The man who has been seen masturbating outside a John Street house has apparently returned at least once since his last official sighting Sept. 30.
Patrick Lec '12, a John Street resident, said he noticed a black folding chair set up Saturday outside the house of his female neighbors, where the man has been previously spotted. Lec said the chair had likely come from his backyard. Footprints were visible on the seat of the chair, indicating someone had been standing on it, he said.
Lec reported his observation to the Providence Police Department that day, but he said he has not heard back.
"It's kind of speculation as to what happened," Lec said, but "at this point we're assuming the worst."
The Department of Public Safety has created a specific response plan for potential future naked masturbator sightings, said DPS Detective James Massey at an informational meeting held for students last night.
"We're going to tell our officers, ‘This is how we want you to respond, this is where we want each individual car to go,' so we can maximize our potential for catching this guy," said DPS Lieutenant James Jackson.
DPS has not received reports of sightings anywhere besides the John Street area, Massey said. "The good side of it is he's targeting one specific area, so we can zoom in on that area," he said. Massey said he suspected the man has been operating in the John Street location because it offers many possible escape routes. There are four points of egress from John Street and two from Williams Street, he said.
DPS formulated the plan following the Sept. 30 sighting of the man, but has not yet had the opportunity to put it in action, Massey said.
Because the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Providence Police, DPS does not know if any persons of interest have been officially identified, Jackson said. Both the Providence Police and DPS have increased their presence in the area, Jackson said.
"As much as we want to catch this guy, our first priority is deterrence," he said. "If we scare him out of the area, we're fine with that."
