West Austin Neighborhood Group

My name is Meta Carson and we are residents of the Woodhaven neighborhood. We had an incident happen this morning that I wanted to alert you to in hopes that you would share it with our neighbors. I'm adding a lot of detail here, because you might find it informative, so
please forgive the long email.

We live on Barn Swallow Drive, and we have a 15 year old daughter who went for a run at 7:30 this morning. The route she took was one we run with her frequently, and was to take her down Barn Swallow, east onto Pinnacle, across Walsh Tarleton to continue east all the way down Thousand Oaks Drive, and back again. She was then going to return the way she came, but add an extra mile by turning on Peregrine Falcon from Barn Swallow, to Pinnacle, and back to Barn Swallow and home.

I asked my husband to drive past her on his way to work, just to check on her. When he drove down Thousand Oaks from Walsh Tarleton, he noticed a white Ford van parked on the side of the road that looked out of place. Our daughter ran passed the van, and then the van pulled away from the curb, and seemed to be following her. My husband pulled over, and talked to our daughter. When the van saw him pull over, it turned onto Intervail, a side street off of Thousand Oaks. My husband took note, and decided to drive ahead of our daughter and wait to see if the van re-appeared. He drove across Walsh Tarleton on Thousand Oaks, and turned around to face the intersection where our daughter would be, and waited a few seconds. As she approached, the van was again behind her. At this point, my husband called APD with the license plate number.

Then he called me at home to tell me what was going on. I jumped in my car, and drove down Barn Swallow Drive, just as my daughter turned onto Peregrine Falcon. The van was behind her, and suddenly pulled over at the corner, where she had just turned, and stopped. I turned on Peregrine Falcon to follow her, and the van then pulled behind me. I took a side street (Purple Heron) up a hill to jump ahead of my daughter. I was at the top of the hill facing her when she crested, and the driver of the van saw me again. All of a sudden, he backed into a driveway, and turned around and sped out of the neighborhood. My husband was a the bottom of the hill, and observe him turn onto Pinnacle. There is just no explanation as to why he would be driving that route, in that period of time, if he wasn't stalking our daughter. She never realized that he had been behind her.

I met an APD officer at our house moments later. Officer Guillermo Salinas with APD took our report, and assigned us a case number (11 227 0420). He had already entered the license plate number into his computer en route, and asked me for a description of the driver. He said I had described the owner of the white Ford van accurately, and that he was someone who had 4 prior arrests - 3 for suspicious behavior (beginning in 2008 I believe), and one in 2010 for exposing himself. The officer indicated that this guy was "escalating". He also mentioned that he was probably on some job site, and was just looking for targets on his way to work.

Needless to say, I think it is imperative that we get the description of this guy out to the community, especially if there is a possibility of him working in our area. Here is his description:

White male
Mid 50's, with a distinctive, long, gray, sleek ponytail
was wearing a t shirt
He drives a white Ford passenger van, with no business logos on it, etc. And no ladder or tools on the van.

Should you need additional information, please feel free to contact me. And of course, please pass this along to anyone you feel should be alerted. I appreciate your time and consideration.