Trevor Nielsen Charged With Hiding Cameras In MOA Dressing Room
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - The man who was discovered planting cameras inside a Mall of America dressing room last fall has been charged with felony.
Trevor Nielsen, a 42-year-old man from Elk River, has been charged with interference with privacy against a minor, who he was more than three years older.
According to the criminal complaint, on Sept. 28, a manager at the Forever 21 in the Mall of America called the Bloomington Police Department to say a man had been in one of the dressing rooms for an unusually long time. She thought it was the same man from an incident two months earlier; that day, she had found video cameras hidden in the store's fitting rooms.
RELATED: Man Arrested After Hidden Cameras Found In Dressing Rooms At MOA, Other Metro Malls
Officers waited until Nielsen emerged from the fitting room and detained him. They searched him and found his cell phone, which had a roll of double-sided black tape as well as strips of backing from the tape.
Store employees then found a camera hidden in one of the dressing rooms, adhered to the wall with the tape that matched the tape Nielsen had.
Later, in an interview, Nielsen admitted he hid the camera in the fitting room and had done so before, saying he had secretly recorded people on other occasions around the metro area. Neilsen also had a camera fixed to his shoe or lower pant leg, which he would stick out from under the barrier in the changing rooms to capture videos.
Nielsen also said he had recorded the 15-year-old daughter of his girlfriend in the bathroom.
Officers obtained a search warrant and found a large number of videos which were taken in changing rooms, which showed semi-nude girls.
There were also secretly-recorded videos of students at Elk River High School, as well as videos of young teenage girls at swimming pools and parks.
If Nielsen is convicted, he could serve two years and or a $5,000 fine. The criminal complaint was issued as a summons, and no first court appearance has been set.
