Girl Startled by Peeper in Ballston Restaurant Bathroom

Columns

by Katie Pyzyk July 31, 2012 at 3:45 pm 6,025 45 Comments

Police are looking for a man caught peeping in a women’s bathroom, and he may be a repeat offender.

According to police, a juvenile female was using the restroom in a restaurant at the Ballston mall last night (Monday) when she saw an odd shadow on the ground. She reportedly looked up to see a man peeping over her stall. The girl reports the man then ducked into a stall, because she could see his feet as she left.

The girl, who is visiting from Ireland, left the restroom and told the 19-year-old woman and 22-year-old man she was with what had just happened. According to police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck, the woman and man then found the suspect and confronted him. He claimed to have been confused about which restroom he had been in.

Although it’s not certain that this is the same man who has been reported in two other indecent incidents recently, it appears there are similarities. He’s described as a white male in his 50s, with grayish-brownish hair to his shoulders. At the time of last night’s incident, he was described as wearing a light colored button down shirt over a darker colored shirt, with baggy blue jeans and black and white sneakers.

“He does have some similarities to the previous offender,” said Sternbeck. “If this is the same person, he’s been frequently engaging in crimes of this nature, whether exposures or peeping. We want to get him into custody immediately.”

As with the previous incidents, there was a lag between the time of the incident and reporting it to police. Police ask any victims or witnesses of these types of crimes to report them immediately to increase the chances of the suspect being caught. Confronting the suspect is not recommended because it’s unknown if he may try to inflict harm.

bum

What’s with these peeps?
- John Fontain
  
  Hope they catch these perps!
Pablo

Amazing. People actually going into the Ballston mall.
- Tabby_TwoTone
  
  Visitors from Ireland. Didn’t know any better. Or maybe they were going to the movies.
  
  Poor girl.
  
  I am getting ideas for next year’s Washington Post Peeps contest though.
  - Zelora
    
    +1
PikerGirl

For continuing problems like this, policewomen need to set up a sting in the women’s Ballston bathrooms similar to what police did to catch Senator Larry “Wide Stance” Craig.
Bad joker

There’s a joke in here somewhere about corned beef, but I’m not gonna make it.
Duder3

“Oh, I’m sorry, miss. I was looking for Ireland’s Four Courts.”
SomeGuy

Isn’t this person just an “alleged” or “accused” peeper at this point?
- B Div
  
  No, whoever did this actually did it.
  
  They haven’t caught or named anyone.
  
  You don’t need the ‘alleged’ until you’re accusing somebody specifically.
  - SomeGuy
    
    She alleges he’s a peeper. He alleges she’s mistaken and that it’s a misunderstanding (confusion). A “peeping” was reported to police, but I don’t think we can say for sure whether a criminal peeping took place.
    - DCBuff
      
      “Criminal peeping?” That would be a legal term, right?
      - SomeGuy
        
        I don’t know what the exact legal charge would be. It’s not relevant to the original question though, so I didn’t feel the need to use precision legalese.
    - Greg
      
      Come on. I’ve accidentally walked into a women’s room before but I sure as hell didnt go into a stall and then look over into someone else’s. Heck, you wouldn’t do that if you were in the correct bathroom.
      
      They need to catch this guy soon — I’ve seen enough crime shows to know it doesn’t usually end at peeping at someone sitting on a toilet.
      - awesomepossom
        
        The point being that she could be lying. She alleges someone did this.
      - R0bespierre
        
        http://i.imgur.com/Hge2i.png
    - B Div
      
      She alleges *who* is a peeper? *Who* alleges she’s mistaken?
      
      There isn’t anyone accused.
      - SomeGuy
        
        The suspect in the alleged peeping incident.
      - B Div
        
        What suspect? They haven’t identified anyone yet.
      - SomeGuy
        
        Are you suggesting that law enforcement can’t describe or refer to a suspect until they know his name? This very article refers to an unknown man as a suspect 3 times. And he is “described as a white male in his 50s, with grayish-brownish hair to his shoulders….” He is suspected of peeping, but that doesn’t make him a peeper.
        
        You’re not making sense, B Div.
      - B Div
        
        No, I’m suggesting that you don’t need to pussyfoot around ‘alleging’ things until you have a name.
        
        The mystery man *is* a peeper. Not allegedly.
        
        If they catch some white dude with grayish-brown hair, *then* there will be a suspect, and he will be the *alleged* peeper.
        
        He may or may not be the peeper.
        
        But someone is.
        
        See what I’m saying?
      - SomeGuy
        
        I see what you’re saying. And I disagree with it.
        
