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Michigan police say they nabbed long-wanted serial flasher

Posted at 5:33 AM, Mar 31, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-31 05:34:03-04

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man suspected of exposing himself to people for nearly two decades was arrested last week on sexual delinquency charges, police said.

Police say Steven Todd Pastoor, 56, was arrested Wednesday and confessed to exposing himself from the waist down to residents while standing on their decks or porches. Court documents show he confessed to indecent exposure crimes dating back to the late 1990s.

“We believe him to be responsible for several dozen indecent exposures over the last almost 20 years,” Kent County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Joel Roon told WOOD-TV.

Known as the Cascade Flasher, Pastoor routinely kept his shirt and hat on but was nude from the waist down when he stood on porches and decks of homes in and around Cascade, police said. He knocked on windows to ensure he gathered an audience before exposing himself and masturbating in front of people, authorities allege.

Pastoor’s arraignment was Friday. It wasn’t known Monday whether Pastoor has a lawyer who could comment on the allegations.

Authorities caught Pastoor after he started targeting one woman in January who later installed cameras around her home. Police said he was arrested Wednesday after police found him without pants near a highway.

Pastoor was charged as a sexually delinquent person, and conviction entails imprisonment until it’s determined he’s not a threat.

“The invasion of privacy that people experience when they’re in their home and they feel someone watching them is not lost on us. We take this crime very seriously,” Roon said.