A Boston University student allegedly caught a man watching her use a first floor public restroom in the College of Arts and Sciences last week.
The middle stall in the restroom was occupied when the woman,’ who wished to remain anonymous, entered on Jan. 20 at 1:20 p.m.’
‘On the tile, I saw the flash of a shadow, and I thought that was really peculiar,’ she said. ‘I turned and looked up. As soon as we made eye contact, he left.”
The man was black, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and appeared to be about thirty years old, the student said.’ ‘
BU Police Department officers arrived 10 minutes after the encounter, but the student said she thought the response was too delayed.
‘He was long gone, I’m sure,’ the student said.’
The student said she was shocked when BUPD informed her of other cases similar to hers that occurred on campus within the past year.
‘They said it happened maybe two or three times in the last six months, and that it was a rare thing, but I thought maybe it has happened more often than that,’ she said. ‘If I hadn’t looked up, I never would have noticed it. How many girls didn’t notice it? How long had that guy been in there, how long was he planning to stay, how many girls wouldn’t notice it happening and how many girls wouldn’t report it?’
In addition to these cases, two similar incidents in which men followed women into bathrooms have been reported since May 29, BUPD spokesman Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire said.
The incident on May 29 also occurred in CAS, where a woman reported that a white man stuck his head under the door of her bathroom stall at 7:18 p.m., according to BUPD crime logs. The man fled after she discovered him.’
A similar incident occurred at the Tsai Performance Center, which is also located in CAS, on Nov. 25 at 6:50 p.m. A woman reported that a man followed her into the restroom, but left after she inquired about his identity. The woman could not identify him, and said she only saw his legs.’
St. Hilaire said there is no connection between the three cases.’
‘These are crimes of opportunity,’ he said. ‘We’re fortunate that there’s no pattern yet. There’s a T stop right there, it’s open to the public. The people that were followed, they were alone. That’s why they were crimes of opportunity.”
The student said she thinks the man chose the restroom because of its opportune location.’
‘That particular bathroom, the exit is pretty much right in front, so he obviously could just bolt out, get on the T and be done,’ she said. ‘He picked a bathroom that was easy exit, and not a lot of people use it.”
The case is still under investigation and it currently has no leads, St. Hilaire said.’
St. Hilaire said he recommends students remain ‘aware’ of their surroundings and ‘suspicious’ of all situations.’
Thinking back, the student said she actually knew then that something was not right when she walked into the bathroom.
‘I’m not a big believer of woman’s intuition, but I knew something was off when I walked in,’ she said. ‘If you walk into a bathroom and you don’t feel comfortable or if you feel something’s off, go tell somebody, or bring somebody with you. If I had a friend with me, maybe she would have seen him.’
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I agree, to think BU or the BU Police don’t take things like this serious is a bad judgement. Does one think the city Police would have gotten there faster?. I found BU has a good Police force, better then some tons. Maybe more students should volunteer to do security and help the BU Police. Sorry to say, but like most university’s in Boston, access is open for the general public to wander in.
Comments like the one from “Bob” are worthless. While I agree that there needs to be more of a security presence in these cases, to suggest that the cops aren’t taking this seriously is a mistake. It just isn’t feasible for BUPD to prevent these and other crimes of opportunity, because in order to do that, they would need to deny any opportunity. It just wouldn’t be possible to put sworn officers in front of every restroom on campus, or on every street corner or in every dark alley. BUPD is a police department, not a group of security guards. Perhaps the BUPD should be expanded to include security guards to be positioned in buildings like CAS, to supplement the force of sworn officers, but comments like “could be a rape next time” fall far short of even making a helpful suggestion.
George Patsourakos<br/>Boston University needs to have more security personnel in its academic buildings, since a female student recently caught a man watching her use a public restroom. The man was watching the woman from the ceiling, but he left as soon as he realized she noticed him. BU police arrived 10 minutes after the incident, but by that time, the man was gone. The woman was shocked when BU police informed her that there have been several similar cases at BU during the past year. The bottom line