Belmont police search for indecent exposure suspect

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Belmont police say a suspect sought by Palo Alto police for a Thursday indecent exposure incident may have also struck in Belmont Friday morning.

Police said they received a call at 7:40 a.m. about an indecent exposure that occurred in front of Peet's Coffee in the 1200 block of El

Camino.

Police said two women in their 20s were inside the coffee shop near the windows looking out onto El Camino when they saw a four-door BMW parked at the curb and a man inside masturbating.

One of the women ran outside to get the vehicle's license plate number, and the suspect drove off.

Police described the suspect as a white man in his 30s with short dark hair. He was clean-shaven and dressed professionally in a white button-up shirt.

The BMW had unknown paper license plates.

Belmont police said the suspect could be the same man Palo Alto police are searching for in connection with a Thursday indecent exposure incident, the third to occur in the city this week.

Police said the victim, a woman in her 20s, was riding her bicycle in the 4300 block of Miller Avenue when she saw a vehicle drive by and stop ahead of her in the middle of the street.

As she rode by, a man called to her, so she stopped to looked and saw the man masturbating.

Police said she immediately rode away and reported the incident about 30 minutes later.

Palo Alto police released a sketch of the suspect in Thursday's incident today. The victim described the suspect as a white male between 40 and 50 years old. She said he was clean-cut, "professional looking" and wearing a yellow button-down shirt and "sporty" sunglasses.

He was in a white four-door BMW.

Police said they don't know if the Thursday incident, reported around 4 p.m., is related to two earlier incidents reported on Monday and Tuesday that occurred about three miles away, also in Palo Alto.

In the Monday incident, a man in a navy blue pickup truck pulled up next to a 14-year-old girl just before 5 p.m. and started masturbating while staring at her. That incident occurred in the 1600 block of Bryant Street near Castillija School, a middle and high school for girls.

In the Tuesday incident, a 10-year-old girl was walking her dog just after 6:30 p.m. near Byron Street and Seale Avenue between Jordan Middle School and Walter Hays Elementary School when a man pulled up in a four-door Volvo, exposed himself and asked the girl if she wanted to touch his penis.

Police said extra staffing has been brought in to help investigate the cases, and there has been an increased presence of marked and dunmarked patrols that are paying attention to school commute routes used by students.

In Palo Alto, anyone with information on these cases is asked to call the Palo Alto Police Department's 24-hour dispatch center at (650)329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloaltotipnow.org or sent via text or voicemail to (650)383-8984.

In Belmont, anyone with information about the cases can call Belmont police at (650) 595-7400 or the Belmont Police Crime Tip Line at (650) 398-3000.