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Police alert as flasher targets school kids

By Melissa Meehan
A SPATE of indecent exposure in Greater Dandenong has police concerned.
The worrying news comes after a number of reports of a man pulling down his pants and touching himself in front of school children throughout the municipality.
Detective Senior Constable Stuart Freeman said there had been more than six reports since the start of August, but worried that many more had gone without being reported.
He said in almost every case that was reported, the victim said they had seen the man in weeks prior to the incident and in some cases did not report the first time the man exposed himself.
“People need to let us know,” he said.
“If someone is hanging around a school, call triple-0 and we will send someone out there.
“We can’t do anything about it if we don’t know.”
He said a common scenario of the cases reported was that a jogging male approached within sight of the schoolgirls to ensure they were looking at him. He then pulled down his shorts, exposed and then touched himself.
“Usually he chooses two girls together, walking home from school, waiting at a bus stop and in one case he stood on the other side of a school fence at recess,” Det Freeman said.
“We can’t rule out that it is the same person in all cases, but it might be a number of people.”
A similar description of the man has been reported in each case.
He is described as aged between his mid-thirties and forties, with an average build, wearing a blue baseball cap and navy shorts and he is thought to be 167 centimetres (5 and 1/2ft) tall.
A similar incident was reported last Wednesday, but the main difference was that the victim was an elderly woman in her eighties.
“The woman looked out her window and noticed a man standing on the footpath touching himself,” Det Freeman said.
“She gave a similar description to the other incidents, but this time the man was wearing a brown top and dark pants.”
Det Freeman said residents should not approach anyone acting suspiciously, but should call police.
“It is a high priority,” he said.
“We will send someone out.”
He said he wasn’t trying to scare the community, but just make sure that they stayed alert.
“We need assistance from the public to prevent this from happening further,” he said.
“We definitely don’t want it to escalate and we need to be on the front foot.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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