He was parked outside of Phelps, and he wasn’t wearing pants.
A man was arrested on campus last Saturday, March 23, after students reported that he was parked pantsless, according to a WUPD police report.
The man, who was later identified as David Atkinson, 23, of York County, was seen in the parking lot outside of Phelps. According to the police report, two students called the Winthrop University police department to report they had witnessed a man touching himself inappropriately in his car.
Police responded to the scene and pulled Atkinson over. When questioned at the scene, he claimed that he had been searching for his wallet and was on campus in an attempt to make friends.
Atkinson was then transported to the WUPD station where he spoke to Lieutenant Charles Yearta. According to the report, in this conversation, Atkinson admitted that he was on campus with the goal of “sexual gratification.”
He stated that after parking his car outside of the Phelps residence hall, he watched female students. Eventually, he removed his penis from his pants in order to masturbate. He then drove around campus, seeking out female students to masturbate and expose himself to.
Atkinson told police that he knows he has a problem and that he is “sick.”
After reports of the incident were released in The Herald, some Winthrop students expressed that they wanted a better notification system for incidents like these.
“I just wish that I was more aware of things like this. You hear about what happened at Campus Walk, but we don’t get notified about things like this, which can be really frustrating,” Danielle Owen, a freshman dance major said.
The arrest of Atkinson comes after an assault on the Walk2Campus property and an incident of a man streaking across campus before the start of fall 2018 semester. As students’ concern for the possibility of serious events like these grows, campus police are working hard to reassure students of their safety.
After the arrest, Atkinson has been issued a trespass warning and will not be allowed to return on campus in the near future. He was also charged with possession of marijuana alongside the charge for indecent exposure.
