West Seattle Crime Watch: Flasher reported in Admiral area

| Crime | West Seattle news

Reader report – a flasher exposing himself to girls in the Admiral area:

At 3:15 today, my 13-year-old daughter and her friend were walking home from Hiawatha and spotted a silver SUV parked on SW Stevens street with its driver door open. As they were walking the man inside exposed himself to the girls and took off in his car. As they rounded the corner, he was there again, this time in the middle of the street with no pants on, masturbating and laughing at the girls. They ran home and we called the police and filed a report right away. He is approximately 5’9, large frame, scruffy looking with brown hair and wearing a red t-shirt. He was last seen driving north on 38th in a 2000s silver SUV. Please alert readers in the area to be on the lookout and to call police right away if they spot anyone matching this description.

7:05 PM UPDATE: We asked the person who reported this if there were any other description/location details; for the former, white, “short, scruffy brown hair and shadow of a beard”; for the latter, “he was on 39th SW and SW Stevens to start and ended up getting out of the car on 38th SW and SW Stevens heading toward Lander when he got out of the car.”

WS Dad July 15, 2014 (6:21 pm)

Plate number or partial? Dads… we really need to to catch these guys and “deal” with the problem.

JanS July 15, 2014 (6:23 pm)

oh, nice..just what we need in the neighborhood. I’m so sorry they experienced that :(

Do we have an approximate age, I wonder. Will keep my eyes open…that’s near me..

Case July 15, 2014 (6:54 pm)

Momoftwoboys July 15, 2014 (8:01 pm)

How disturbing and disgusting. I am so sorry those young girls had to witness such an awful sight.

blanchus July 15, 2014 (8:16 pm)

You know on my walk home I saw a guy who caught my attention looking in the back door of that gymnastics studio near Hiawatha (next to Lafayette). I figured he was a parent – probably was – but now that I read this story I think I will notify the police as the guy matched the description. It was about 5:30 pm. Ugh, you hate to be suspicious of everyone but…

Mike July 15, 2014 (8:52 pm)

WS Dad, agreed. There’s one way to cure that problem too.
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blanchus, please do report it to SPD. I’m sure they’d appreciate any additional info to follow up on, even if you’re not 100% sure, it might lead to video surveillance footage around that time they can compare to report details of this person.
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Sorry these kids saw this creep. I’m happy they reported it.

Seattlite July 15, 2014 (9:31 pm)

Dads and moms there is a KC Sheriff site that lists all the sex offenders that live in your designated area. I think if enter your zip code the sex offender list will display.

BMC July 15, 2014 (9:48 pm)

And here is the sorry lot of sex offenders in our area or sorry for us….16 of them in a 2 mile radius of 2700 California.

http://www.icrimewatch.net/results.php?AgencyID=54473&whichaddr=home_addr|temp_addr&SubmitAddrSearch=1&AddrStreet=2700+California+Ave+SW&AddrCity=Seattle&AddrState=48&AddrZip=98126&AddrZipPlus=&excludeIncarcerated=&radius=2

anonyme July 15, 2014 (9:50 pm)

I think there needs to be more education for this age group in regard to this problem. Kids this age aren’t stupid. Instead of focusing on what the perv wants them to focus on, prep them to look at the license plate instead.

CeceM July 15, 2014 (10:28 pm)

Maybe this guy and his ilk can take some advice from rapper Andre Johnson who recently SEVERED “it” during a bad drug trip because “it” was the root of all his problems.

dsa July 15, 2014 (11:13 pm)

Anonyme is on to a good idea with the license plate thing. Another would be to, dare I say it? Take his picture. Even pretending to take a picture might scare him off for good.

Marty Kiley July 16, 2014 (8:44 am)

There is nothing that frightens a criminal more than a camera.
It is especially helpful to get a picture of the license plate!
I understand this takes a minute, and forces the children to look longer at this disgusting man, but if it can be prevented without putting the children in danger, that would be ideal. I am very glad they chose to run home instead. They are precious innocents that should not have to witness this kind of criminal behavior. I guess there is no easy answer… the kids running home first is the best solution. What would be ideal is an adult catching him on camera. Let’s all keep a look out for our kids, and know the world isn’t always safe. My heart breaks for the children.

