

Vidya Kauri, CP24.com





Three separate police forces are looking for a sexual assault suspect who they say has been targeting women in tanning salons to satisfy his apparent foot fetish.

York Regional Police said the male suspect struck twice in their jurisdiction on Wednesday, Nov. 19 and Thursday, Nov. 20.

In the first incident, the man entered a tanning salon near Yonge Street and 16th Avenue in Richmond Hill around 3:45 p.m. Police allege he asked a woman in the salon if he could see her shoe claiming to be shoe-shopping for a relative.

“She complied, the suspect smelled her shoe and then fled with it,” York Regional Police said in a news release.

The next day, the man went to another tanning salon near Yonge Street and Canyon Hill around 11 a.m. Again, he began asking a woman about her boots. Police allege that the suspect then, “grabbed the victim’s leg, removed her boot and sock and licked her foot without her consent.”

This time, the man fled the salon with the woman’s boot and sock. Just four hours later, he allegedly sexually assaulted another woman in yet another tanning salon – this time, an hour’s drive away in Barrie.

Barrie Police Service issued a news release with the same picture of the suspect distributed by York Regional Police. They said he went to a tanning salon on Bayfield Street and struck up a conversation with a woman working there.

“The suspect drew her attention to her footwear and then dropped down on all fours, grabbed the employee’s leg and removed her footwear and then began licking her foot without her consent,” Barrie police said.

South Simcoe Police also reported an "extremely similar" incident on Wednesday, Nov. 19 around 5:30 p.m. They say a man entered the Adam and Eve Tanning Salon on Innisfil Beach Road in Alcona, and while he was being shown a tanning room, he allegedly sexually assaulted the lone female clerk before fleeing. It is not known if he left with the woman’s shoes this time.

The suspect is described as a white male around 30 years old, 5’ 8” and approximately 170 pounds with a medium build, short reddish-brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. In separate incidents, he has been spotted wearing a black bomber jacket, black dress pants, brown leather boots with brown laces, black pea coat style jacket and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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