Geek Squad Technician Charged With Child Molestation While on a House Call

Sometimes it is difficult to invite a stranger into your home to repair your computer. I often tell new Schrock Innovations on-site technicians to make certain they pay attention to their surroundings and try to make the home owner feel comfortable with their visit.

For example, if the home owner is not wearing shoes inside, take your shoes off at the door. If the door was locked when you arrived, lock it again when you come back in from a trip to the vehicle. But it appears that one Best Buy Geek Squad technician was paying more attention to his surroundings that he should have been.

A civil lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday against Best Buy alleging that while Geek Squad technician Hao Kuo Chi was repairing the family’s computer, he secretly recorded the daughter of his female customer as she showered.

When Chi arrived around 10 AM, he asked to use the restroom and left his phone behind. While the technician was fixing the family’s computer, his cell phone video camera was recording Sarah Vasquez disrobing and showering in her own bathroom.

After exiting the shower, Vasquez noticed the blinking recording light on the phone. She enlisted the help of her tech-savvy little sister to remove the phone’s memory chip and take it to the closest cellular phone store to see what was on it. Shocked and embarrassed, the girls called their mother who was still at the home with Chi, as he was finishing up his repairs.

At the conclusion of the repair, Chi went to the restroom to retrieve his phone and noticed the missing memory card. After he questioned the girls’ mother about the missing card, he offered her a discount on her repair work if she would just give him the card back.

As Chi attempted to leave the home, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies arrived and arrested him on the scene. He is charged with two counts of invasion of privacy and one count of child molestation. Best Buy learned of the incident from media reports and said they would cooperate fully with the investigation.

It is really too bad for Best Buy that they are going to get tarred and feathered because of one pervert. I can’t even imagine the angst I would feel if I had hired this guy to come to my home for a computer repair the day before his arrest. While this behavior is probably not indicative of all or even some of Best Buy’s technicians, Best Buy and the Geek Squad are going to take a public relations hit on this one.

I don’t think this situation will slow the growth of the in-home computer repair business in the coming years, but it may cause some people to think twice about who they hire to work in their homes.

I personally interview every on-site technician that Schrock Innovations hires to do repair work in our customers’ homes. If I don’t feel that they are of sound moral character, I do not hire them. Granted, I could always judge a person wrong, but god willing, I won’t hire a scumbag like this guy.