A 25-year-old man arrested in the Woodbridge area on suspected child annoyance Tuesday night is being investigated as the creeper who has exposed himself to minors in Irvine or been involved in other child annoyance incidents dating back to November, police said.
Joseph Anguiano, who had been the subject of tips to police about being the man they were after, was busted by undercover detectives after he approached a 12-year-old girl who was walking in a residential area, according to Lt. Julia Engen.
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Irvine Flasher Preys on 15 y.o. Girls, Has Been Trying to Show Off His Junk Since Jan. 17
The Irvine Police spokeswoman says Anguiano stepped into the girl's path as she emerged from a walkway connecting two streets, Brookstone and Woodland. That prompted the undercover detective, who had been watching Anguiano, to approach on foot, at which point Anguiano changed direction and walked away, Engen said.
During his brief encounter with the girl, Anguiano is alleged to have asked her age and for directions to an area elementary school, Engen said. The girl, who had learned from police presentations at her school to never reveal facts about oneself to strangers, purposely pointed in the wrong direction, at which point Anguiano is alleged to have corrected her, “indicating he already knew the correct direction,” Engen said.
The detective's arrival caused Anguiano to leave the area but he was followed, arrested and booked into Orange County Jail, Engen said. He was released Wednesday morning.
Here is the artist rendering Irvine Police released in February about someone who had been flashing and annoying children in the Woodbridge area dating back to Jan. 17:
After a March 11 incident in the area of Paseo Westpark and Hearthstone (detailed in the update below), police released additional suspect and vehicle descriptions.
Also released was a new color drawing of the man being sought:
Could those be drawings of this dude?
It was after police released the information in connection with the March 11 incident that the department received tips from the public that Anguiano was their guy, Engen said. Irvine Police have been working with the Irvine Unified School District and the Orange County District Attorney's office on the investigation, she added.
Engen's latest statement reveals the incidents Anguiano is being investigated for date back before Jan. 17:
11-18-13 – Buckthorn/Hawkridge – Suspicious Incident
1-17-14 – Lemongrass – Indent Exposure
2-4-14 – Bass – Indecent Exposure
2-12-14 – Morning Dove/Meadowgrass – Indecent Exposure
2-12-14 – Sandpiper – Child Annoyance
2-26-14 – Southbrook – Indecent Exposure
3-11-14 – Santa Maria – Child Annoyance
3-24-14 – Doncaster – Child Annoyance
A search warrant has been served at Anguiano's home in an effort to uncover evidence that might place him at one or all of the crime scenes, Engen says.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.