CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For more than a month, people in neighborhoods across Charlotte say they’ve been living on edge fearful of a man they say has been driving around naked, trying to lure teen girls to his car.
WCNC Charlotte spoke to the families of three teens, all from different parts of Charlotte, who all describe the same man, in the same car, asking the girls to come close. In at least two of the incidents, the teenagers claim the man’s private parts were exposed.
Neighbors tell WCNC they’re not only scared of what he may try and do next but are now frustrated more isn’t being done to get this alleged predator off the streets. So Friday, WCNC Charlotte’s Ashley Daley sat down with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
“Detectives with our crimes against children investigative unit are actively working this case,” Lieutenant Steve Fischbach said.
The first reported encounter occurred on Sept. 6, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department records. Jeffrey White said his neighbor’s 17-year-old daughter was out for a run along Hampton Avenue in Myers Park when the man approached her and attempted to lure her over to his car.
“Luckily she had the presence of mind to take off running and that was the end of it,” White said.
But that wouldn’t be the end of it.
White said the car was spotted in the neighborhood five days later on Saturday, Sept. 11, and then again on Sunday.
“24 hours later, yeah, parked right around the corner,” White said.
So White posted to Nextdoor, hoping to alert surrounding neighborhoods, never expecting the responses he would receive. The post blew up with nearly 200 comments, many of them from families of other teenagers from across Charlotte, who also claimed to have been approached by the same man, matching the description.
Police said they’ve received 911 calls when concerned citizens spot the car around town, but CMPD said no one else has come has forward to file an official report.
“Social media doesn’t count,” Lt. Fischbach said. ”We’ll see, peripherally, things listed on social media that happened and we can’t really kickstart our investigation until we’ve had that contact with a victim and we have that complaint number generated.”
And police say up until now, the report filed, wasn’t accusing the man of doing anything illegal.
“Driving around naked is not illegal,” he says and neither is talking to young girls, but the Lt. says he understands parents’ frustrations. “I have a teenage daughter and I’m also married and I’m one of your neighbors. I live in this jurisdiction,” Lt Fischbach said. “There can be a wide range of behaviors that to any of us as human beings, we find concerning or disturbing, but if it’s not set out as being illegal there’s not an arrest we can make.”
What is illegal, however, is “once that person exposes their private parts to another person that’s when it crosses the threshold into becoming illegal behavior,” he said.
Andrea Harbison lives in Charlotte’s Chantilly neighborhood and said she spotted the man herself.
“When he first started coming in here it was twice a week and then it started becoming a daily thing. And he was coming between the hours of two and five when the bus stops let out,” she said.
At first, Harbison says she didn’t pay much attention to it, as her daughter is grown and off at college, but when he kept coming back, her 8-year career as a trained social worker kicked in.
“From my training, I know that when someone becomes more elevated and frequency increases, their behavior also comes worse and they become more daring and braver,” she said. “I was concerned he would actually get a girl in his car and do something.”
That’s when she says she began helping her neighbors any way she could, once even following the man on foot as he drove through her neighborhood, later notifying other neighbors who hopped in their car and followed him until police pulled him over.
CMPD confirmed they made a traffic stop at 1:29 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Queens Rd and Morehead, but that no arrest was made and no citation was given.
Harbison said she also understands why some parents may be apprehensive about coming forward.
“Look, I remember sitting at my desk crying, begging parents make reports because their children have actually been assaulted, it’s hard to get them to report when they’ve been assaulted, much less what’s happening here,” she said. “It’s a really scary process because a lot of parents think, okay, well if we do a report are they going to have to go to court and point them out? Is this going to retraumatize them?”
Harbison believes in her opinion, pressing charges is not only in the best interest of the community, but the victim.
“Pressing charges allows the child to see that they have a voice and that they were heard,” she said. “The problem is if they come home and tell their mom this happened and then nothing happens, they go, ‘well, why did I even say anything?’ And so next time are they even going to say anything?”
Harbison is now joining other neighbors in hoping the parents of teens, who this man exposed himself to, come forward.
“He needs to get arrested and charged so he has a record, because if he has a record then he has to check in with a parole officer and give his location, so they can still track him and he’s in the system as a sexual offender,” Harbison said.
Harbison explained this is also a great time for parents to talk to their kids about stranger danger.
“Nobody responsible is going to pull over and ask a child for help if they need help,” a lesson she said she learned early in her training.
“Tell your children, if you are outside playing or riding your bike or walking…if a man pulls up to ask you any question about anything, you just leave, you run,” Harbison said.
"If you think that you have been a victim or you have witnessed some of this concerning behavior I need you to call 911 right now. And then an officer is going to respond and that officer is going to work with you to determine if a criminal act has taken place," Lt. Fischbach said.
Contact Ashley Daley at adaley@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.