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Suspected serial flasher caught after 2 decades of exposing self to strangers, police say

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Michigan man suspected of being the “Cascade flasher,” who exposed himself to strangers dozens of times over nearly 20 years, has been caught, police said.

Steven Todd Pastoor, 54, of Cascade, was charged Thursday. According to court records, he was booked into the Kent County Jail on charges of aggravated indecent exposure and indecent exposure by a sexually delinquent person.

Jail records show Pastoor was released Monday on a personal recognizance bond.

Court documents obtained by MLive.com indicate Pastoor was naked from the waist down when he was arrested. According to the documents, Pastoor confessed to being the Cascade flasher.

“We believe him to be responsible for several dozen indecent exposures over the last almost 20 years,” Kent County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Joel Roon told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.

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Kent County sheriff’s deputies were conducting surveillance in Cascade Township, where Pastoor is accused of targeted multiple victims since the 1990s. MLive.com reported that he was identified as a suspect after he started targeting the same woman in 2018.

Security cameras the woman subsequently installed outside her home captured footage of the flasher on her back deck, which helped identify Pastoor, the news site said. Deputies began watching Pastoor and spotted him peeping into windows March 25 at an apartment complex.

Pastoor drove to a vacant lot, where he got out of his car naked from the waist down, authorities said.

“Pastoor was taken into custody, and during interviews, he admitted to the repeated exposures dating back to the late 1990s,” a detective wrote in an arrest affidavit.

Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young said authorities have not seen “anything of this magnitude” before, MLive.com reported.

“We’ve devoted a lot of resources on this guy, trying to find the guy,” LaJoye-Young said.

Over the years, the Cascade flasher targeted residents in homes, offices, parking lots and along the roadways, where he would wave and expose himself, the court documents said.

“In many of the incidents, the suspect would be attired in a hat and shirt, but nude from the waist down,” the affidavit read. “The suspect would often knock on a window to gain the attention of the unsuspecting victim, then expose himself and fondle his genitals.”

Because the incidents happened so quickly, it was hard for law enforcement officers to identify the man.

“It was typically an act that didn’t have an extended duration, so he was typically out of the area rather quickly and proved to be pretty evasive over the years,” Roon told WOOD-TV.

Because Pastoor is charged as a sexually delinquent person, he could, if convicted, remain incarcerated until he is no longer deemed a threat, the news station reported.

That could take the rest of his life, the station said.

“The invasion of privacy that people experience when they’re in their home and they feel someone watching them is not lost on us. We take this crime very seriously,” Roon said.