KIMBERLY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Some residents on the 1400 block of W. 4th Street in Kimberly are concerned there might be a “peeping Tom” in their neighborhood.
This comes after a post on social media, showing what one woman’s surveillance camera captured.
“I went and plugged my phone in, and I noticed that I had a notification and checked it, like I normally do,” Amber Engelman of Kimberly explained.
Having something like a Ring doorbell installed isn’t very unusual these days. But for Engelman, what was unusual is what her Ring camera captured on the night of April 9.
“Typically, there’s nothing there, and this time I saw a man leaning in and looking through, I’m guessing a little crack in the curtains, and he was looking through my daughter’s window.”
After seeing the image of what appears to be a man lurking outside of her 6-year-old daughter’s window, Engelman tells FOX 11 she had an instant knee-jerk reaction.
“When I realized it had just happened a few minutes ago, I just flew open my back door, and I don’t know what I was going to do, but I just flew out of my back door. Probably not the best idea.”
Something police never suggest doing.
“If they are there for some inappropriate reason, obviously they came there with some, you know, pretty cruel intentions to begin with, so they’re obviously not going to respond well to your confrontation, and it’s just going to escalate things further,” said Lt. Mark Wery of the Fox Valley Metro Police Department.
Although Engelman did ultimately contact the Fox Valley Metro Police Department, the individual in the image hasn’t been located.
“In this case, it was a dark jacket and jeans, so it’s kind of a vague description as to what we’re looking for, you know,” said Wery. “Unfortunately, if you’ve seen the photograph, their face is obstructed by a pillar, so we’re going off a clothing description, so it’s really up in the air as to who this could be.”
Police say this appears to be an isolated incident and remind that, while it could’ve been nefarious in nature, it’s also quite possible that it was just a misunderstanding.
They also say, after canvassing the neighborhood, it doesn’t appear this has happened to anyone else.
Some, however, disagree.
“Someone had posted that they saw, a few blocks away from me, had also had a guy looking in their window,” said Engelman.
And this isn’t the only suspicious thing that has happened in the area.
Neighbors in that community say, over the years they’ve witnessed people peering into car windows and have seen several break-ins.
This incident terrified Engelman so much, she’s now moving out of the area.
Police say they continue receiving tips and the investigation is ongoing.
