Thirty-five-year-old Charlottesville resident Frederick Jermaine Ayers was served charges for peeping and spying into private residences in the University area while he was in court Tuesday for the sentencing of a similar previous incident.
Ayers allegedly spied into a residence of four University students Oct. 3 on the 1700 block of Jefferson Park Avenue, Investigations Detective Randall S. Higgins of the Charlottesville Police Department said.
"This had been an ongoing problem -- the residents had actually given chase to this person before," Higgins said. "The guy kept coming back."
Ayers was in court Tuesday for a burglary and peeping incident that occurred in March in the Kent Terrace area when he was presented with the most recent charges of peeping, according to Higgins.
Higgins added that the department was concerned about Ayers' spying activities escalating in their seriousness.
"Going to the house in Kent Terrace is a pretty big step forward," he said. "It's bad enough to be trespassing and peeping into windows, but actually going into a residence and having physical contact with someone you don't know --- he's slowly progressing."
Higgins said there have been numerous burglary and spying incidents recently in the JPA, Observatory Hill and Stadium Road areas, many of which resulted from negligence on the part of students.
"A lot of doors and windows have been left unlocked," he said. "Some have been forced entries, but they have been occurring in the day hours and nighttime hours when people are sleeping. If I checked 20 houses, half of them would be unlocked."
Third-year College student Meggie Schuelke, who is a Stadium Road resident, said recent events have made her more concerned about her home security.
"We lock our front door, but I think I'm going to start locking my individual door also, just in case," Schuelke said. "I'm not that paranoid about locking my doors -- never have been. But, with the recent robberies, I'll be more careful about locking my door when I leave."
Scheulke said recent weather has caused her to be less vigilant about her safety.
"I do leave the windows open when I leave because we don't have any AC," Scheulke said.
Higgins said such practices were common in the area, but security should be more important to students, especially when burglary attempts go wrong.
"Our obvious concern is to catch and arrest people that have been stealing property, but we are aware that plans change during a burglary and assault can occur," he said.
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