Holly MatkinDeBary, FL – Authorities have released bodycam video of a Florida peeping Tom who was arrested in a local swamp last week after a deputy busted him for peering into unsuspecting residents’ homes (video below).
A resident in the Rivington subdivision contacted the Volusia Sheriff’s Office (VSO) the weekend prior and told deputies that her neighbor’s security camera showed an unknown man had recently been peeping through her window on three separate occasions, the VSO said in a press release on Jan. 27.
Deputies began conducting extra patrol in the neighborhood due to the footage, the sheriff’s office noted.
At about 9 p.m. on Jan. 26, a VSO sergeant spotted a man walking out from between two houses and tried to make contact with him.
Bodycam footage showed the sergeant greeting the suspect as he attempted to briskly walk past him.
“What’s up man? Where you coming from?” the sergeant asked. “Where do you stay? Stop – right now.”
The suspect refused to answer him and instead took off running, the video showed.
The sergeant chased after him on foot but ultimately lost sight of him near a neighborhood clubhouse.
Deputies launched a drone and soon located the suspect hiding in the water, deep inside a swampy area near the subdivision, the VSO said.
“You know what you did,” the sergeant told him as he was being handcuffed. “We know what you did.”
The VSO identified the suspect as 29-year-old Steven Johnson.
Bodycam footage showed the sergeant scolding Johnson over the incident and the resulting law enforcement resources he tied up.
“That’s why we’re here. That’s why there’s a K9 here and why the helicopter was here,” he said. “That’s why there’s about… 15 or 20 deputies that were here. There’s a reason for that.”
The sergeant then asked Johnson why he believed he had been tracked down.
“Basically, peeping around at midnight,” the handcuffed suspect responded as he sat on the curb.
“Okay. Yes, that’s why,” the sergeant told him. “That’s weird, man. It makes people uneasy… it puts a weird feeling in your gut when you find out someone was looking at you through a window.”
“What would you do if some man was peeping at your wife through a window?” he asked Johnson.
“I wouldn’t be happy,” the suspect acknowledged.
The VSO said the suspect lives in the same neighborhood as the victim, and that it is approximately a five-minute walk between the two residences.
Johnson allegedly told investigators he “had uncontrollable urges” to peep into windows, according to the VSO.
He was initially arrested on charges of resisting an officer without violence and loitering or prowling and was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on a $1,000 bond.
Johnson was arrested again on Jan. 30 on two counts of stalking, the VSO said.
He was again booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on a $1,000 bond, which he posted overnight.
The VSO said Johnson was also served with a protection order that was issued on the victim’s behalf.
Watch the incidents unfold in the video below:
Sandy Malone
