Male Flashes Female Student in Square

An unidentified man exposed his genitals to a female Harvard undergraduate around 9 p.m. on Sunday, according to Cambridge Police Department spokesman Frank T. Pasquarello.

The offender approached the student at the intersection of Mill and Plympton Streets as she was walking back to her dorm, according to Pasquarello. The offender then opened his coat and flashed her as she turned around.

The victim immediately walked away from the offender, said Steven G. Catalano, Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) public information officer. Once back on campus, she called the police.

The victim was not physically hurt, and the offender never spoke during the incident, according to a community advisory from HUPD.

The advisory described the offender as a white male in his fifties or sixties, around 6 feet in height—“with medium build and white bushy hair, clean shaven, and wearing a long black coat, dark colored shirt, and dark shoes.”

There are currently no leads, and no arrest has been made, according to Pasquarello.

Students said yesterday they did not feel particularly threatened by the incident.

“Cambridge is still a city so there’s an element of danger,” Layla Hazemi ’11 said. “But I still feel relatively safe.”

She added that this was probably an isolated case of indecent exposure.

Emory L. Hsu ’08 called the incident “gross,” but said he recognized that flashing is difficult to stop.

Indecent exposure, said Pasquarello, is not common in Cambridge. But according to Catalano, HUPD deals with a few exposure incidents each year.

“Sometimes we don’t know if someone does it because of alcohol, because of a dare, or because of some kind of perverted reason,” Pasquarello said.

The offender, if caught, can face a charge for open and gross lewdness depending upon the severity of exposure, said Pasquarello. Jail time is also a possibility, and the offender’s criminal record can add to a potential sentence, Pasquarello added.

Pasquarello said students should be constantly aware of their surroundings—especially since the incident occurred at an hour typically deemed safe.

If approached by a stranger, said Pasquarello, one should try to keep the suspect in sight and call the police as soon as possible.

“Try to find where the person is, but don’t approach them,” Pasquarello said. “Just try to let the police get them first.”

—Staff Writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.