In a talk‑show style segment hosted by Drew Barrymore, guest Karen recounts a personal upskirting incident that occurred while she was at a zoo. She describes noticing a man with a camera aimed at her skirt, confronting him, and reacting by dousing him with a strawberry smoothie. The confrontation escalated into a chase, involvement of bystanders, and the arrival of police, who later issued a warrant for the perpetrator. Karen emphasizes that the experience did not deter her from wearing skirts and frames herself as an empowered survivor. Security specialist Robert Siciliano provides analysis, praising Karen’s situational awareness, describing the attacker’s “tool of trade” as surprise, and reinforcing the importance of vigilance and self‑advocacy for women. The segment also includes a brief, informal discussion of the “bend‑over test,” a colloquial method Karen mentions for assessing skirt safety, which Drew expands into a broader cultural warning to women about paparazzi and unwanted attention. Overall, the piece blends a personal victim narrative with expert commentary to highlight the invasive nature of upskirting, the potential for immediate self‑defense, and the broader message of empowerment and awareness for women.
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All right, so as much as technology is a blessing, it can be a curse too. Take a look at the monitors right now. The crime you're witnessing is called upskirting, and my next guest Karen knows just how invasive this crime is. Ladies beware. Karen was at the zoo not long ago enjoying a day out with her mom.
I was standing next to the reptile cage and I noticed this guy standing super close to me. And I thought it was kind of weird that he wasn't even looking at the reptiles. And for some reason, it just did not feel right.
Fortunately for Karen, her gut was right on.
I saw that he was holding in his hand a camera strap with his camera lowered all the way down to the ground, and his camera was in it, pointed up my skirt. And that's when I told my mom, I think he just filmed me. I think he just filmed me.
Oh my gosh. Okay, Karen, I gotta ask you a question. I'm wondering if everybody else is thinking it too. Did you have on panties?
Absolutely.
Thank goodness.
I had on granny panties, practically. They were covering everything. I usually don't wear skirts, so that day me and my sister were doing the bend-over test. Have you ever heard of that? What's that?
No.
I'll show you right now.
Okay, yeah.
What you do is when you do the bend-over test is you do this, and you have like a sibling or a boyfriend or something behind you, and if he can see your panties, then you probably shouldn't be wearing the skirt.
Oh my gosh, everybody should do that. A lot of celebrity girls should do that. They walk out and like, ooh, nasty. Okay, you guys here, all you little cute girls— I'm not gonna say your names— the ones that hang out in LA and the paparazzi follow you all the time, do the bend-over test, girl. We don't want to see your booty. We don't want to see it. Okay, so you saw him, he had the camera, and what happened? What did you do?
Um, when he had the camera, I looked down and I looked back toward the reptile cage, and I did a double take. And I'm like, wait a second, I have a skirt on, there's a camera down there, I'm not stupid. And that's pretty much like when the adrenaline kicked in.
What happened?
What'd you do?
Adrenaline, woo!
Yeah, I ran out the doors, me and my mom ran out screaming, and I catch up to the man. I'm like, sir, is this a camera? Sir, is this a camera? And he was pretty much ignoring me.
Yeah.
And at that time he actually ended up turning around to me and saying, oh, I'm sorry, it was an accident, or I couldn't carry my camera up here because my shoulder was hurting. So I'm like, no, you're a liar. I know, I'm not a stupid woman. I've seen this before, you know, from TV shows too. And that's why I had a smoothie in my hand and I ended up throwing it on his back, which completely drenched him, and I started beating on his back.
What, you threw the smoothie on him?
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
It was complete adrenaline.
What flavor was the smoothie?
Strawberry.
Strawberry. I love it. So the little strawberry seeds were like stuck on him too?
Oh yeah, he was completely soaked in the back.
I love that.
All the way down. And I started beating on him, but I'm like 5'3", 5'4", 125 pounds. He was at least 6'4". 6 foot, probably 250 pounds, 49 years old. I doubt he even felt it, but he was like 3 times my size and I was not gonna let him get away.
Did he start to run? What did he do?
No, he just walked the entire time. We walked about 2 blocks chasing after him. He was trying to act like I wasn't even there, but I was trying to do anything I could to stop him.
And did the police show up?
Yes. Me, my mother, and a passerby, a father who actually was helping us, cornered him between security guards and that's when the police ended up showing up. And I think it was about 7 police officers actually there. And wherever you walked, my sister could find me because everyone was stopped and staring and talking.
Yeah.
So it was—
I love that you threw the smoothie because even if he tried to get away, the police can just be like, the man with strawberry smoothie all over. Yes. You know what I mean? It's like you marked him. I know we have a mugshot of this creepy man. Let's check him out. What do you feel when you look at him?
I'm kind of like shaking right now.
Yeah?
He's haunting. Very haunting, because every time I look at his face, I think of him there just violating me. But then anger.
Mm-hmm. And you have on a skirt today.
Yes.
So it didn't make you stop wearing skirts?
No.
I'm a strong person. I'm a fighter. I beat him up. I did anything I could to stop him. And, you know, he has a warrant out for his arrest right now. There's, you know, he's one day to a year in jail with a $1,000 fine. But— There's a warrant out for his arrest. He never showed up. But either way, what he did to me that day, I'm still a woman. I'm not sending off a wrong signal by wearing a skirt. I can wear a skirt and not be considered a bad person.
I'm still a woman. Yes, she can. Yes, and you look absolutely beautiful.
Thank you, Drew.
I want to go to Robert Siciliano, our security expert, again. What do you have to say about this? Was it too aggressive for her to do the smoothie? Was it—
what do you think? Well, first of all, I think you're fantastic. You are a shining example of what an empowered woman is. Yes. And I think everybody— the key to what you did was you were aware of your surroundings. An attacker's tool of trade— and I call this pervert an attacker because that's what he did. He attacked your personal comfort zone. An attacker's tool of trade is the element of surprise. And you didn't allow that. You were paying attention to the area around your body. While he may have gotten close to you, you still sensed, you paid attention to your intuition. You were aware of the surroundings of your body, and so you were able to spot what he did, and you were able to thwart him. You didn't let him follow through with it. You didn't just sit back as a victim. You took control of that situation.
Which is fantastic. And you know, making the noise and getting people to see, you hear that all the time. No, stop! But you actually did it, and to hear the story is amazing. Right now, Do you have any fear of certain men or cameras or—
Right after the incident, I saw another man with a camera as I was walking out the zoo. And I was— my heart started pounding and pounding, but I'm like, no, it's okay. You know, I can't live my life in fear.
Yeah.
You know, that's why I said I'm a fighter. I keep going.
And I'm so happy that you got this man arrested because when they opened up his video camera, he had been upskirting women all day. There were dozens of skirts that he was upskirting. But he's on the loose right now, so hopefully, especially with us showing his damn picture, we'll find him. All right, we'll be right back.
