Police investigating reports of restroom voyeur at Bothell Library

BOTHELL -- It's a place everyone should feel safe: A public library.

But in Bothell, police are investigating reports of a man entering the local library and taking “significant steps” to view and record women using the restroom on April 2 and April 4.

“A female patron of the library noticed a male subject in the women’s room,” said Bothell police spokesman Ken Seuberlich. “She believes he was trying to take photos or video of her in the bathroom stall.”

The woman was apparently with her daughter at the time. When she told library staff, the man fled on foot. Two days later a similar incident happened, and again the man got away.

“Why here?” asked Linda Laurie, a library customer. “What’s wrong with that kind of a person that gets a thrill out of that?”

It’s actually the third troubling incident at the Bothell Library in the past few years.

In 2010, the library reported a Peeping Tom incident, and parents also reported a stranger fondling young girls in the library.

Library staff are now making routine checks of the bathrooms, and advising parents to stay with their children if they go to the bathroom.

The suspect in this latest case is described as a man having a dark complexion, between 25 and 35 years of age, anywhere from 5-foot-6 to 6-foot, with a medium build.

Anyone with information on the incident should call the Bothell Police Tip Line at (425) 487-5551