Two teenaged girls are the latest victims of a flasher in Prince George.
This time the man, driving a blue truck and wearing no pants, exposed himself to the two girls, both aged 13, as they walked along Tabor Boulevard near Hill Avenue just before 5 p.m. May 21.
"The young girls ran away and reported the incident to the police," said Prince George RCMP spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass.
"The girls were excellent witnesses. They were disturbed but not upset. They were shocked, surprised, but they did the right thing: they got a good description, ran home, told people they trusted and they contacted police."
It is not easy for young people to always have the confidence to call police when an incident happens to them, but he said in this case, "obviously the situation merited our attention," so he was pleased the girls dialed it in so swiftly.
"The sooner we can get that call, the sooner we can get our members into the area and maybe catch whoever did this," said Douglass.
But he recognized an important thing the two girls did first. They got to a safe place where they could call without fear of the perpetrator adding onto his list of criminal offenses towards them.
WHO IS THIS GUY?
The suspect is described as a Caucasian male between the ages of 30 and 40 years old wearing sunglasses, a black baseball hat on backwards, a T-shirt and no pants. He is estimated to be six-feet tall and 200 pounds.
The vehicle he was driving is described as a newer, full-size Ford crew cab pickup with a short box, tinted windows and chrome trim. There was no canopy and a 4 x 4 decal on the tail gate. The truck was blue.
RASH OF FLASH
"It sounds very familiar," said Douglass, drawing attention back to a small flock of flashings that happened in late February/early March. "It does sound like the same pattern of behaviour and some similar circumstances, but we can't say for certain it is the same person."
Virtually every town has occasional incidents of flashing, he said, "but that is not to downgrade the act." Police here and across the country take such incidents very seriously, even if all that is reported might be an uncertain glimpse by a passerby.
"Some are blatant, like what these girls were subjected to. It is very concerning to police," he said.
SEEING TOO MUCH
Prince George RCMP have had more indecent exposure files lately than just the flashing of young girls. These are the most recent...
- April 25... At the Bon Voyage bus stop a man exposed himself to a passersby then got on a bus and was not able to be traced by police. He was described as being a man (40s or 50s) wearing jeans and a ball cap. He was in the company of others who either did not notice or did not intervene. It was felt by witnesses that a mental health issue may have been a factor.
- May 19... A man estimated to be in his 60s was found to be sleeping naked in the bushes in or near Fort George Park. He was not there when police reached the scene.
- May 22...Four teenagers, two male and two female, were seen by children in the area of Carney Hill elementary school at about 9:30 p.m. One of the males exposed himself to one of the females, but was also seen by the children.
