Tagged

From the creep files:
I took a call from a grocery store manager when a customer found a pornographic photograph on the windshield of her car. She had kids with her and was apalled at the act.

I arrived at the store and was met by the loss prevention agent (a guy in plain clothes that catches shoplifters). The agent gave me the Poloroid photo below (I placed a plastic bag over the 'sensitive' part to reduce the disgust level.)

He told me this was the 3rd time in the past few weeks this type of photo has been left on a female shopper's car. He added he worked at a grocery store of the same chain a few miles away that was the victim of this same thing a few months ago. The pervert left several graphic photos inside that store hidden among food products and magazines. They were never able to catch the guy.

Nobody saw this guy place the picture on the woman's car so I took down the information I needed for my report and headed back to my patrol car outside. As I was leaving the store a teenage boy walked up and said, "Officer, I'm not sure what you're here for but there's an old guy in the store taking pictures of women with his cell phone camera." I asked the boy to show me where this was happening and he lead me to an aisle and pointed to a 60 year old man.

I walked quietly up to the man from behind and peered over his shoulder as he slowly shuffled forward while leaning over his shopping cart and held a cell phone in camera mode. I followed him halfway down the aisle and then asked him to stop. He turned around with a surpised look and a nervous smile. He told me he didn't know how to take pictures and was just trying to pull up the shopping list he programmed into it. He was unable to show me this list, however, and seemed uncomfortable to be talking to me.

I took down his information and returned to my patrol car to run a records check on him. His name and birthdate information checked out and he had no criminal record. I was about to leave and decided to take one more look at the photograph in my pocket. All I could see was a white male, a white male's junk, and a pair of grey sweatpants with a red and blue tag. Ding!!: The guy I just talked to was wearing grey sweatpants so I reentered the store to talk to him again. I found him exiting the main door and asked to see the tag inside his pants. He showed me the red and blue tag that matched perfectly to the photgraph. I also learned he moved to the area a few months ago and used to live near the other victimized store.

I showed him the photo and pointed out the matching pants and tag. He denied it was him and started acting even more nervous. Because the photo didn't show his face (and I wasn't about to ask him to drop his drawers for comparison check), I didn't have enough evidence to arrest him. I made it very clear, however, I knew it was him and told him I'd be at his door the next time any kind of photo showed up at any store. The store manager had him trespassed from the property so he's never allowed to return. They were also going to pull video surveillance from the other store to see if they could match him to those incidents. I knew the creep was getting off easy and wished I could have done something more to get him off the steets.