Southwest Miami-Dade "Peeping Tom" suspect taken into custody
THE HAMMOCKS - A man accused of spying on unsuspecting women through their windows in a southwest Miami-Dade community has been arrested.
"Well, it's about time that did happen. He's been running here all over the neighborhood," Terry Burns told CBS News Miami/
According to Miami-Dade police, over the course of several months, their Hammocks district received numerous reports of burglaries and peeping tom cases in the Country Walk neighborhood.
"We were just fortunate that this was occurring outside. Imagine if this person is capable of doing such things, we don't want to even imagine what he could have done to a physical person if a person would have gone out to their backyard," said Miami-Dade Police Detective Argemis Colome.
The first reported incident happened on May 12. A 58-year-old woman reported that she was inside her home on SW 151 Lane when she noticed a man, later identified as 26-year-old Yoel Antonio Setien Martinez by police, standing inside her locked fenced backyard committing a sex act as he looked at her. When she looked at him, he ran off.
In September, there were two more incidents. In one, a woman said was in her home on SW 151 Lane when she noticed a man, later identified as Setien, inside her locked fenced yard. She said when she looked at him, he made a motion for her to open her legs. He then ran off.
In the second incident, a 39-year-old woman told police she was inside her two-story residence on SW 151 Lane when she observed a man, later identified as Setien, standing on the roof looking into her window. When he noticed her looking at him, he ran off. Police noted that he had to enter a locked fenced backyard to access the roof.
In October there were two more similar incidents. In one, he reportedly pulled his pants down and exposed himself. On the other, on Oct. 22, police said a 61-year-old woman was getting dressed when she noticed him standing on a roof looking at her through a window. According to police, he knocked on it to get her attention and then "left an unknown bodily fluid on the window," according to the arrest report.
The woman told police that there had been five more incidents involving the same guy, but he was peeping on her daughters who are 16 and 10 years old.
Police canvassed the area looking for the man based on the description provided by the woman. A short time later, Setien was spotted walking on SW 142 Avenue near SW152 Street. When he noticed the police, he reportedly took off running. Several officers gave chase but were unable to catch him.
On the evening of Nov. 14, detectives spotted Setien kneeling in the bushes looking into another residence in the neighborhood, according to police. The officers rushed in and took him into custody.
During questioning, Setien admitted to entering multiple fenced backyards and staring at women through their windows, as well as exposing himself, according to police. He was then placed under arrest.
Setien is facing multiple counts including voyeurism, indecent exposure, burglary and resisting arrest without violence.
Colome told CBS News Miami that police were relieved by the arrest. He credited the Hammocks District detectives for "countless hours" working on this case.
"They kept receiving burglary calls from people about someone going into backyards and being a Peeping Tom and someone who kept breaking through fences and jumping fences and going through bushes and looking through windows and pleasuring himself," Colome said.
"You have an individual who was going out there and doing this and we are just fortunate that this happened outside. But imagine, if this person is capable of doing such things we don't want to imagine what would have happened to someone if they went out into their backyards."
Colome said there are at least 10 victims and he said, "We ask anybody else who didn't report this before but who may have been a victim to report this. He is facing at least 10 burglary counts and 10 voyeurism counts."
Neighbors also said they were relieved.
"It's about time this did happen. This guy was running around here and all over the neighborhood. He has been sneaky," Terry Burns said.
"We are very happy that this person has been arrested. The message is that we should all look out for each other. I am sure he was caught because the neighbors were looking out for him," said Pam Chin, who has lived in Country Walk since 1989.
Off camera, one victim told CBS News Miami that she too was relieved that an arrest had been made.