Called a Peeping Pervert, But I’m Blind

I had just walked out of the massage parlor with my guide dog when someone shoved the back of my head hard. I fell flat on the ground.

The shrill scream of influencer Sophie Pierce pierced my ears:

That's him! He's the pervert who was secretly filming me!

Her assistant pulled out a pinhole camera transmitter from my bag, then kicked my white cane flying.

Onlookers gathered around cursing about "a blind man faking blindness to harass a pretty influencer." Someone started a livestream, with "pervert" flooding the comments.

Someone kicked my guide dog away. It yelped and crashed into a trash can.

I lay on the ground groping for my knocked-away cane, screaming inside---

I went blind at three years old. I've never seen light in my entire life.

A camera? I don't even know what a camera looks like.

I had just walked out of the massage parlor with my guide dog.

Someone shoved the back of my head hard. I fell flat on the ground as my guide dog barked frantically at me.

Before I could get up, a woman screamed.

"That's him! He's the pervert who was secretly filming me!"

Sophie Pierce.

I'd heard her voice on my phone. She was an influencer with thirty million followers on TikTok.

"I was changing in my hotel room and found a pinhole camera in the closet! The police said the signal transmitter was nearby!"

Chloe pulled something from the side pocket of my backpack and held it up, shouting: "Officer, found it! The signal transmitter!"

I lay on the ground, my mind completely blank.

What was that thing? How did it get in my bag?

A man rushed out from the crowd.

"You sick pervert! How dare you film Sophie?"

He kicked my white cane flying and pinned me down by the neck.

I tried to shout, but with my throat being squeezed, I could only wheeze: "I'm blind... I can't see..."

No one paid attention.

Sophie yelled: "Devon, stop hitting him!"

Devon roared: "Why shouldn't I hit him? He filmed you!"

"I didn't film anything..." The words squeezed out of my throat like a mosquito's buzz.

Devon said: "Blind? A blind man can run his own massage parlor? Stop pretending!"

Onlookers gathered around. I heard footsteps surging from all directions like a tide.

"A blind man filming people?"

"Probably faking blindness on purpose to film pretty women!"

Someone shouted: "Kick his dog!"

A dull thud. The guide dog yelped.

My whole body stiffened.

"Don't kick my dog!" I shouted.

The dog rolled on the ground, its paws scraping the pavement, trying to stand up.

It whimpered.

Sophie said: "Don't kick the dog!"

Devon said: "You're defending him? He's the pervert who filmed your private photos!"

Sophie went silent.

Someone started a livestream.

Noisy voices came from the phone speaker, people shouting "slap him" and "beat this pervert to death."

Devon said: "Bro, smash that like button! At a hundred thousand likes, I'll slap him!"

I heard voices from the phone saying "a hundred thousand likes already."

Then a slap landed across my face.

My mouth filled with the taste of blood.

I lay there, my head buzzing.

Why? I clearly didn't do anything.

I could barely hear what they were saying anymore.

"Officer, please handcuff him and take him away! The evidence is so clear!" Chloe was shouting.

"We're handling it, everyone stop! Nobody move!" The police officer's voice.

"He filmed Sophie! The evidence is right in his bag!" Devon said.

That thing wasn't mine. I didn't know how it got in my bag.

Sophie walked over, her high heels clicking crisply on the ground.

"You're so disgusting... Did you develop some psychological problem from watching my livestreams..."

"I can't see," I said.

"Can't see? If you can't see, how do you know who I am?"

I froze for a moment.

"I recognized your voice. I can recognize your voice."

Devon laughed: "Recognized the voice? You're pretty good at making stuff up!"

Sophie said nothing.

I heard her take two steps back.

The guide dog limped back and nuzzled my hand with its head.

The police officer walked over.

"Lincoln Shaw, right? Please cooperate with our investigation."

I lay on the ground, only one thought in my mind---

I went blind at three years old. I've never seen light in my entire life.

A camera? I don't even know what a camera looks like.

The police officer helped me up from the ground.

My whole body hurt, my face burned, and my mouth was full of the taste of blood.

"Where's your disability certificate?" the officer asked.

I fumbled in my inner pocket, pulled out my disability certificate, and handed it over with both hands.

"This... can prove I'm really blind."

Chloe came over for a look and sneered: "You can buy fake certificates like this all over the internet. Can a real blind person run their own shop?"

"Exactly!" Devon chimed in. "There are tons of scammers faking disabilities these days! Look how fast he walks---does he look blind to you?"

I opened my mouth, wanting to say the guide dog leads me.

The officer scanned the code on the certificate with his police device.

