Here is a report from Cory regarding an incident at Wallingford Playground this past weekend:
So my husband, daughter, son and I were at Wallingford playground today. It was really fun (tentative bike-riding, merry-go-rounding, tire swings) until it wasn’t. As we were heading out my 3 year old son said he had to pee. My five year old daughter chimed in with her mutual need. Truth be told I had to go too. So my husband manned the wagon and our gear and the kids and I headed to the mercifully open park potty. My daughter tried the door to the “big bathroom” stall and it was locked. My son took the little stall. While we waited my daughter peeked impatiently under the big stall door for signs of shoes vs. a malfunctioning potty. I steered her away to give the possible occupant space. She declared that she knew the truth, someone was in there. Good, all the more reason to respect their privacy. When it was finally my turn I set my littles to washing their hands and I locked the stall. A young girl, somewhere between 8 and 11, had come into the bathroom alone just as I went in.
I was doing my business when, to my left there was a floating, upside down baseball cap that appeared next to me. I didn’t see eyes, though in hindsight I assume they were there. As soon as I screamed (though my husband says I either need to work on my scream as no one heard me or to name what I did a squeal) the inverted cap disappeared. And then I laughed. Nervous and startled. And then I did what I always do as a parent. I began to narrate for my kids. “Don’t be scared. I was startled. The neighbor next to me must have been confused about whether someone was still in here or not…” I hurried out of the stall. I sent my kids to my husband. I told the girl I’d wait while she went “potty.” She was fast and hustled out of there without a word to me or a glance at the sink. I wish I had followed her to her adults so I could have relayed this story to them, in case she needed to process or in case, God forbid, she saw a baseball cap too. I chanced a glance under the big stall door and saw black tennis-shoes. I heard hushed voices or a voice. Some rustling. And then I hustled to my family. I wasn’t sure what to think.
My husband didn’t seem confused. He seemed certain something nefarious was going on. We went back to the women’s bathroom. We discussed. We warned a couple of women on their way in. They decided not to use the bathroom. We decided no one in their right mind would come out of there with us discussing the matter right outside the door. Plus the kids were tired and hungry. Plus it wasn’t clear what to do. What if it was harmless and we called attention (general park attention or police attention) to someone who was just having a bad moment in a bathroom. But what if it wasn’t and one of those moms or kids got hurt. We’d never forgive ourselves. I took the kids home. My husband stayed. He called the cops, told them it wasn’t an emergency and described the situation. And he waited. After 10 minutes or so a baseball cap wearing, black tennis-shoe-donning man emerged from the women’s bathroom. He discarded a brown paper bag and walked towards 45th. My husband followed at a distance. He watched the man spin around and check out any attractive woman that passed. He thought the man looked intoxicated and “out of it”.
He took a picture of the man. He waited and followed for about 45 minutes and the police didn’t come. They said it could be hours. It wasn’t an emergency. True, but disappointing. My husband lost sight of the man near Musashis while we were on the phone. He came home. The police said they’d ask for the picture if they needed it. We haven’t heard anything.
So I’m writing you, Wallyhood readers, to let you know what you probably already know–watch your kids and yourselves at Wallingford playground. Especially in secluded places like the bathroom. I’ve known to be aware there for sometime, but up until today I never felt the need to be vigilant.
Other moral of the story: If you want the police to show up sometime soon-ish, tell them it’s an emergency.
How disturbing! I’m glad no one was harmed, though that has to be very unsettling for you. What’s kind of an odd coincidence is that just yesterday when I was walking by the park I wondered whether any weird people are ever found in those restrooms as I once happened upon a couple people spending the night in the bushes nearby. I guess now I know. :/
Thanks for sharing. It is a good reminder.
Of course this is disturbing and unsettling. I am sorry you had this experience. Probably no different than any other park in Seattle, or probably any town, small or large. So glad you provided the photo.
Regarding stating it is an emergency, I don’t think this meets that criteria. But it is hard for a caller to define an emergency, and I don’t know the guidelines. But perhaps a middle ground would be to describe the incident to the dispatcher, and have it determined by them contacting the police to decide if it met emergency definition.
