely nude,” She said.
We reached out to both the store and management at Valley Plaza Mall to ask what work was being done on the ceiling and what policies exist to protect customers during maintenance near dressing rooms.
So far, Abercrombie & Fitch has not responded. The mall confirms the workers were not part of their crew.
As for Escobar, she says she will never shop at that store again. “I don’t know what would fix this situation for myself at this point. I was violated, and there’s nothing that will take that away.” Escobar said.
Escobar says she’s speaking out so other shoppers are aware and so stores take extra steps to protect customer privacy.
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