A man has been arrested and charged with three counts of voyeurism and three counts of disorderly conduct after surveillance footage at a car wash near Phoenix, Arizona appeared to show him crawling under women’s SUVs to watch their feet as they cleaned their vehicles.
Jesse Michael Johnson, 28, had been previously cited for similar offenses eight years ago, according to Law & Crime. As reported by Chicago Fox affiliate WFLD in June 2016, Johnson was cited for the fourth time that year for hiding under a woman’s car in Nebraska to touch her feet.
In 2016, he had reportedly told authorities he was “sexually attracted to women’s feet,” adding that he could not “control his sexual desires.”
This time, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is charging him for three separate incidents caught on camera in Arizona.
“These three incidents, defendant pulled into a parking spot next to the victim,” wrote the Gilbert Police Department in court documents seen by Fox affiliate KSAZ. “While each victim was vacuuming her vehicle, defendant hid under her SUV and spent several minutes under her vehicle.”
“The defendant climbed out from under the vehicle when each victim was finishing her vacuuming and left the area,” the report continued.
Police began their investigation on August 29, suspecting at first he may have tampered with the vehicles. Johnson was arrested September 24.
One of the women reported her reaction to seeing the footage, telling AZ Family, “At one point, you can see his head pop out on the driver’s side, looking up at me. I just never would have thought in a million years that there would be someone underneath of my car.”
According to police, surveillance footage showed the man quickly move back to his car, acting as if he was cleaning one of his tires the whole time.
The victim, who only gave the name Chanelle, noted one similarity between her and the other two women targeted, telling the outlet they each “had flip flops and shorts on. That’s what we all had in common.”
She also said that the unsettling incident has left her with nightmares. “Going into the community and doing this to women is absolutely disgusting and I don’t think he realizes what it’s doing to us as the victims,” she emphasized.
Police first got the tip that this was happening after one of the women went to an employee at the car wash, asking to see their cameras. She told the employee, per KSAZ, that she believed someone had been under her vehicle while she was vacuuming.
After reviewing the footage, the employee confirmed what the customer was reporting, telling KSAZ, “Sure enough, going through the video footage, I watched that happen. She was already in the process of calling the cops.”
Employees were able to get a partial license plate from the video, per the outlet. They said they saw the suspect pull around the corner after each incident and await his next victim. The video showed him under each vehicle for about five or six minutes, according to employees.
“Any time we looked at him under the vehicle, he was just lying there watching them,” employee Keith Baker told KSAZ. “I don’t have any words, to be honest. I don’t know what to say about it. It’s crazy to me.”
Johnson is being held on a $10,000 bond. If he is released, he’ll need to wear an ankle monitor. A preliminary hearing for his case is scheduled for October 3.