I have been at the playground frequently. I notice parents keep a close eye on their kids, and in many instances, all kids. This is a nice reminder about the bathrooms. But if you have two kids at the park, and need to watch one, it presents a problem, resulting in dragging everyone to the bathroom. I have no answers.
This same gentleman was standing in the doorway to the gym I go to, staring at those inside. Good to be aware of our surroundings.
Is he talking to dolls in that photo?
Thank you for the warning. I believe SPD will take action if provided with enough information. I don’t know who is assigned to this area, the border was once N 50th, for community policing. The name phone number, and email address should be available from seattle.gov. May I suggest that adults check the public rest room every convenient opportunity, even when they do not have to use the facilities.
Raven, that is a great idea. My daughter and I frequent that park multiple times a week and a quick pass through is a good suggestion for the safety of all.
It’s perfectly OK to tell the dispatcher you think it’s very serious – the policeman or woman you are connected to can make that designation for you and if, for example, this person was a known sex offender, they’d have been committing a fairly serious crime simply by being in the ladies’ room.
I’d like to add a “thank-you” for disrupting your evening plans to try to get to the bottom of this situation and to protect/warn others in the vicinity, particularly the young girl already in the restroom. How many times has each of us seen something strange or disturbing but not bothered, as you and your husband did. Yay for you.
“It’s perfectly OK to tell the dispatcher you think it’s very serious – the policeman or woman you are connected to can make that designation for you and if, for example, this person was a known sex offender…”
I agree that the dispatcher should be told if the situation is “very serious”…
I’m confused, however, as to how a certain individual can be identified to be a “known sex offender,” either by the parent in this story or by the dispatcher listening on the other end of the line.
Do known sex offenders wear signs or name tags?
I don’t mean to downplay the seriousness of this story, but I have to say that it’s a bit of a slippery slope to start assuming that any creepy guy at a park is a sex offender, Frankie.
Recall the woman who was groped in Westlake and snapped a picture. When she filed a police report and tried to give the photo of the man to the SPD, SPD didn’t want it. They asked her to describe the man, and she had to keep telling them she had a photo. After she tweeted the photo of him it turned out he was a sex offender on probation. His probation officer recognized him. Her vigilance was rewarded. Good post.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/more-women-report-gropings-after-tweet-leads-to-arrest/
The man in the photo was at the 44 westbound bus stop (Latona & 45th) toward Good Shepherd at about 520 PM on 5-15-15. He asked for money as I walked by. He was wearing the same shoes as in the photo and a gray baseball cap.
There is another reason to call 911 when something like this happens: it is almost the only way that such events are documented, mapped, and quantified in places like: http://web6.seattle.gov/mnm/incidentresponse.aspx that matter. I used to hesitate before calling 911, but after talking to the non-emergency police number several times regarding similar situations, the first thing they said was “did you call 911”.
In time, when the city gets wiser, they will institute a 311 system so that less than emergency calls can be fully documented and mapped as they are in other high-tech cities like NYC and Winnipeg. But for now, all we have is 911. So, use it, wisely. For how it works see:
http://www.wired.com/2010/11/ff_311_new_york/
This is a chilling, sobering story.
But the silver lining: this response. We’re pulling together as a community to keep one another safe, and THAT is what I love about this city. Seattle might be growing like nobody’s business, but the heart of Seattle will always be its neighborhoods and communities just like this.
THIS is why, when we look to Seattle’s future as a big city, we’re still hopeful. We wrote about this last week, looking at Ballard specifically (http://realestategals.com/new-ballard/), and as long as things like this response keep happening, I think Seattle will still be the world’s best place to live.
To Real Estate Gals
This is an improper use of the Wallyhood forum. This is not a place to advertise. This is not the classified ad section. If you would like to be a sponsor, which I imagine involves some financial commitment, please consider that. The forums are not a place to discuss your business. I gave Real Estate Gals the benefit of the doubt, looked at the website. It is likely that most of the responders to the categories in Wallyhood have a business.