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Campus Alert Archive
UMass Amherst

Five Showers, Three Days: The Peeping Tom Who Sent Two UMass Dorms on Alert

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MAsexual offensetimely warningmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

UMass Amherst Police issued a campus-wide alert after receiving five reports of a man using a cell phone to look over or record female students in shower areas of Grayson and Field residence halls between September 16 and September 18, 2024. Victims described a college-aged white man, about 5'10" with brownish-blonde hair, wearing maroon shorts and a black hooded sweatshirt in multiple reports, though he was not apprehended at the scene in any of the five incidents.

Alerts
1
Response
Killed
Injured
Institution
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Public R1 · MA
~31,000 studentsUMass Alert
Official alert policy
Read when and how UMass Amherst says it will use UMass Amherst Alerts — summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstruction566 chars
UMass Amherst Police Timely Warning: Between September 16 and September 18, 2024, UMPD received five reports of an unknown male suspect using a cell phone to observe or record female residents in shower areas of Grayson and Field residence halls. The suspect is described as a college-aged white male, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, with short brownish-blonde hair, in some reports wearing maroon shorts and a black hooded sweatshirt. The suspect fled before officers arrived in each reported incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact UMass Police.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Groups five separate reports across three days and two residence halls into a single pattern-based warning rather than five individual bulletins
The suspect description, including the maroon shorts and black hooded sweatshirt, recurs across multiple victim accounts, which is why investigators treated the reports as connected
Names both affected buildings, Grayson and Field residence halls, rather than describing the threat as isolated to one location
The exact bulletin wording sent to students was not independently confirmed against an archived original, so this reconstruction is marked unverified even though it closely tracks multiple outlets' reporting
Context

Background

Over a three-day stretch from September 16 to September 18, 2024, UMass Amherst Police investigated five reports of a man using a cell phone to look at or record female students showering in Grayson and Field residence halls. The first report, at 11:19 p.m. on September 16, was initially treated as an isolated incident. A second report came in at 3:40 p.m. on September 17 describing a man attempting to look over a shower curtain on the third floor of Field Hall, and additional reports followed on the sixth floor of Field and the fifth floor of Grayson. Victims consistently described a college-aged white man, about 5 feet 10 inches tall with short brownish-blonde hair, and several reports mentioned maroon shorts and a black hooded sweatshirt. UMass Police issued a campus-wide alert once the pattern became clear, and local television coverage framed the case as part of a broader concern about video voyeurism in shared dormitory bathrooms nationally.
Analysis

Key Findings

Five separate shower-area reports across two residence halls and three days were consolidated into one campus-wide timely warning once the pattern emerged
A consistent suspect description (build, hair, clothing) across multiple reports let investigators connect otherwise scattered incidents
The suspect evaded capture in every reported instance despite the repeated pattern, illustrating how difficult in-the-moment apprehension is for this offense type
Voyeurism and video-voyeurism in shared dormitory bathrooms are Clery-reportable non-forcible sex offenses distinct from, and less publicized than, sexual-assault warnings
Outcome
UMass Police actively investigated the pattern and asked anyone with information to come forward; no arrest had been publicly reported.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
  2. News
  3. News
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "University of Massachusetts Amherst: Five Showers, Three Days: The Peeping Tom Who Sent Two UMass Dorms on Alert." Incident of September 16, 2024. Added July 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/umass-amherst-residence-hall-voyeurism-2024-09-16/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
voyeurismsexual-offensetimely-warningmassachusettsresidence-hallpeeping-tomclery-act
Added July 2026Updated July 2026Via ingestion