A McHenry man is accused of secretly filming people from a bathroom stall at a Sycamore grocery store, according to DeKalb County court filings.

After having his phone searched by police, Jerardo Hernandez Alonzo, 20, was charged with Unauthorized Video Recording, a Class 4 felony, according to online court documents. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

Police were originally called to Meijer, 541 Puri Pkwy., at 5:30 p.m. March 1 for a report of the alleged recording.

In a police synopsis filed March 23 in court, a Sycamore police officer wrote that Hernandez Alonzo “admitted to taking a short video of ... in the bathroom,” before later deleting it.

The Sycamore police officer wrote that Hernandez Alonzo said he deleted the video and other footage from the bathroom after the person he allegedly tried to record confronted him.

Hernandez Alonzo also told police he deleted an “album” during the confrontation, records state.

Police alleged he admitted those actions to authorities before he consented to a forensic search of his phone.

No videos related to the alleged Meijer recording were found on the phone, but police found similar videos.

Three videos on Hernandez Alonzo’s phone from October 2024 contained footage of two men using the restroom without knowing they were being recorded, according to court records.

The charge against Hernandez Alonzo was filed on March 23. He was arrested the next day, according to a Sycamore police news release.

Authorities said the victim gave police a photo they said they captured, which they alleged shows Hernandez Alonzo recording them from a bathroom stall. The victim also shared a photo of what they said was Hernandez Alonzo’s vehicle.

Sycamore police used license plate readers to identify the vehicle, which was registered to a McHenry County address. McHenry police didn’t find that vehicle when they first checked the residence. But they did identify Hernandez Alonzo from the photograph.

On March 4, Sycamore and McHenry police made contact with Hernandez Alonzo at the home. Police said Hernandez Alonzo told them he’d been confronted by someone alleging he had recorded them in a Meijer bathroom.

Hernandez Alonzo has since been freed on pretrial release pending trial, records show. His next court date is 9 a.m. on April 7 in front of DeKalb Circuit Court Judge Philip Montgomery.