A few seconds later, he looked up: "The certificate is real."

My heart eased a bit.

But Chloe said: "So what if it's real? He could have hired people to do it. He's the mastermind. Otherwise, why is all the evidence on him?"

Devon shouted into his phone: "Everyone hear that? This sick pervert isn't just pretending to be blind, he's the mastermind! Share this, let him get canceled!"

A stream of curses came from the phone.

The breath I'd just released caught in my throat again.

"Officer," Chloe said. "His massage parlor is right next door. Why don't we search it? Maybe there's more evidence."

"Yeah yeah yeah!" Devon said. "Search it! We'll definitely find more stuff!"

The officer hesitated, then nodded.

Chloe volunteered to lead: "I'll take you. I know the shop."

"I know the shop"---those words stuck in my ears. Why was she familiar with my shop?

I was pushed toward the massage parlor.

The guide dog stayed close to my leg, limping and still trembling.

Going up the stairs, I heard Chloe's footsteps ahead.

She knew the route well, never pausing.

Five minutes later, the officer came down from the second floor.

He was holding an extra phone and a key card.

Chloe told everyone: "The phone was found under his pillow, the key card in the drawer."

The officer turned on the phone.

I heard Sophie gasp.

"These... these are my photos, this is my schedule from last month. How does he have these?"

Chloe said: "Sophie, he's the stalker who's been following you. The evidence is all here."

"It's not mine..." I said. "That phone isn't mine..."

"Not yours?" Devon roared. "It was found under your pillow and it's not yours? Then whose is it? Did it fly in there by itself?"

"I don't know... I really don't know..."

I couldn't explain clearly.

I didn't even know what that phone looked like. How could I prove it wasn't mine?

The officer searched my pockets and pulled out my own phone.

"Is this one yours too?"

"Yes... that's mine..."

The officer turned on the screen and scrolled through the home screen.

"You have TikTok installed on your phone?"

"That's impossible..." I said. "I never installed TikTok. I use screen reader software..."

Chloe leaned over for a look: "Isn't this TikTok? Could I mistake the icon?"

"No..." I got anxious. "That's screen reader software, the icon is different..."

"Different?" Devon said. "You can't even see the screen. How do you know the icon is different?"

I opened my mouth but couldn't speak. He was right---I couldn't see.

Someone in Devon's livestream posted a comment.

"I looked it up! This blind guy registered a TikTok burner account three months ago. His following list only has Sophie Pierce!"

Devon shoved his phone in my face.

"What else do you have to say?"

"I never registered a TikTok account..."

"Never?" Devon roared. "The IP address is from your massage parlor! If you didn't register it, who did?"

Sophie suddenly spoke: "That account... sent me a DM."

Her voice trembled: "He asked me 'Sophie, when are you coming to New York?' and said 'I really want to see you.' I thought it was some creepy fan and ignored it."

Chloe said: "Sophie, why didn't you say this earlier?"

"I thought it was nothing..." Sophie said. "Now that I think about it, he probably targeted me back then..."

"No..." I panicked. "I never sent DMs! I don't even have TikTok!"

Chloe said: "You don't? It's installed on your phone and you don't have it? You registered a burner account and you don't have it? You sent DMs and you didn't?"

"I don't know..." I said. "I don't know why there's TikTok on my phone..."

"Don't know?" Devon laughed. "Stuff on your own phone and you don't know?"

The officer put both phones in evidence bags and looked at me.

"Anything else you want to say?"

I opened my mouth.

What could I say? I said that phone wasn't mine, but it was under my pillow.

I said I didn't have TikTok, but TikTok was installed on my phone, the burner account was mine, the DMs were "sent" by me.

I said I was blind, but nobody believed me.

The police officer brought me to the entrance of the massage parlor and had me wait on the side while they logged the evidence.

Devon shoved me. I slammed into the wall.

"Stay put!"

The guide dog squeezed against my leg, nuzzling my hand with its head. It was trembling.

Devon's livestream was still on, with over twenty thousand viewers online.

The sounds from the phone were chaotic---people taking turns cursing me, people sending gifts.

"Found the address! 53 19th Street, blind massage parlor!"

"Go leave him bad reviews!"

"This kind of pervert should be canceled!"

I heard someone read out my shop name and address.

Someone shouted they'd already found my shop on the delivery app and were leaving one-star reviews.

Someone shouted they'd call to report me and get me shut down.

I leaned against the wall, my legs going weak.

The shop was my rental. The contract had half a year left.

If there were too many bad reviews, if people reported me, I was finished.

"I want to see the surveillance footage," I said. "The hotel entrance surveillance can prove I never went there."

