Overview

Thomas Elliot Target Peeping Arrest refers to the apprehension of North Carolina elementary school volunteer Thomas Elliot who was caught on camera taking a picture up a woman's skirt (also known as an "upskirt") who was squatting down in a Target store. The video of him sneaking the photo went viral on Facebook and Twitter / X in mid-April 2024, leading to viral discourse and reactions, especially after it was revealed that he was an elementary school volunteer.

Background

On April 15th, 2024, Greenville, North Carolina man Thomas Elliot was arrested by local police for felony peeping after he illegally took a photo up a woman's skirt at a local Target store. A video of the incident was obtained by a shopper with a camera attached to their cart. The man was identified as 21-year-old Thomas Elliot, an employee of Opendoor Church in Winterville, North Carolina and a volunteer at Greenville Elementary School.^[1]

The video that captured Elliot's illegal snapshot was filmed and posted by Facebook^[2] user Audra Marie on April 15th, 2024. Marie said that she decided to follow and film Elliot after he was "suspiciously close to me and holding his phone at a very weird angle." She turned the camera on when she "noticed he was getting really close to another woman in the store." Marie's videos also included the aftermath of the photo in which she and the victim confronted Elliot. Her post received over 5,200 reactions in two days (since deleted).

A censored repost of the primary video was posted to YouTube^[8] by WITN-TV on April 17th, 2024 (shown below).

Online Reaction

The video was reposted across social media in the days following, such as to the subreddit /r/iamatotalpieceofshit^[3] on April 15th, 2024, where it earned over 12,000 upvotes in two days. Minutes later on April 15th, the video was then shared to /r/PublicFreakout,^[4] gaining over 19,000 upvotes in two days.

On April 16th, X^[5] user @ask_aubry posted the full-length video, centering on a quote from Elliot in which he said, "I'm not like that," and the woman replied, "Obviously, you are." The tweet gained over 10.9 million views and 83,000 likes in a day (shown below).

When he says, "I'm not like that". Her, "Obviously, you are." pic.twitter.com/Lxi8VTnBJD

— AskAubry 🦝 (@ask_aubry) April 16, 2024

Viral quotes of the video spread awareness and reactions, such as one shared by X^[6] user @corn65badboy on April 16th, 2024, who called the woman recording a "hero" and further stating that the man's name was Thomas Elliot, receiving over 101,000 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Others used the video to criticize men, like X^[7] user @audrawrongspeak on April 16th, who used the clip to insinuate a lack of impulse control in males, gaining over 2,600 likes in a day (shown below, right).