Police: Man used shoe cameras to film women near UC Berkeley
Police say Noah Stein visited the neighborhood more than 40 times in recent weeks. Investigators believe there may be other victims.
A man police say used hidden cameras to secretly record women and girls near UC Berkeley and downtown has been arrested.
Berkeley police say Noah Stein, a 35-year-old Oakland man, was in the Southside neighborhood more than 40 times in recent weeks. He does not work in the area, police said.
Police also found a camera hidden inside the bathroom at Taco Bell Cantina on Durant Avenue. The camera recorded several women, whom police are now trying to identify.
Berkeley police arrested Stein early Friday morning after someone spotted him "with a camera attached to his shoe, apparently recording up women's skirts," authorities said in a statement this week.
The passerby alerted a Berkeley police officer on patrol in the neighborhood.
Shoe camera case began with Berkeley High student report
The investigation began early last week when a Berkeley High student told police she believed she had been recorded by a stranger at lunch.
On Oct. 26, she had been in line at Lox Stock & Bagel, at 2043 Allston Way, when she stepped on a man's shoe, looked down and saw "a camera pointed toward her," BPD said.
Berkeley police sex crimes detectives were able to identify a possible suspect and began looking for him immediately, BPD said.
On Thursday night, a passerby flagged down an officer on Durant Avenue near Bowditch Street after noticing a man with a camera on his shoe.
The officer was able to locate the suspect in the 2500 block of Durant coming out of Artichoke Basille's Pizza at about 11 p.m.
Stein, who is 6 feet 5 inches tall, "stands out," police said.
The officer arrested him a short time later.
As BPD continued to investigate, police found two cameras in the area: "a mini camera that had been discarded in a nearby trash can" and a fixed camera inside the bathroom at Taco Bell Cantina, at 2528 Durant Ave.
Police say security footage shows two cameras mounted to Noah Stein's shoes. BPD
The 2500 block of Durant Avenue is one of the busiest areas for UC Berkeley students, with many bars and late-night businesses catering to the campus community.
Police said footage on the bathroom camera included Stein placing it inside Taco Bell, its red light covered with black tape.
The camera recorded three women in the unisex bathroom — and police are hoping to identify them, authorities said.
Anyone who used the Taco Bell bathroom after 11 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, "may have been recorded," police said this week.
Police say Stein also stood near women inside Taco Bell recording them from cameras that were attached to his shoes with magnets.
Detectives believe there may be additional victims, based on Stein's statements and automated license plate reader data, the department said.
After identifying Stein, police used Flock automated license plate reader data to determine that his vehicle had been in the south campus area near UC Berkeley 43 times since Oct. 1, BPD said.
As the investigation continued, detectives obtained a search warrant for his home in Oakland and seized several electronic devices.
Those devices have now been sent for forensic examination, police said Thursday.
Stein was arrested on suspicion of invasion of privacy using a concealed video recording device, annoying or molesting a minor and destruction of evidence, BPD said.
After his arrest, he told detectives he had come to Berkeley because so many women in the area wear short skirts, police said.
Stein posted bail Friday, Oct. 30, and is set for arraignment Nov. 30.
BPD asks anyone with information about the case to call the Berkeley Police Department Sex Crimes Unit at 510-981-5735.