        This girl alleges that a peeping took place, therefore the suspect is a suspected/alleged peeper. According to this report, there’s no evidence to support a peeping except this girl’s allegation, which is why the statement that a peeper is on the loose is not necessarily true. She could be making the whole thing up or just completely mistaken, in which case she was not actually “Startled by peeper.” More like “..startled by suspected peeper.”
      - B Div
        
        But if she is lying then surely there is no-one to suspect.
        
        If you go into a public bathroom and open an occupied stall, believing it to be empty, and see somebdy on the throne, there could be some debate about intent. But if you climb up and look over…
        
        so either we have a peeper, or we have a lying girl.
        
        Hard to believe she’s lying though.
      - SomeGuy
        
        There is a person mentioned in this report who is a peeping suspect. If a peeping did NOT occur, then we’ll no longer suspect him, but for now he’s a “suspect.” If evidence shows that it did occur, he’ll be arrested, and will continue to be the “suspected” or “alleged” peeper until he’s convicted. In both cases, he’s a suspect in a crime that she’s alleging.
        
        Your statement that “The mystery man *is* a peeper” is false if either he wasn’t peeping in a criminal manner or if he’s a figment of her imagination. And all of these things are “alleged” to have happened whether there’s a “suspect” identified or not.
        
        We’re getting way deeper into nitpicky semantics than I’d hoped. I stand by my original comment that suggested this is an “alleged” peeping and the police report describes a “suspected” peeper.
Tre

So they confronted the guy and then let him go???
- WeiQiang
  
  No one thought to take a phone pic?
Frank Sinatra

Jeepers creepers Where’d you get those peepers?
bobco85

What idiots! The suspect was right there in the bathroom, and they could have called the police immediately to have this pervert arrested. They could have let the servers know not to let any other women go into the bathroom, or taken a cell phone picture of the guy. And now, this guy is free to do this again. I really wish they hadn’t waited whatever amount of time they did that this guy used to escape.
- brian
  
  does their foreign phone work here? international plan?
  
  what’s 9-1-1?
- Josh S
  
  Hindsight: 20/20.
  
  Armchair quarterbacking: so easy, anyone can do it.
  
  Anonymous internet comment threads: brings out the critic in everyone, shown to reduce levels of empathy hormones by 42%.
- B Div
  
  Very easy to talk the big talk when you’re not involved.
  
  How would they stop him from leaving? Wrestle him to the ground? They would most likely get in more trouble than the peeper.
  Also, it sounds like they’re foreigners — would you go full vigilante if you were abroad? You would have no idea what the repercussions would be.
  Take a cellphone pic? Quickest way to scare the perp, get your phone taken from you by the now desperate peeper, and possibly get injured in the process.
  - Ryan
    
    OMG they’re foreigners; from Ireland! You make it sound like they just climbed out of the Rift Valley.
    - B Div
      
      So if you were in Dublin you’d be totally comfortable sitting on some guys chest until local law enforcement eventually arrives, with an upset child crying beside you?
      
      Sure you would.
      - Ryan
        
        I’m pretty sure peeping at a juvenile in a public bathroom is universally considered morally reprehensible. At least in every western country I have visited. In Ireland, I would probably get some help from quite a few outraged citizens once they saw what was going on.
        
        Now, if you argument is about being too chicken squat to try and detain somebody by force, that’s a valid issue that you can wrestle with yourself about. I guess I can see you felt the need to bring up the “foreigners!” argument as a crutch, but it doesn’t matter what country you are in, dbag should not have made it out of the mall.
      - B Div
        
        Of course my argument is about being too “chicken squat” to detain somebody by force.
        
        I, and most other normal people who don’t think they’re living in an action movie, would hesitate to do it — if you think otherwise you are deluding yourself.
        
        If I was a visitor to another country I would be even more hesitant. Who wants to spend their vacation in a courthouse?
        Or hospital, because all Americans have guns, everybody knows that…
j

what restaurant?
beeline

I was eating at Rock Bottom around 9:15 last nite and saw a bunch of cops going in and out of Union Jack’s and saw a young lady being questioned by an officer as we left right around 9:30. Didn’t think much of it until now, but I’m going to assume she may have been the girl in this story.
- Peeper
  
  Surely he’d do better at Lyon Hall?
- Tabby_TwoTone
  
  Or her older friend.
  - brian
    
    were they cute?
Jimbo

Northern Arlington. Figures.
- awesomepossom
  
  Crips in the south, creeps in the north.
South Awwlington

You know what happens to these creeps in the lock up…
Cynthia

I agreeith you 100% bobco85. Take a damn picture I am sure someone had a cell phone.
novasteve

Hopefully this guy will stay out of ARlington.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181968/The-skirt-pervert-Moment-brazen-peeping-tom-leaned-photograph-mothers-dress.html

Subscribe to our mailing list