Man lurking in women’s toilets

A LOCAL mother said she was left “horrified and shocked” after she spotted a man in a women’s toilet cubicle – who had been there for about 30 minutes – at a Cranbourne leisure centre this week.
The Narre Warren South mother, who did not want to be named, said she was in the women’s toilets and change rooms at the Sport For All Centre Life Be In It, in the Casey Indoor Leisure Complex, on Monday with her 10-year-old daughter, another mother and her daughter.
She said they had been in there for about half an hour talking, including changing their daughters after a game of netball, when they noticed the man’s feet under a toilet cubicle door.
“We said ‘are those man’s feet?’ and he must have known then that we knew he was there,” she said.
“He then ran out of the cubicle, with his hood on and sunglasses on, covering his face.
“I chased him out of there, which he seemed unaware of.
“He ran over to a car in the Casey RACE carpark and I took down his registration details as he drove off.”
The woman said she felt distressed about the whole incident.
“Both my daughter and friend’s daughter got changed during that time,” she said.
“We don’t know what his intentions were or why he was there.”
She said she wanted to warn other parents of the incident and for them to keep an eye out for any other suspicious behaviour.
“I just want mothers to know so they don’t let their children go to the toilet by themselves,” she said.
“This person or any other person could have done worse things. Parents need to be watchful.”
Sport For All Centre Life Be In It manager Shannon Theil said the centre was taking the matter seriously and would look at other measures to ensure it didn’t happen again.
“To my knowledge it has not happened here before,” he said.
“It is something we are quite vigilant with. We do walk-throughs of the amenities before competition starts each day.
“We have also got in contact with Casey RACE to bring it to their attention.
“We will also put posters up around the place, but there’s only so much we can do. It is now in police hands.”
Casey Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) Sergeant Tony Nestor said police were seeking public assistance to identify the man.
Sgt Nestor the man was wearing sandals, dark coloured, black or dark grey tracksuit pants, a faded blue hooded jumper and sunglasses.
He said he drove off in a car described as a green coloured, 1996 Commodore sedan.
Sgt Nestor said police did not know that man’s intentions.
“We do have a bit of minor theft at places like this, so it could be related to that, but we just don’t know. We need public assistance to insist us with our inquiries.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Casey CIU on 9705 3111 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.