APD uses AI to catch man accused of filming people in Walmart bathroom

APD uses AI to catch man accused of filming people in Walmart bathroom

An Albuquerque man is accused of filming people inside a local Walmart's bathroom stall. It happened at the store off Coors near I-40.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Albuquerque man is accused of filming people inside a local Walmart’s bathroom stall. It happened at the store off Coors near I-40.

According to police, the man went to the Walmart on Oct. 19 and walked straight to the restroom. He was in there for more than an hour before a store employee noticed he was being recorded while using one of the stalls.

The 17-year-old employee told police he looked up and saw a phone recording him.

Court documents say the employee confronted the man, and even recorded him with his phone – but the man took off into the Walmart parking lot.

Albuquerque police used a snippet of that video to track down the suspect. Police uploaded the video to AI software that put together a list of possible matches. Only one of the matches lived in Albuquerque – 48-year-old Malcolm Alonzo.

According to Walmart’s surveillance video, Alonzo was in the bathroom from 6:44 p.m. until he was confronted at 7:55 p.m. that evening. During that time frame, police say 29 people and one child entered the bathroom.

Alonzo is behind bars on a charge of voyeurism. Prosecutors filed a motion Monday to keep him locked up ahead of trial. He is expected to have a pretrial detention hearing Tuesday.