A suspect has been arrested in the case of an intruder who broke into two women’s vacation homes in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and fondled their feet as they slept, authorities said Tuesday.
Mark Anthony Gonzales, 26, was taken into custody on Tuesday at his home in Atwater, California, a city about 31 miles southeast of Modesto, on two counts of burglary and two counts of battery, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
Gonzales allegedly entered two women’s “resort condominiums” in Stateline, a census-designated place about 60 miles southwest of Reno, through unlocked screen doors between July 1 and July 3.
He allegedly rubbed the women’s feet while they slept in their beds, according to the sheriff’s office. The women woke up in the midst of the assaults and confronted the man before he fled the scene.
The incidents prompted the officials to urge locals to lock their doors.
Forensic techniques were used to identify Gonzales, according to the sheriff’s office. He was suspected of numerous crimes in the Atwater and Merced County area, “including the theft of women’s shoes, trespassing, and sexual self-gratification during some of these incidents.”
Investigators believed “that Gonzales’ crimes were escalating in nature,” the sheriff’s office said.
Jail records show Gonzales was booked into the John Latorraca Correctional Facility in Merced just before 8:40 a.m. local time Tuesday. He was booked on a fugitive warrant without bond as he awaited extradition to Nevada.
It was not immediately clear how much prison time Gonzales could face if convicted or if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Representatives for the sheriff’s office and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office could not immediately be reached by NBC News on Wednesday.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
