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Police Arrest Panera Bread Bathroom Intruder

Michael Nicholas Villa, 50, faces peeping Tom charges related to two incidents.

 

Anne Arundel County police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with two peeping Tom incidents at a Glen Burnie Panera Bread.

Michael Nicholas Villa, 50, of no fixed address, was charged with two counts of peeping Tom and two counts of private place prurient intent—meaning he violated the victim's privacy, according to police spokesman Justin Mulcahy.

According to a police press release, officers responded to the Panera located in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway at about 10:35 a.m. Tuesday because a female employee recognized a man from previous peeping Tom incidents.

On March 27, police responded to the Panera Bread at about 7:30 p.m. when a customer said she saw a man in the women's restroom. The woman told police that she was in the restroom outside of the the stalls with her two small children when a man exited one of the stalls and was laughing.

She alerted Panera management who showed police video surveillance of the man. Police said the man was the same man who attempted to videorecord a female store employee on March 4.

Police spoke with a 19-year-old female store employee on March 5 who said she was using the restroom the day before at about 6:10 p.m. when an unknown man entered the bathroom and held a camera phone under the stall. At that time, management also gave the officers surveillance video of the suspect.

On Tuesday, a female employee said she was leaving the women's restroom when she saw the same man attempting to enter it. She yelled for a male coworker and the man fled the store.

Employees followed the man to his car and got his tag number. A short time later, officers located him at a shopping center in Brooklyn Park and arrested him.

Through investigation, police determined the suspect was Villa, who is a registered sex offender. The state's website of registered sex offenders states that Villa is "non compliant," meaning he has "failed to register or re-register as required by law or court order."

Villa has worked as a curbside Statue of Liberty for Liberty Tax in Brooklyn Park.

Related Topics: Anne Arundel County Police Department, Arrest, Crime, Panera BRead, Peeping Tom, and Sex Offender

Keysha Bailey Heptinstall

12:17 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Wow, and here I thought he was awesome and loved his job.....just shows you....ya never know someone!

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Joe Brown

12:42 pm on Saturday, April 7, 2012

Maya T. Prabhu. I'm sure he works hard and takes pride in his job as shown in the article by Gloria Dietz. Even with video Surveillance the commissioner let the man go.

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CA

8:50 pm on Monday, April 9, 2012

Kudos to the awesome employees at Panera. They were alert, and quick to take action...or this creep may have never been caught. I frequent that location quite a bit, and this is unsettling...to say the least. The employees really would be the only common thread to be able to ID, and recognize this repeat incident.

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Moses LawFlav

1:01 pm on Friday, April 27, 2012

Another glaring example of a clown in the Commissioner's Office failing to protect the public once a criminal is brought in. They let him walk right out the door.

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