The officer looked at me and said:

"We already investigated."

"The alley at the hotel's back entrance has no cameras."

My heart sank.

"However," the officer said, "the alley entrance faces the street, and there are public safety cameras on the street."

"Can they capture me?" I asked.

The officer said: "They can capture the alley entrance. Your massage parlor's back door is inside the alley, about twenty meters from the alley entrance."

I froze.

My massage parlor's back door faced directly toward the alley at the hotel's back entrance.

"Your massage parlor is less than twenty meters from the hotel's back door."

The officer said, "From your back door, it's just a few steps to the hotel's back door."

Someone nearby muttered: "So close, no wonder he could film."

"No wonder all the evidence is on him."

"He definitely scoped it out."

I stood in place, my head buzzing.

Chloe's voice drifted over: "Officer, his shop is so close to the hotel, it must have been him. Otherwise why would all the evidence be in his place?"

Devon said: "Exactly! The cameras can't catch it, so nobody can prove he didn't go! He can't even explain it himself!"

I couldn't speak. He was right---I had no evidence to prove I didn't go.

Sophie stood a few steps away, saying nothing.

Chloe walked to her side. Her voice wasn't loud, but I heard it.

"Sophie, how could a blind man complete the filming by himself? He must have accomplices."

Sophie didn't respond.

Chloe continued: "Check his phone and we'll know. He must have contacted someone."

The officer was logging my phone and came to the voice memos.

"There are over thirty recordings here. What are these?"

"I'm used to keeping recordings on..." I said. "Makes it easier to replay messages..."

Chloe interrupted: "A blind man recording this much audio? Who knows what he recorded? What if he recorded Sophie's private information?"

Devon said: "Exactly! Who records audio all day? There's definitely something wrong!"

The livestream chat flooded with comments---"Pervert!" "Delete the recordings!" "Investigate thoroughly!"

The officer said nothing and continued scrolling through my phone.

A woman wearing a mask pushed through the crowd.

Her voice trembled: "I... I saw it. Last week late at night, I saw him coming out of the hotel's back door, acting all sneaky..."

"You're lying!" I shouted.

"I don't go out at night!"

The woman said: "It was you! You had a guide dog with you. I remember!"

Someone nearby chimed in: "Yeah, I see that dog all the time. It's definitely his dog."

The guide dog was indeed very conspicuous---the only one on the whole street.

I opened my mouth to argue, but when I said I didn't go out at night, who could verify it?

I lived alone, no neighbors, no friends. How could I prove I didn't go out at night?

Chloe suddenly clapped her hands: "I just remembered."

"Last month Sophie lost a key card. We checked at the time---replacing it would cost five hundred dollars."

"Sophie said forget it, she'd just replace it."

Sophie nodded: "Right, I thought I'd just lost it myself."

Chloe said:

"Sophie recently had events in New York so she's been staying here. This pervert obtained Sophie's itinerary in advance!"

"He stole the key card so he could enter the room and plant the camera."

"His shop is so close, he could steal the key card and return it immediately without anyone knowing."

The officer finished logging all the evidence and walked over.

"Lincoln Shaw, please come with us to the station for further investigation."

Devon shouted: "Cuff him and take him away!"

Chloe shouted: "Hurry up and arrest him!"

Comments flooded the livestream.

"Good arrest!"

"Send him to prison!"

"Voyeur scum deserves to die, who knows where those private photos of that girl will spread!"

Sophie walked up to me.

The sound of her high heels on the ground was crisp, very close to me.

"You're so disgusting."

She said.

"My account has thirty million followers. Even if everyone just spits once, you'd drown. You just wait."

The officer pulled out handcuffs and walked over.

The metal cuff touched my wrist, ice cold.

Click---one cuff locked.

I seemed to hear people in the livestream saying---

"Serves him right!"

"This kind of person should be locked up!"

"Let's see if he dares do it again!"

The guide dog came after me, rubbing its head against my leg.

Someone kicked it. It yelped.

"You can hit me! But don't kick my dog!"

I screamed in agony.

No one paid attention.

I was pushed toward the police car door, my face nearly hitting the doorframe.

Just then, a thought exploded in my mind---

This afternoon I was sleeping on the second floor.

My phone was on the nightstand.

I had a habit---my phone recorded audio 24/7.

Because I couldn't see the screen, keeping the recording on made it convenient to replay missed messages later.

If someone had entered my room---footsteps, voices, sounds of rummaging through things---it would all be recorded.

My phone! There should be a recording that could prove those things weren't placed by me!

"Wait!"

I shouted.

"I have evidence! The evidence is in my phone that was confiscated!"