Police: Man found spying on woman, 7-year-old daughter in swim club shower

BELLEVUE, Wash. — A 23-year-old man was arrested after a woman said she discovered him holding a phone under a curtain at a Bellevue swim club as she and her 7-year-old daughter showered.

The incident happened at Samena Swim and Recreation Club on the afternoon of April 14.

According to probable cause documents, a 54-year-old woman and her daughter were showering in the locker room when the woman thought she heard someone in another shower but heard no water running.  When she looked down, she saw a hand holding an iPhone under the shower curtain and then saw a man sitting on a bench next to the shower with a phone in his hand.

The woman told police she grabbed a towel to cover herself, grabbed the phone out of the man’s hand and then chased him out of the locker room.  Pool staff detained the man and held the cellphone until Bellevue police arrived.

An officer who spoke with the suspect, David Wingard of Bellevue, said Wingard told her he had been in the locker room but that it was by accident and he was afraid he’d get in trouble if seen leaving, so he stayed.  He said he put his phone by the shower and that the woman got angry when she saw him and took his phone.

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A second officer asked Wingard if he could view the files on his phone, and Wingard agreed. The officer found no pictures or video of the woman or her daughter.

The officer then talked to the adult victim, who said she wasn’t surprised there were no photos or video. She said she believed Wingard didn’t have time to start recording video and was using phone’s camera screen to see up the curtain like a mirror.

The first officer resumed speaking with Wingard, who told her, “I did something bad.” He said he didn’t take any video because his phone was in “picture mode” and was using it to “spy” on the people on the other side of the curtain, court documents said. He told the officer he knew it was “stupid” and “wrong,” and that he’d done it twice before, probable cause documents said.

He was then arrested.

Wingard was charged with first-degree voyeurism.

Cox Media Group