A young woman has spoken out after allegedly catching a phone repair shop employee trying to send her nude photos.
The 27-year-old New Zealand woman, who did not want to be named, said she took her phone to a Mobile Planet kiosk in Auckland’s Sylvia Park shopping centre to have her camera fixed.
However, when she got her phone back, she saw a notification that said “AirDrop failed” with a link to a nude photo in her camera roll that had been “taken years ago” to send to her boyfriend.
In a video posted to TikTok by their friend Krisy Erin, the women confront the store manager about the alleged incident as the accused employee looks on.
Ms Erin explains that to find the photo, the employee would have had to scroll back a long way through her friend’s photos, “which is an invasion of privacy and absolutely unethical behaviour.”
The manager responds to the accusation by saying that he only told the employee to check that “the camera was working properly.”
After the manager checked the employee’s photos to see if the nude photo had been sent, there was a moment of drama when the employee fainted.
However, Ms Erin was not convinced by the apparent medical episode.
In a TikTok video posted by Krisy Erin, a woman is seen confronting the manager and accused employee about the alleged rape at the New Zealand mall.
“It seemed like a distraction, like he was trying to take the pressure off of himself,” Erin told a New Zealand news outlet. Stuff on Friday.
Ms. Erin said that after the fainting episode, security staff asked her and her friend to go to customer service and file a complaint.
Stuff reported that the employee, who was a casual, had been suspended.
The woman involved told the outlet she was speaking out to warn others.
“I knew there would be negative comments and people saying I shouldn’t have had the photo on my phone in the first place, but it’s important for other women to know that this can happen,” she said.
Ms Erin claimed that before she began filming the TikTok, the employee and his manager had been “quite aggressive” and threatened to involve security.
“They basically tricked her and made her feel like she had made a mistake. They kept denying everything and said they hadn’t seen her photos, but we weren’t going to leave until we got to the bottom of what had happened,” Erin said.
The woman saw an alert that an AirDrop of a nude photo she had on her phone had failed (file image in photo)
Ms Erin said that although her friend was feeling “better” since the incident, she was still “disturbed, violated and just plain uncomfortable about the whole thing”.
“She’s been left wondering if he’s accessed any of her other photos, but wants to raise awareness about what happened,” Erin said.
Ms. Erin said she has since learned that it is not necessary to share her password when getting a phone repaired.
Mobile Planet’s management team told Stuff they took “immediate action” when they were informed of the incident and notified the police.
“We understand the gravity of the situation and are committed to fulfilling our responsibility to all parties involved,” they said.
Store management also said they had reached out to the woman to offer their “sincere apologies and support during this time.”
However, Ms Erin said her friend had not received such a message.
Police are investigating the incident, a spokesperson told the outlet.