“Is there a problem officer?” A man with a penchant for upskirt photography got more than he bargained for when an alert police sergeant caught him in the act of– wait for it –upskirt photography.
The sergeant was walking the beat at the Capitol Hill Block Party last night around 7 p.m. when he spied the suspect kneeling down in the intersection of 10 Avenue E and E Pike Street. The street was closed for the block party.
The suspect was taking longer than the average human to tie his shoe. The sergeant couldn’t help but notice the suspect’s absence of manual dexterity but soon realized that this was due to the fact that the suspect was actually manipulating a cell phone and not shoelaces.
The sergeant, being naturally inquisitive, observed the suspect further and watched as he gently adjusted the trajectory of the phone’s viewfinder. The sergeant deduced that the suspect’s target was actually a 15-year-old girl wearing a short skirt and sitting on an adjacent curb.
The sergeant interrupted the suspect and told him why he was being stopped. The suspect denied that he had done anything wrong. The sergeant asked the suspect if he cared to share his phone pictures to clear up any mistake, but the suspect refused.
The sergeant interviewed the 15-year-old girl. She didn’t know the suspect and had no idea that he was photographing her.
Officers arrested the suspect on the spot and relieved him of two cell phones, two iPods and a camera. Officers booked the suspect into King County Jail for Investigation of Voyeurism. Detectives will check out his electronics once they have obtained a search warrant.