Lake Tahoe foot-fondling suspect arrested in Merced County

A month after women at a Lake Tahoe resort reported that they awoke to find a stranger fondling their feet, a Merced County man has been accused of the crime.

The intrusions were reported on July 2 and July 3 by two women staying separately at Club Wyndham South Shore, in Zephyr Cove, Nev., the Douglas County sheriff’s office said. Each woman said she woke up around 4:30 a.m. because a man was sitting on her bed and rubbing her feet. When the victim woke up, the fondler fled through a exterior sliding door.

Both units were on the ground floor, and it is thought that the sliding doors had been left unlocked.

Unspecified forensic evidence led sheriff’s investigators to suspect a 26-year-old man from Atwater, Calif.  On contacting law enforcement officers in Merced County, they learned that the man had been suspected there of crimes including trespassing and theft of women’s shoes.

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, the man was arrested at his home. He was booked into Merced County Jail on suspicion of burglary and battery, and will be held on $50,000 bail until he is extradited to Nevada, the Douglas County sheriff’s office said.