Man Arrested For Disguising As Woman To Record Women Inside Gym Bathrooms

A 44-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, after disguising himself as a woman to secretly record women in gym bathrooms.

The suspect, Tshikundi Taty of Takoma Park, was arrested Wednesday in Montgomery County after undercover officers followed him to a health club parking lot and then into the building, where they found him inside a women’s locker room disguised as a woman, authorities said Thursday morning.

Police allege in court records that Taty has recorded at least four women inside health club showers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

“Detectives are concerned there may be additional victims,” Montgomery police said.

At a Germantown facility, Taty’s in-and-out logs show he spent an average of seven hours inside the health club during each of his 16 visits since June, according to court records.

Police said they are trying to learn if he spent all or part of that time hiding in shower stalls.

Montgomery police charged Taty with two counts of video surveillance “with prurient intent” and two visual surveillance counts known as “peeping tom,” according to court records.

At a court hearing Thursday, Assistant State’s Attorney Caitlin Murphy showed Judge Aileen Oliver photographs of Taty’s outfit when he was arrested.

“Mmm, disguised as a woman,” Oliver said.

“Correct,” Murphy said.

The prosecutor asked Oliver to order Taty to be held without bond, citing possible danger to the community.

But Clayton Hough, an attorney for Taty, said Taty should be released. Hough noted that Taty worked at a food market, lived with his wife, and was the sole provider for their two children, ages 4 months and 2 years.

As for the charges, Hough said, “These are not violent crimes. They’re problematic, obviously, as alleged, but they’re not violent.”

Oliver made two findings: that Taty represented a public safety risk and “that people cannot feel safe going to the gym and taking a shower is a problem.”

She ordered him held without bond.

In Prince George’s County, where Taty faces a peeping tom count and a trespassing count, he is represented by the Maryland Public Defender’s Office, according to legal filings.AI Icon

A spokesperson for that office declined to comment.

Court records show the health clubs have cooperated with police.

In Montgomery, the manager of Onelife Fitness in Germantown first called them on Oct. 10 about a shower incident.

They spoke with him, a witness, and the alleged victim.

They also studied surveillance video and in-and-out member records.

And in court records filed this week, they asserted the following:

Taty had arrived at 8:02 a.m. on Oct. 10 wearing a long black wig, a multicolored face mask, a white blouse, and dark pants. He went into the women’s locker room.

Hours later, a woman arrived at the facility, swam in the pool, went to the locker room, and began showering in one of five shower bays.

“She felt something was off and looked down to see” a man on his back looking up at her while holding what she believed to be a cellphone, police wrote in the court filings.

The woman screamed, and the man fled from the locker room.

Police allege that interior surveillance video showed Taty now carrying his wig running from the women’s locker room at 3:19 p.m. and entering the men’s locker room.

A staff member at Onelife Fitness in Germantown who answered the phone declined to comment. The general manager there could not be reached.

Police learned about an earlier incident at the same gym. That victim said she had not reported it to police because, as a woman of faith, she believed “God will take care of the situation.”

When she was told by the police about the other incident, she agreed to tell them what happened to her.

About 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 15, she said, she was taking a shower and looked down to see a man staring up at her and holding a cellphone.

Police say surveillance video showed Taty exit the women’s locker room while “attempting to put his black long-haired wig back on, but it continued to fall off,” according to court filings.

Taty’s alleged sneaking into women’s locker rooms traces to last year in Prince George’s County, according to court records. Some records there list his name as Taty Tshikundi.

On July 1, 2024, Hyattsville police officers were called to an LA Fitness on Belcrest Center Drive.

A woman told them she had been taking a shower when she noticed a man looking up at her from under the curtain, according to charging documents.

She screamed, the records state, and the man ran off, wearing a tiger print Speedo.

Police allege in the charging documents that surveillance footage captured Taty leaving the women’s locker room, going into the men’s locker room, and reentering the women’s locker room before leaving the gym.

While inside the club, police wrote, Taty tried to use a towel to cover his head and avoid cameras.

“Nonetheless, the suspect’s face was clearly visible from the angle of the men’s locker entry point,” police wrote.

He was eventually charged with one peeping Tom count, according to court records.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, a manager at the LA Fitness declined to comment, referring calls to its corporate office, which didn’t immediately respond.

The gym took steps last year to keep Taty away by filing a trespassing case after he was “found in the female locker room shower taking pictures of female members while they were inside the shower,” according to charging documents.

But on April 30 of this year, according to records, he managed to slip into the club — briefly — before a staff member saw his photo pop up on the check-in screen, according to charging documents.

Police were called. They say they found him in the women’s locker room in a shower, and carrying a blue backpack. Inside the backpack, according to court records, they found a green dress, a pair of pink Crocs, a blue ski mask, and a phone wrapped in clear plastic.

Police charged him with trespassing on private property.

Taty is due in Prince George’s District Court on Nov. 14 in a trial for both cases there, according to court records.AI Icon

The peeping tom count carries up to 30 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. Trespassing private property carries up to 90 days in jail and up to a $500 fine, according to court documents.

The prurient intent video recording charges in Montgomery, according to court records, carry a penalty of up to one year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine.

AFP