San Diego police arrested an alleged nighttime prowler in the College Area this week, while investigators say they are still searching for a second suspect from a similar peeping incident last year.
Police received a report around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday from a woman who said that a man was in her backyard on Adobe Drive near East Falls View Drive, said Lt. Daniel Meyer in a news release Thursday.
According to the caller, the man was hiding in a concealed area that allowed him to look through the bedroom window and sliding glass door of the victim’s home.
As officers approached, the prowler ran away. He began to hop fences and run through multiple yards, Meyer said.
Within two minutes of the original call going out, a police helicopter was overhead and tracking the man’s escape. A suspect was eventually arrested in the canyon behind the neighborhood.
The woman said it was the third time in a week that she had seen the man prowling around her yard. She handed doorbell camera footage from one of the previous alleged incidents on Feb. 12 over to detectives.
The man was booked on suspicion of peeping and obstructing/resisting a peace officer. His age and description were not immediately available Thursday.
A second suspected prowler, who has not been found, is wanted in connection with a report in December on Dorothy Drive, less than a mile away from this week’s incident. On Dec. 28 around 1:55 a.m., officers responded to a report that a man was watching a woman shower through her window.
At some point, the man picked up a security camera in her backyard and examined it, Meyer said. The residents then saw the man and confronted him. The prowler ran away barefoot, carrying his shoes.
An alleged nighttime prowler is filmed by a security camera on Dec. 28 at a home on Dorothy Drive near Campanile Drive.
(Courtesy of the San Diego Police Department)
That suspect is described as 30 to 40 years old with a shaved head, muscular build, tattoo on his left forearm and appeared to be wearing studded earrings, police said. Detectives said he had also been captured on the home’s security camera the night prior.
It was not immediately clear Thursday if the incidents in the two neighborhoods were connected. No other information was immediately available.
Investigators asked anyone with information about the prowler to call Eastern Division at (858) 495-7900 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
