A Palmerston North Number One Shoe employee has been arrested after allegedly taking candid photos of co-workers and customers before performing sex acts with their shoes.
In a series of documented incidents, the employee allegedly sniffed and spat and performed sex acts in workers' shoes and posted the evidence on an online foot fetish forum.
According to Newshub, the employee had been posting numerous photos, with one titled 'Workmate's Converse in work locker'.
One of his alleged victims was aged just 15.
In January 2021 he allegedly photographed himself performing a sex act in the colleague's shoes, according to Newshub.
Other material continued to surface in which he discussed the smell of the shoes and what he intended to do to the shoes, while posting further images of his sexual acts with the shoes.
Some of his posts also contained images of his alleged victims, including faces, either in the store or in the breakroom, it is claimed.
A number of posts detailed female customers' looks, ages, and a description of their shoes.
"As you may imagine from time to time there are some pretty sexy experiences - my favourite is when hot girls leave their shoes lying around as they walk across the store to get other shoes," he wrote in one post.
"I don't want to get too crazy (I don't want to lose my job) but am open to ideas!"
Other posts detailed similar alleged incidents where he performed sexual acts inside the shoes and uploaded them to the fetish forum.
Newshub claim in March a post on the man's fetish profile discussed how he followed a "fit" woman home and returned to her house the next day before sniffing and spitting in her shoes.
Newshub claim the employee's behaviour came to light after a woman in Germany who sells clothes online noticed photos of second-hand clothing were appearing on shoe fetish sites.
She eventually managed to identify the workplace and the 15-year-old co-worker from a photo taken of her locker which included a document with her full name.
The woman told Newshub saying she had to speak up fearing the man could continue to do this to others without consequences.
The man has been arrested and the matter is before the courts, police confirmed.
The 23-year-old was arrested in April and charged with two counts of offensive behaviour and theft.
The alleged offending started in December 2020.
He is currently on bail and will reappear on May 25.
