A witness used his cell phone camera to turn the tables on a Palm Harbor man accused of using an iPhone to take photos under the skirt of a woman as she shopped at Publix.
That witness, Dan MacMurray, gave Bay News 9 a copy of the video he recorded while confronting the man, Michael Atalla, 48, in the parking lot.
"You deleting the photograph?" MacMurray can be heard on the video asking Atalla.
"Sorry," Atalla responds before trying to swat away the camera. "Sorry, sir."
"Oh yeah, he’s deleting the photograph," MacMurray said. "And he just assaulted me."
The incident happened at a Publix located at 35439 U.S. 19 North in Palm Harbor, last Thursday. A woman caught Atalla taking a photo up her skirt and confronted him, according to an arrest affidavit. MacMurray said he saw the victim chasing Atalla, who ran outside the store. The witness said that's when he started recording video of Atalla and tried to corral him until Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies arrived.
"The deputies did a great job getting there fast," MacMurray said. "They made it there in less than 90 seconds."
Deputies arrested Atalla on a felony video voyeurism charge. Atalla told deputies that he was "taking pictures of cakes for his wife," according to the report. But the deputy noted that surveillance video captured the act in the deli by the hot chicken, not the bakery.
Bay News 9 reached Atalla over the phone on Tuesday and he declined a request for an interview. A neighbor, Casie Whitney, 20, said the incident concerns her.
"That makes me kind of uncomfortable because my house is right next door to his and I don’t have blinds in my window," she said.
Atalla got out of the Pinellas County jail last Friday after posting a $5,000 bond.