Police: Man Arrested After Masturbating in Front of Woman in Peninsula Parking Lot

By Bay City News Service: 

A man was arrested this weekend after exposing himself to a woman in a downtown Palo Alto parking lot, police said.

 At about 10 p.m. on Saturday police received a 911 call from a woman reporting that a man was indecently exposing himself to her at a parking lot located in the 400 block of Ramona Street near Cogswell Plaza, according to police.

 The suspect, identified as Eric Alexander Edwards, 48, of San Leandro, approached the victim while she was sitting inside her parked car and masturbated in front of her, police said.

 Officers arrived at the parking lot and detained Edwards, who matched the suspect description given by the victim.

 Police said the victim, a woman in her 20s, had been sitting in her parked car when the suspect got up from a bench in the plaza and stood about five feet away from her passenger side door.

 Edwards' pants were around his ankles and he was masturbating while looking directly at the victim, police said.

 The victim called 911 from her cellphone and stayed inside her vehicle. She remained on the phone with police dispatchers and made a citizen's arrest of the suspect from inside the vehicle, police said.

 When officers arrived at the parking lot, about three minutes later, the suspect had pulled up his pants.  Police detained Edwards and arrested him for misdemeanor indecent exposure.

 Officers booked Edwards into the Santa Clara County Main Jail.

 Detectives are investigating whether Edwards is responsible for additional indecent exposure incidents that have occurred in surrounding communities, however detectives do not believe that he is the suspect wanted in connection with an indecent exposure incident that occurred nearby on Jan. 11, police said.

 Anyone with information about this suspect or incident is asked to call Palo Alto police at (650) 329-2413 or may do so anonymously by sending an email to paloalto@tipnow.org or by sending a text message or voicemail to (650) 383-8984.


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