A Florida woman is suing a former T-Mobile employee who stole a sex video off her cellphone by emailing it to himself using her account, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Keely Hightower had taken her phone to a T-Mobile store in Pinellas Park last May. When the employee took an unusually long time to return the phone, she checked her apps and all seemed right, the Times reported. But the next day when she checked her email, Hightower’s app took her to the trash folder and she saw an email sent from her account with an attachment.
When she opened the attachment, “My heart dropped,” Hightower told the Times. It was a video the 24-year-old had recorded of her engaging in sex acts. Her face was visible in parts of the video, Hightower said.
When Hightower looked at the email, she deduced that it was the T-Mobile employee, Roberto Aramis Sanchez Ramos, who had sent it. Hightower called police and Ramos was arrested, the Times reported. Ramos, 26, pleaded guilty to a computer offense charge and was sentenced to six months in jail. He was released from the Pinellas County Jail in October.
Hightower is now suing Ramos and Global Innovative Group, the company that operates the store, for negligence. She is claiming that the invasion of privacy caused her mental anguish and emotional stress, the Times reported.
The owner of Global Innovative Group and Ramos could not be reached for comment, the Times reported.
The negligence part of the lawsuit stems from Ramos’ prior arrests while working in retail, according to the Times. Ramos was arrested in 2013 on charges of grand theft after police said he stole two iPads from a Walmart in Largo. He participated in a pretrial diversion program.
In 2016, Ramos pleaded guilty to scheming to defraud a T-Mobile store in Largo.
Hightower’s biggest concern was whether the stolen video made it online.
"My thought was just like where did the video go? What happened after that?" she told the Times. "That was my main concern ... I didn’t want the video out there in the public."
"Your email is on your phone, people store their bank information on their phone, people do work over their phone," said Hightower’s attorney, Christopher Klemawesch. “The question is not why did she have this on her phone. The question is why is this store employing this person and allowing him to access her private materials?”
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