News from the Palo Alto Police Department:
A man entered a women’s public restroom at the Cubberley Community Center last night, used a cell phone to take a picture of a woman while she was in a stall, and ran away. The suspect is at large.
On Thursday, July 17, at about 8:04 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a woman at the Cubberley Community Center at 4000 Middlefield Road reporting that a man had just taken a picture of her while she was in a bathroom stall.
Officers responded to the area but were unable to locate the suspect.
The investigation revealed that the victim, a woman in her twenties, had entered a public restroom in the “A” wing of the community center.
The restroom was empty and she went into a bathroom stall.
A short time later, she noticed another person enter the restroom and enter the stall immediately next to her. She could see that the person was wearing men’s hiking boots and jeans. The suspect then held a cell phone underneath the dividing wall between the two stalls and appeared to take a picture of her while she was seated on the toilet.
The victim yelled at him and the suspect immediately ran out of the restroom. By the time the victim went outside, the suspect had run approximately 40 yards away towards the main gymnasium. The victim immediately called the police.
The victim described the suspect as a man in his twenties, possibly either white or Asian. She said he was between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall, between 150 and 160 pounds, and had a medium build.
He had straight, collar-length brown hair. He was wearing a black zippered hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and brown hiking boots.
No sketch of the suspect will be forthcoming.
Detectives are working on the case. There have been no similar crimes recently in Palo Alto, nor in neighboring jurisdictions of which we are aware at this point.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously through our free mobile app, downloadable atbit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
