INDECENT EXPOSER PROWLING WOMEN
A video and photo circulating on Facebook capture the image of a man in the Fifth Avenue Mall downtown on Sunday, who appears to be peering over the stall into the next stall in the women’s restroom. In the video, the man then exits the restroom
Anchorage Police are asking for anyone who has information about this man and the incident to contact police on the non-emergency dispatch number 3-1-1, option 1. The case number is 18-14195.
Earlier Sunday, police were contacted by a woman who reported that while praying at Holy Family Cathedral, she could sense someone had walked up behind her in the small prayer room. She smelled a foul odor and turned around to see a man standing with his pants and underwear pulled down below his knees, genitals exposed.
“The victim stated the suspect also had some type of object in his right hand that she believed may have been a weapon although she could not specifically identify what it was. The victim fled; she and the suspect did not make physical contact,” the report from Anchorage Police Department said. The man was described as black male in his early 30s, approximately 5’7” tall, and possibly homeless.
The photo released by the police has at least some resemblance to the man photographed in the women’s bathroom in the mall, which is just a few blocks away. The hat, shirt, vest, jacket, pants, and shoes are all similar to the video shown here.
Although the incident in the church may be a crime of indecent exposure, there is no evidence that anything can be done about the man in the women’s restroom.
With Prop. 1 passing with voters during the recent municipal election, men are entitled to enter women’s restrooms in Anchorage and may not be confronted without causing a possible civil rights lawsuit against the complainant. It’s unlikely that the city can prove the man was doing anything wrong — although the woman who recorded him said he was masturbating while watching a woman use the toilet.
