A man dressed as a woman has been arrested after photographing women in the toilet at a US shopping centre.
The incident happened at the Hulen Mall in Fort Worth, in the US state of Texas when 45-year-old Douglas Egan went inside the women’s toilets dressed as a woman.
He had then attempted to take pictures of the women inside the cubicles and when he was spotted, brandished a pepper ball pistol as he tried to flee.
After he was arrested, he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and indecent photography following the incident reportedly happened on 24th December.
The alert was sparked when a woman noticed a cell phone being poked underneath the cubicle that she was using.
Police spokesman Cpl Joshua Johnson said: “The woman left the restroom and chased a man later identified as Douglas Egan who was dressed as a woman.”
When a passerby attempted to stop him escaping, he pulled out what appeared to be a gun from a backpack and pointed it at his pursuers.
As he fled, he ditched the women’s clothing and fled but was later arrested by police anyway.
After his arrest, police revealed that he was a registered sex offender with convictions for indecent exposure in Dallas and criminal indecency with a child.
The gun that he had turned out to be a pepper ball gun, which is a defensive weapon that is less lethal than a traditional gun.
He is currently being held in custody at the Tarrant County Correctional Center on a USD 30,000 (GBP 24,900) bond.
