# Can You Trespass With Your Eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 18, 2001, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-trespass-with-your-eyes/76879 "2001-08-18T08:10:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-trespass-with-your-eyes/76879/1 "2001-08-18T08:10:18Z")
Today I was gawking at somebody’s fancy Jaguar convertible parked in the parking lot at Best Buy. I was literally standing there staring at the instrument panel, etc. for a good five minutes. Which got me to wondering… In Joplin, MO there is a hill where, if you drive your car at just the right speed and you look in just the right direction at just the right moment, you can see right into a women’s restroom thru the exhaust vents (I guess the builder either didn’t do the math quite right or figured no one would notice). Now, I know that there are plenty of deves out there who would get off on watching women do their business. So, suppose some deve figures out the angles and sets up shop on a tree limb with a pair of binoculars at the public park right across the street. Apart from drawing the ire of just about every moral and decent person who figured out what he was up to, could this guy be charged with a crime? The only thing that comes to mind is trespassing; hence the title of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Sultan\_Kinkari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-trespass-with-your-eyes/76879/2 "2001-08-18T08:18:26Z")
Like if your neighbor was undressing in front of her window? My neighbor when I was growing up used to host female asian exchange students who like to sit around in their room naked. Asian thing? Nope, not a crime. If you lived in a completely glass house you could even be arrested for indescent exposure. I think there are also varying degrees of “peeping tom-ness”. If you were hanging from a limb in front of somebodies house in a George McFly fashion, I think you could be charged with trespassing, but if you were just looking into your neighbors window I should think not. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-trespass-with-your-eyes/76879/3 "2001-08-18T08:27:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rastahomie \* > \*\* > > In Joplin, MO there is a hill where, if you drive your car at just the right speed and you look in just the right direction at just the right moment…\*\* How many runs at this did you take? 😃 Actually, it reminds me of the joke about the girl going to visit her elderly aunt at her new home. She asks, “How do you like your new house, Aunt Edna?” “I don’t like it at all! You can see the young man next door getting changed!” “But your windows are too high to see the neighbours.” “Just you stand on that table!” In a similar vein, as a postal worker in Australia, if I read the contents of a postcard while it is in transit, I can be charged with “tampering with Her Majesty’s mail”. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-trespass-with-your-eyes/76879/4 "2001-08-18T09:14:58Z")
> [@](#): > > (a) It shall be unlawful for any person to be a “peeping Tom” on or about the premises of another or to go about or upon the premises of another for the purpose of becoming a “peeping Tom.” > > (b) As used in this Code section, the term “peeping Tom” means a person who peeps through windows or doors, or other like places, on or about the premises of another for the purpose of spying upon or invading the privacy of the persons spied upon and the doing of any other acts of a similar nature which invade the privacy of such persons. – [Official Code of Georgia 16-11-61](http://www.ganet.org/cgi-bin/pub/ocode/ocgsearch?number=16-11-61) I’m not sure exactly what is covered by that word “about”, as in “on or about the premises”. That _sounds_ to me like you couldn’t beat a “Peeping Tom” rap by standing one foot over the property line, but I am not a lawyer. And what about the person who has giant plate glass windows that face out onto a busy street, and who habitually lounges around nekkid? Possibly _that_ person could be busted for [public indecency](http://www.ganet.org/cgi-bin/pub/ocode/ocgsearch?number=16-6-8); again, I don’t know. > [@](#): > > It shall be unlawful for…Any person, through the use of any device, without the consent of all persons observed, to observe, photograph, or record the activities of another which occur in any private place and out of public view… – [O.C.G. 16-11-62](http://www.ganet.org/cgi-bin/pub/ocode/ocgsearch?number=16-11-62) Again, how are “private place” and “out of public view” defined? From the same section we have “[It shall be unlawful for] Any person to go on or about the premises of another or any private place, except as otherwise provided by law, for the purpose of invading the privacy of others by eavesdropping upon their conversations or secretly observing their activities”; again, that word “about”. ---
**Author:** ![therealblaze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@therealblaze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/therealblaze)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-trespass-with-your-eyes/76879/5 "2001-08-18T11:24:48Z")
According to [this](http://www.senate.state.mi.us/dem/sd29/updates/SD290-May.pdf) courts tend not to allow prosecution of such cases. Oh, and the term is window peeping.