ARLINGTON — An Arlington mother expressed gratitude on Monday for an “angel” neighbor who jotted down the license plate of a man accused of peeping through her 12-year-old daughter’s window.
The suspect, Tal R. Vanderpool, 51, was ordered held on $100,000 bail Monday in Everett District Court. He is being investigated for voyeurism, a felony.
Vanderpool is a Level III registered sex offender with a long history of breaking into homes and sexually touching himself while watching women and girls, according to the county sex offender database. He has convictions for voyeurism and indecent exposure, including a 2001 case involving baristas in Marysville. He reportedly has admitted to having more than 200 victims since his early teens.
Vanderpool was arrested about 2:30 a.m. Sunday. An hour earlier, Arlington police had been called to a home in the 19900 block of 67th Avenue NE, city spokeswoman Kristin Banfield said.
A neighbor reported seeing a suspicious vehicle parked in the driveway. The car was leaving as police arrived. While they were on scene, officers were flagged down by the girl’s father. He told officers that his daughter and her friend, also 12, had seen a man looking in her bedroom window. They said they had seen the top half of the man’s face through the glass.
The girl’s description of the man matched the photo of the registered owner of the suspicious vehicle, Banfield said.
Police traced the car to Vanderpool’s home in the 19900 block of 106th Avenue NE.
He reportedly came outside wearing a bathrobe and told the officers he would talk to them if they got him some pants from his house. He asked for permission to turn off a pornographic movie in his bedroom so his own adult daughter wouldn’t see it.
Vanderpool reportedly told the officers he had stopped in the victim’s neighborhood because he was tired and needed to rest. He allegedly admitted to looking in the window but said he didn’t see the girls or know they were there.
One victim’s mother spoke briefly to reporters Monday after the court hearing. The Herald is not identifying her because she has the same last name as her daughter.
The family is seeking counseling, and her daughter is a brave girl, the mother said.
“I’ve never been so angry in my life,” she said. “I’m very sad for my daughter. She couldn’t sleep last night. She feels scared in her own home.”
Vanderpool served time behind bars for a previous voyeurism case in Walla Walla County in 2005, according to the sex offender database. In that case, he was suspected of 15 incidents involving breaking into or attempting to break into homes to watch strangers.
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