Door-to-Door Tree Trimmer Arrested for Alleged 'Peeping' in Palo Alto

A door-to-door solicitor was arrested Thursday for suspected peeping after he repeatedly harassed a female resident, made a lewd comment, and then came onto her property and looked into her windows, according to the Palo
Alto Police Department.

Police booked 20-year-old Carlos Alfredo Bejinez, a resident of East Palo Alto, into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for misdemeanor peeping, misdemeanor driving with a suspended license, and a felony probation violation. 

At about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, a Palo Alto woman called police to report a suspicious man was at her home on the 1100 block of Channing Avenue.

The victim, in her 20s, was cleaning out her car in her driveway when the suspect approached her on foot, police said.
  
He said he was a tree-trimmer and offered his services, but she declined, encouraging him to speak with her landlord.

The suspect followed her down her driveway, and claimed there was a dangerous tree on her property that needed to be trimmed. When she again instructed him to talk to her landlord, he left, police said.

A few minutes later, he returned to her driveway and tried to engage her in conversation again -- asking her age and telling her that she was dressed provocatively, according to the report. 

The victim went inside her home to get away from him. The suspect left but returned again a short time later, this time knocking on the door of her residence and peering inside through the windows when no one answered.
  
He left but returned still again, and when the victim’s nanny answered the door, the man made a lewd comment directed at the victim, police said.

The nanny asked the suspect to leave and he did. The victim called police for assistance. 

Officers learned that the suspect had left a business card with the victim upon their initial contact.

An officer called the suspect, posing as someone who was interested in a tree-trimming estimate, and asked him to meet them in the 1000 block of Channing Avenue.

At about 5:53 p.m., officers observed the suspect drive up to the area in his white 1993 Ford Ranger pick-up truck, and they placed him under arrest for peeping (a misdemeanor, committed when someone loiters upon the private property of another and peeks in the window of an inhabited building).

The suspect also was driving on a suspended license, and also on probation in San Mateo County for purchasing or receiving a firearm while prohibited from doing so by a court order, police said. 

Police ask that anyone with information about this incident or suspect call the 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413.

Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.