Teenager sues SLO County gym where man allegedly filmed her and 46 others naked
An 18-year-old woman is suing the Planet Fitness in Arroyo Grande — and the gym’s national franchiser — after a man allegedly filmed her and nearly 50 other women partially or fully naked in the gym’s tanning booths.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday and shared with The Tribune, accused the national franchise of sex-based discrimination, gross negligence, and failing to intervene and protect its members’ privacy from the “erratic and conspicuous individual.”
It was filed by an anonymous Jane Doe, a college student who attended school in Arizona and was home visiting her parents in Arroyo Grande in December. The woman used an alias in the lawsuit to protect her identity.
On Dec. 29, Doe went to the Planet Fitness at 1576 West Branch St. She was a Black Card member, a higher-tier membership that unlocks additional amenities such as the separate Black Card Spa with standing tanning booths.
At around 5:30 p.m., Doe entered a tanning booth room inside the spa, the lawsuit said. The booths are private, standing tanning stalls inside a private changing room where guests can remove clothing before entering the booth.
Around the same time, security camera footage showed a man entered the spa waiting room while “pacing around the Black Card Spa and checking to see if anyone else is in the area, swaying back and forth and looking around the area constantly,” according to the lawsuit.
At least one Planet Fitness employee was in the man’s vicinity at that time but did not interact with or seem to acknowledge his behavior, the lawsuit said.
Then, the man is seen on security footage entering the same tanning booth room as Doe did minutes before while looking over his shoulder with his cell phone in hand, the lawsuit said.
Expecting to be secure in the privacy of the tanning booth, Doe had fully undressed upon entering except for a bikini top, the lawsuit said.
As she stood in the tanning booth, the lawsuit said, she saw the man push his phone through a crack in the booth with his camera lens facing her partially naked body.
Realizing she was being filmed, she screamed, and the man fled the gym, the lawsuit said. No Planet Fitness employee tried to stop him from running out of the facility and through the parking lot, though at least one employee saw him flee, the lawsuit said.
Doe called the Arroyo Grande Police Department “panicked ... screaming and hysterical,” according to the lawsuit. After her police report, officers identified the suspect as a gym member through security footage and his Planet Fitness profile picture.
Officers obtained a search warrant for his phone and found pictures of Doe from the day of the incident, as well as more than 50 videos of 47 different women in the gym’s tanning booths dating back to January 2025.
In order to take that many videos, the man “would have needed to repeatedly patronize the Planet Fitness location in Arroyo Grande, where his actions would have been visible to employees“ and where he “would have to check in with the front desk every time he came to film women” at the spa, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleged Planet Fitness employees could have easily matched his profile picture to security footage during any earlier offense in the year when he was allegedly filming women in secret.
Doe seeks financial damages for emotional distress from Planet Fitness Franchising LLC — the gym’s national franchiser — and three companies that own or are otherwise involved in the management of the Arroyo Grande location. She also seeks injunctive relief to prevent the same thing from happening to other female gym patrons in the future.
“I feel betrayed by Planet Fitness and its indifference towards its female members,” Doe said in a news release from the law firm representing her. “I am horrified that so many women had to be harmed before this person was stopped.”
Why have criminal charges not been filed?
Even through police got a search warrant for the suspect’s phone and found incriminating evidence, they have been unable to arrest the man or file criminal charges, and thus are unable to release his name, Officer Jeremy Burns previously told The Tribune on April 16.
Taking a video of an undressed individual without their consent is a misdemeanor, not a felony, Burns said.
According to Burns, officers can only arrest people for misdemeanors if they commit the crime in the presence of law enforcement. Officers didn’t witness the suspect taking the videos, so they can’t arrest him until the District Attorney’s Office issues an arrest warrant.
Police are waiting to identify more women in the videos before filing the case with the DA’s Office, Burns said.
As of April 16, officers had only identified one of the women from the videos — Jane Doe — and it’s best practice to add the other women to the case before the charges are filed, Burns said.
Burns did not immediately respond to The Tribune for an update on the case.
Women who used the tanning or red-light therapy rooms at Planet Fitness in 2025 can contact Arroyo Grande Police Department Officer Brandon Earnest at 805-473-5110, extension 7021, or via email at bearnest@arroyogrande.org.
