BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Students at Western Washington University are on edge after a female student who was showering spotted a peeping Tom in her residence hall.
“You kind of just don’t think you’re going to take a shower and somebody’s going to invade your personal privacy,” student Roshae Lowe, who received a text alert about the incident, said.
The unidentified student was showering in the Ridgeway Alpha residence hall just after 10 a.m.
She told police she saw the man’s hand, which was holding a cellphone, come up over the top of the shower curtain.
When she yelled at the man, he took off.
A text alert went out across the campus Monday afternoon.
“Understandably, she was shaken up,” University Police Chief Darin Rasmussen said, “but we’ve given her support.”
He said he could not recall any other incident like this since he first joined the police department in December 2012.
“It’s scary,” Emma Noel, who lives in the same dorm, said. “Like, it could have happened to me because I was going to take a shower at some point.”
Students told KIRO 7 they have sets of keys that get them into dorms in the cluster.
“That guy could live in my dorm,” Lowe said. “I don’t know, he could come into our side of the bathroom and do that too. It puts everyone on edge, especially the female population.”
KIRO 7 also discovered there are no surveillance cameras at the dorms. University Police said they will be patrolling as usual and are asking students to keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior.
“Maybe I’ll just take a buddy to the bathroom to me… while I take a shower, ‘Can you just stand there?’” Noel said.
She wondered if the voyeur has done the same thing before.
“How many pictures does he have?” Noel asked. “Like, maybe he’s got lots and we just don’t know?”
KIRO 7 asked police about the hand and whether it looked like it belonged to a student or someone older. Police said they are not releasing any specific details at this time.
The man is still at large. If you have any information about this incident, call the University Police at 360-650-3555.
KIRO
