Police are investigating reports of a repeat felon suspected of prowling behind women at a Barnes & Noble in Burbank, California. (Left screenshots from TikTok user @michaela.witter; right screenshot from TikTok user @artofethereality; inset mugshot from Glendale Police Department)
Police in California are investigating whether a 36-year-old ex-convict, who was recently arrested in a Peeping Tom case and has a history of prowling offenses, is the same man seen in viral TikTok videos appearing to crouch behind women sniffing their butts at a Los Angeles area Barnes & Noble bookstore.
Calese Carron Crowder was arrested on a warrant on Aug. 6 in a prowling incident at a family home in suburban Glendale, police said. He pleaded no contest at his arraignment on Monday, was sentenced to 60 days in county jail and ordered to enter a sexual impulse rehabilitation program. A protective order was granted for the victim's family, the Glendale Police Department said in a news release. Online jail booking records show he was released from jail on Tuesday. His release from custody and the status of his current county jail sentence were unclear. He's expected to appear in court for a progress hearing on Sept. 14, online court records show.
Police in Burbank, which borders Glendale, said they are investigating reports of him prowling around women at a Burbank Barnes & Noble bookstore. Crowder has not been charged in these incidents, but in a statement, police confirmed they were investigating.
"Detectives will be speaking with other potential victims to confirm it is the same person they encountered," the statement said.
Crowder was allegedly the man seen in a TikTok video posted on Aug. 8 by a woman claiming he was crouching behind her, possibly sniffing her behind, at the bookstore.
In the video, @michaela.witter said she was at the bookstore recording "Day 20" of "100 days of solo dates" when she was "stalked and violated the entire time."
She first noticed him staring at her through a hole in a bookshelf.
"I couldn't tell if I was being paranoid or if he was just reading a book," she said. Then he kept following her, so she recorded it "just in case he was trying to say anything or do anything to me."
The suspect then crouched behind her, saying nothing and not touching her, before going over to another woman and allegedly doing the same thing.
"He'll crouch down low and pretend like he's doing something and then smell? I don't know," she said.
When she asked him what he was doing, he told her he was tying his shoe.
"I was so freaked out when I turned around and saw him literally under me, so freaking close to me," she said.
She notified the front desk about him and went to her car as quickly as possible.
"I'm so disgusted," she said. "I feel really violated." She said the man left as she was telling a bookstore worker about him.
"All she said that she could do was just tell the manager," the woman said.
A press representative from Barnes & Noble did not return an email from Law&Crime seeking comment.
Others are coming forward to report the same man creeping around them.
TikToker @artofethereality said the same man sniffed her butt at the Burbank Barnes & Noble in March. When she asked if he was following her as he crouched on one knee behind her flipping through a book, he said, "No, my bad."
Candice Horry, the wife of former LA Lakers star Robert Horry said Crowder stalked their daughter a decade ago at their home.
"He went to jail only to come out and continue the same behavior," she wrote on X, the company previously known as Twitter. "Thank you for getting the word out that he is back. He needs to be put away for good!"
Crowder has a long history of peeping, prowling and residential burglary in Glendale, police said when he was arrested for prowling in September 2021, according to a news release.
In June 2011, Crowder was arrested for peeping and occupied residential burglaries. He was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison, officials said. His arrest came after an hourslong search that shut down a six-block area, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
"He is a very dangerous criminal, and that created a very severe public safety concern for that area," then-Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa said at the time. "It also again illustrates the problem we have with recidivism rates related to parolees, especially when they're released early and when there's inadequate supervision."
Between April 2020 and September 2021, there were numerous reports of "a male involved in late-night residential burglaries, attempted burglaries, window peeping and/or prowling in the City of Glendale around the areas between Linden Ave and Rosedale Ave, north of W Glenoaks Blvd and south of Glenwood Rd," Glendale police said in their news release. "The Glendale Police Department identified Calese Crowder as the suspect involved in these incidents, and in the last several months, he has been arrested by GPD multiple times for these prowling and peeping incidents."
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Crowder's conviction history dates to 2006, when he was sentenced to two years for second-degree robbery.
He received 395 days of presentence credits awarded by the sentencing court for time served while awaiting trial, officials said. He was released to parole supervision on Aug. 29, 2007, after serving his full sentence as defined by law.
Over the next five years, Crowder would return to prison multiple times for similar burglary offenses.
While on parole in 2007, Crowder was sentenced to one year and four months for second-degree burglary. He received 145 days of presentence credits awarded by the sentencing court for time served while awaiting trial. He was released to parole supervision on Dec. 12, 2008.
Again while on parole, Crowder was sentenced in Alameda County on Feb. 19, 2009, to one year and four months for possession of a controlled substance. He received 25 days of presentence credits awarded by the sentencing court for time served while awaiting trial.
In 2012, for a third time while on parole, Crowder was sentenced to nine years and four months for first-degree burglary and attempted first-degree burglary as a second striker, officials said. He received 301 days of presentence credits while awaiting trial and was released to parole supervision on Aug. 3, 2018. He was discharged from parole supervision on Aug. 14, 2019, officials said.
