Michigan flasher arrested while 'nude from the waist down' admits to exposing himself for over 20 years
KENT COUNTY, MI: Investigators finally caught a break in a decades-long serial flashing case after a suspect told them he had been exposing himself since the late 1990s.
When Kent County sheriff’s deputies apprehended 54-year-old Steven Todd Pastoor last week, he was naked from the waist down. The Grand Rapids resident was caught via surveillance cam footage, MLive reports.
According to court records, Pastoor was being held in Kent County Jail but was released on a personal recognizance bond on March 30.
The report adds that Pastoor is charged with indecent exposure by a sexually delinquent person and aggravated indecent exposure. The charges carry a penalty of one day up to life in prison and a two-year high-court misdemeanor, respectively.
According to authorities, Pastoor is a suspect in dozens of incidents of indecent exposure in Cascade Township since 2003.
Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young admitted how they hadn't seen “anything of this magnitude” before. “We’ve devoted a lot of resources on this guy, trying to find the guy,” she said, adding that such crimes tend to frighten victims.
In the past, police have alerted residents about a serial flasher near 28th Street SE between Cascade Road and Patterson Avenue. But despite detailed investigations and a number of sting operations, the flasher had remained elusive. According to the report, the reported incidents took place at houses, offices, and also along the road.
“In many of the incidents, the suspect would be attired in a hat and shirt, but nude from the waist down,” sheriff’s Deputy Paul VanRhee wrote in a probable-cause affidavit. “The suspect would often knock on a window to gain the attention of the unsuspecting victim, then expose himself and fondle his genitals.”
Authorities said the flasher would travel either in a bicycle or a car. What's more? He would stand by the highway waving and exposing himself if he wasn't in a neighborhood. There have also been reports of the flasher exposing himself to customers in parking lots.
Undersheriff Jon Hess recalled how Pastoor most recently hit Parview Condominiums in July last year, where he was reportedly spotted a few years back as well.
Speaking to MLive, Mary Lou Scott said her neighbor at the Parview Condominiums was sitting in her living room overlooking the golf course when a man knocked at the sliding door window at about 10.30 pm. "There was this fellow she thought maybe in his 30s, a bandanna around his face and his shirt on. He exposed himself and then he ran," Scott said.
Pastoor's downfall finally happened when he began to target the same woman in 2018, police said. He reportedly got onto her back deck a number of times and exposed himself.
The flasher was eventually identified using a security video showing him and his vehicle.
Deputies began conducting surveillance operations after identifying Pastoor as the suspect. And on March 25, authorities witnessed him peeping into windows at Briarlane Apartments.
VanRhee recounted in the affidavit how Pastoor then drove to a vacant parking lot. He got out of his car, nude from the waist down, and started to walk towards the I-196. “Pastoor was taken into custody and during interviews, he admitted to the repeated exposures dating back to the late 1990s,” VanRhee wrote.