Man flashes woman in Target store

A woman in Target identified this man, caught on store video surveillance cameras, as the one who fondled himself in front of her last month while she shopped. Photo courtesy of the Manhattan Beach Police Department

Police are searching for a man who exposed and fondled himself in front of a woman shopping in a local department store last month.

Authorities said the incident happened in the middle of the day while the woman shopped in the laundry detergent aisle of the Target store on Sepulveda Boulevard.

“It seems like somebody dedicated to their personal needs to do it at that time of day in a public store,” Manhattan Beach Police Officer Stephanie Martin said.

At approximately noon on March 25, the unidentified man approached the woman and told her she was pretty, according to police. He then walked away.

Police said the man returned seconds later, stopped in front of the woman’s shopping cart, pulled down his shorts and began fondling himself.

“She screamed,” Martin said. “Then he ran down the aisle and out of the store.”

The man drove away before authorities arrived, but was caught on store surveillance cameras.

“The victim ID’d the subject on the surveillance tape as being the one in the incident,” Martin said.

Police are investigating several tips related to the incident and are seeking the public’s help in finding the suspect, who is described as white, age 38 to 40, approximately 5-foot-7, with a heavy build, medium-length brown hair, a mustache and prescription glasses. He is wanted by MBPD on indecent exposure charges.

Earlier last month, a Grand View Elementary School nurse was walking to school when she was flashed by a driver, who fondled himself while his passenger smiled at her.

“It’s about some sort of self-gratification to shock someone,” Martin said, “somebody who gets sexual excitement by putting someone else through that experience.”

Anyone with information regarding this or similar incidents should call MBPD Det. Jason Knickerbocker at (310) 802-5131. ER

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.