During winter break this year, a man was questioned by the police in regards to watching Plantz Hall women from Plantz Hall’s parking lot. The alleged peeping tom has been parking his car outside of Plantz Hall for the past several years and Appleton police recently warned him of potential stalking charges.Over the past several years, the same maroon car has frequently been spotted in two parking lots behind Plantz. Several students noticed that the car was parked outside Plantz for a few hours at a time on multiple occasions.
One student said, “I didn’t do anything the first time. I just thought that maybe it was some professor or something talking on a cell phone for a long time. I didn’t really think too much of it. Then I kept noticing the car, and would see somebody inside of it for a long time each time.” Although students and Residence Life Advisors called campus security on a few occasions, security was unable to arrive at Plantz in time to confront the driver.
Over winter recess, a student recognized the maroon car and immediately called security. Campus security quickly responded and parked the car in with a security vehicle.
The student said, “Security was very responsive this time and was at the scene within 1 or 2 minutes.” The police were contacted and three squad cars arrived at Plantz shortly thereafter.
Upon arriving on the scene, police escorted the man to the police station in a squad car.
Logan Bender, an RLA in Plantz, said, “They didn’t arrest him, but they took him down to the police department and asked him some questions.”
The offender admitted that he has been parking behind Plantz for the last few years. He also admitted to masturbating in his car while watching girls through the windows of the second and third floors of Plantz.
Bender says, “Apparently, [the police] searched his car and they said he had an entire trunkful of pornographic material.” Although the police could not charge the man with stalking at this time, he will be charged with stalking if he is spotted on campus in the future.
Although Plantz RLAs are warning students to use caution, no official announcements or changes have been made. One Plantz RLA says, “We are definitely stressing the importance of not propping doors open…and we are also going to be doing a security program where we check people’s door knobs to see if they are locked or not during the middle of the night. It’s just another precaution against a possible horrible incident.”
Police and security were unavailable for comment.