I worked in various libraries for 7 years in High School and College. This happens more often than you expect there, because:
[ul]
[li]It’s quiet[/li][li]It’s non-confrontational[/li][li]Most of the staff are female[/li][li]It’s so unexpected[/li][/ul]
I’m a 6’ tall male, and I never had a problem; but many of my female colleagues were flashed, or came across a person masturbating.
My wife worked a downtown library, and they put up a sign that said “zip up, all ye who enter here”, because they were having the police there several times a week. (The library board made them take it down)
We had one “gentleman” who came in every Sunday for 8 weeks running, and try to flash the female staff, and the children. He’d then take off once he’d succeeded; making it impossible to catch his car’s license number.
I finally began following him around the building every Sunday, while the female staff called the cops. (The cops always seemed to arrive 5 minutes late).
After about 5 weeks, he’d walk in, see if I was working, and if I was, he’d turn and walk out.
He was arrested a few weeks later at another library, where he flashed a staff person from my building who was substituting there. (They were next door to the stereotypical donut shop; the cops didn’t have to go far)
At a different building, we had a man flash a patron, who became hysterical. He booked out the door, and was gone before she calmed down enough to tell us what happened. She was so upset that she declared “I’m never coming back here again!!”
Fast-forward 6 months. She comes in for the first time after the incident, and tentatively says “Hi” to the staff (She was a hard-core regular prior to the incident; we all knew her); walks back to the stacks, and runs up to us crying. She manages to sob “He’s here! He’s back there again!!!”
We call the cops. Within a minute of the call, the 2 biggest policemen I’ve ever seen walk in. One’s about 6’5", and tiny compared to the other. The walk back to the stacks, and come out carrying a man about 5’2", who’s trying to zip up his trousers. He was later found to be a sexual offender, and incarcerated for several years.
There were several others during the same time, in our mid-sized suburban library system. (10 branches in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis/St Paul).
The nice thing was that we were a county-sponsored system, so not only did the local PD respond, but the Sheriff’s Office also responded to any calls.
Eli