A metro Phoenix business owner is accused of harassing a woman and calling the Department of Child Safety on her because she left a one-star review regarding his services.
Frank Anthony Esquibel of Diamondback Security Cameras was arrested in April on suspicion of felony stalking after he repeatedly sent anonymous messages to Victoria Valdez and taunted her about a year after she publicly shared her dissatisfaction with the job he did installing security cameras at her Tolleson home, according to police records and an interview.
Valdez said she learned during the investigation that she wasn't the first woman who had complained to police about Esquibel.
Complaints have also been filed about the 59-year-old with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, a state regulatory agency for contractor licensing. Two were filed over five years ago, while one was filed within the past year, according to the agency. Esquibel also lacks a contractor license, which the state requires, according to the agency.
People are also reading…
Esquibel installed Valdez's cameras in September 2024. But, according to her, the process was not smooth.
Weeks after the installation, Valdez said in a Google review that the installation took over a week because Esquibel kept canceling, refused to repair a hole he left in her ceiling, and left wiring exposed outside her house. The camera footage was also very pixelated and looked like the video game Minecraft, Valdez said, and Esquibel was rude, untruthful and would scream.
A Phoenix area business owner has been arrested on suspicion of harassing a woman and calling the Department of Child Safety on her because she left bad review for services.
Esquibel fired back. He called her property a health hazard and said she should be lucky he even did the job. He claimed he had to throw away his clothes and said it was no wonder her neighbors hated her.
She didn't respond and thought that was the end of it with Esquibel.
Over a year later, a DCS employee reached out to Valdez, saying the agency received a complaint that her home was dirty and unlivable for her children. The remarks were nearly verbatim of Esquibel's response to Valdez's online review, according to police records.
DCS had to visit her home three times to interview Valdez's children because not all of them were home during the first visit, according to police records. Throughout this time, Valdez received texts from an unknown number asking if she received a couple of visitors and asking how the visits went.
"It was really creepy," Valdez told The Arizona Republic. After putting the pieces together, she said she figured it had to be Esquibel because of the similar verbiage between the DCS complaint and the response to her online review, and she felt he had access to her camera system, which would show when DCS left her home.
"The only thing that I can think of is that he's in my cameras," Valdez said. "Because how else would he know?"
Valdez reported her issues with Esquibel to Phoenix police in November. Investigators spoke with the DCS case worker and learned that everything was fine within Valdez's home, according to police records. The worker told police they were concerned for Valdez, who showed the worker the text messages she received.
After obtaining permission, the DCS worker shared with investigators that Esquibel had submitted the complaint, according to police records. She told police Esquibel left her a message complaining that DCS was not keeping him updated about the status of the case against Valdez, police records said, and threatened to contact higher authorities if they did not share that information with him.
The case worker told Esquibel that the case was closed in November, which he was "not at all pleased with," according to police records.
Valdez said a Phoenix detective told her there were multiple police filings against Esquibel for similar issues. Investigators also said in police records that he had a history of using fake phone numbers to harass women when he had an issue with them.
While the case moved along, Esquibel sent another message to Valdez in February: "See? That's what happens."
She doesn't know what he meant by it.
Esquibel was arrested on April 14 and, according to police records, told investigators that he called DCS on Valdez in retaliation for her online review. He also told police he sent her numerous messages, taunted her after each DCS visit and left a message with DCS, according to the records.
Valdez said the whole experience was scary for her family. She felt like a bad parent with DCS showing up, and, because she believes Esquibel has access to her cameras, she felt like she was constantly watched.
"It's scary that something being used as protection is being weaponized by the very person who installed them," she said.
Valdez said she wants to tear the cameras down. But she worries that might push Esquibel to escalate things further, or if he decides to show up at her house, she won't have the video footage to prove it. It's a catch-22, she said.
Esquibel did not return phone calls or emails requesting comment.
