Man peeks in on 12-year-old girl at North Fort Myers park port-a-potty

Reporter: Sydney Persing
Published: Updated:
Where the alleged crime happened. (Credit: WINK News)

Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies are looking into a scary encounter at a North Fort Myers park. Witnesses told a mother that a man peeked through a hole on a port-a-potty while her 12-year-old daughter was inside.

After a mother told investigators about the creepy person, a man who visited the park said he is not surprised at all.

“I did see one man creeping around the bathroom stalls over there at one point,” Donny Williams said, “about a week and a half ago.”

A Lee County report states the girl’s mother tried confronting the man after witnesses told her what they saw. The person ran off, but not before she snapped a photo of the man’s white van.

Sam Thompson Jr. comes to North Shore Park almost every weekday.

“I know there’s an old man in a beat-up van that’s up here all the time,” Thompson said. “He spends a lot of time up here and it looks really weird.”

Deputies said its owner lives out of that van and spends a lot of time at local parks. Denise Coast comes to this park to read around four nights a week. She said it is her favorite view of a sunset, but she will not get out of her car after a warning from one of her neighbors.

“Thats why I park here,” Coast said about the well-lit spot. “Not to use the restrooms. I have heard that and not to walk down closer to the bridge.”

Witnesses did tell LCSO deputies they are not sure if the man saw anything and they know he was not taking pictures of the child. We asked detectives for a picture of the van. They declined and said it is an active investigation.

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