AM July 16, 2014 (9:20 am)

gross – i live on 38th. So sad this is basically on my block. I will be keeping my eye out and seriously hope we catch these sick-o’s. Those poor girls… glad they weren’t harmed physically.

Anon July 16, 2014 (11:27 am)

I have a tip as to a suspect that fits this exact description. I just called Crime Stoppers, but somehow calling a national company didn’t give me the confidence that the tip would trickle down to the local level. Should I call SPD directly? If so, can anyone advise me which line to call?

WSB July 16, 2014 (11:33 am)

911 is what police always advise. But you might consider first trying (206) 684-5575 which is the number, according to SPD’s website, for the unit that deals with sex offenses and sex offenders.

Anon July 16, 2014 (11:36 am)

TY, WSB. Calling now.

Safety first July 16, 2014 (2:46 pm)

Thank you for stepping up, anon.

As for the suggestion to stop and catch a license plate or take a pic… NO WAY. Kids need to have one thing burned into their heads: run for safety. We adults can try to stop, intervene, investigate. But it’s not worth the risk to kids and they need basic, clear instruction. IMHO.

BMW July 16, 2014 (3:42 pm)

Wsblog, why is this story not featured in “the big stories”? Wasn’t the flasher a few months back similar in appearance?

WSB July 16, 2014 (4:00 pm)

I haven’t updated this afternoon, sorry, some mail trouble and other things behind the scenes. Fixing.

bmc July 17, 2014 (7:41 am)

Here is the KC sex offender look up website. I see that the URL I posted above didn’t work.

http://www.icrimewatch.net/index.php?AgencyID=54473

vannamarie July 17, 2014 (11:06 am)

Thank you for posting that link, bmc! The more information the better.

WSB July 17, 2014 (11:07 am)

Also, if you need that link again in the future and didn’t bookmark it, it’s long been in the resource section at the bottom of the WSB Crime Watch page.

Lola July 17, 2014 (12:22 pm)

I drove by the backside of Hiawatha last night after work after I read about this guy. Was looking just to see if he might still be hanging around. Since you said it was a silver SUV, I did see that someone had put a note on a silver SUV that was parked across the street from the park but nobody was in it. I hope they catch this creep.

ekb July 17, 2014 (1:43 pm)

First, calling this sex offender a flasher is minimizing the criminal behavior described and probably what harm he is capable of. This occurred on my block and will be on the lookout.

Tracey July 17, 2014 (4:42 pm)

Why are there so many sex offenders near and around that section of California, especially since there are at least 3 schools I can think in that radius? Is there some kind of rehabilitative housing project there or something? 16 is an awful lot for such a small part of our neighborhood.

Lyndsay July 18, 2014 (9:28 am)

I actually experienced a very similar situation yesterday at the corner of SW Myrtle and 36th around 4:30pm. I was walking my dog around the park and was approaching 36th when a man in a silver SUV opened his car door with no pants on and masturbated in front of me – laughing and waving. Disgusting.

I first saw him in a silver SUV parked halfway in someone’s driveway and then saw him re-park in another driveway – I assumed he was lost. The incident happened about 5 minutes later when I walked around the block (at which point he re-parked again), which leads me to think he was following me. I didn’t have a phone on me, but thankfully I caught up with someone in the park who did, and we called 911 immediately. The police responded quickly and took the report – but by that time he had left. Unfortunately, I was so disturbed/unsettled that I didn’t get a good description (I ran towards 35th so as to be in a more public place). He was a bigger framed guy in a silver SUV. The police had mentioned that something very similar happened earlier in the week (I’m assuming it’s the same incident posted above).

I hope they catch this guy – it’s very disturbing.

WSB July 18, 2014 (9:31 am)

Lyndsay – thank you for mentioning this. Sorry to hear it happened. We will follow up with police.

Tony July 18, 2014 (9:00 pm)

My fiancé had a very similar experience while on a run a couple weeks back, she said she noticed a white Toyota 4runner with a bike rack on it and that it seemed to keep popping up while on her run. As she was running up California Way Sw near Hamilton park she noticed the vehicle again and as she passed she looked in the window and a guy was masturbating.

Sorry, comment time is over.