Suspected Peeping Tom Caught On Video Terrifies Staten Island Family
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police say the man in shown in a surveillance video in pajama pants walked through a family's backyard and plastered his face to the window, looking in right in front of the residents' security camera in the Willowbrook section of Staten Island.
On Jan. 3, between 6 and 10 p.m., a man allegedly walked onto a 64-year-old woman's property multiple times and peered into her windows at her home in the area of Canterbury and Dreyer Avenues.
"It's frightening," said a 65-year-old woman CBS2 is only identifying as "Mary," recounting one of the most disturbing nights of her life to CBS2's Scott Rapoport.
"I have no idea why someone would do that," she said about a peeping Tom who came onto her property and started peering into her windows.
Police say they're searching for a man wanted for questioning in the case. He's described as a white man, approximately 20 to 30 years old, with a medium build, last seen wearing a black jacket with fur trim, blue jeans, black shoes and dark-colored glasses.
"Oh, I felt so violated, not knowing if this person was going to break into the house," said Mary. "Not knowing if he was a pedophile, a peeping Tom."
Additional surveillance video Mary gave CBS2 shows him at the house, leaving and coming back again and again. Mary says the suspect did it four times that night between the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
She says the last time the suspect came face to face with her older daughter who was looming out the window right at him.
"And she just ran up the stairs, screaming to alert her father and I," she said.
Now she is hoping someone will recognize the suspect and that he will be caught.
But she says even that won't restore what she has lost.
"It's robbed us of a sense of security knowing that someone can actually come into you backyard, and not have any fear of doing that," said Mary.
The homeowner says she does not know who the suspect is, but that he has been seen by her family and neighbors in the area on his bicycle.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting them to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.