Park Hill Panty Thief Still on the Loose

He’s been caught on camera, plastered on the news and stabbed — twice. But the Park Hill panty thief is still at large.

On December 12, the Denver Police Department released photos of a man wanted for allegedly breaking into homes around Park Hill and stealing the occupants' underwear. Over a week later, there have been no arrests or updates in the investigation.

"Denver Police is conducting extra patrols in the area to find the suspect and to help ensure the safety of community members," a DPD spokesperson tells Westword. "This is still an open investigation."

The culprit, dubbed the "Park Hill panty thief," is believed to have committed several burglaries between July and early December. At least four occurred in the Park Hill neighborhood, three of them at the same house near the intersection of East 33rd Avenue and Oneida Street.

One unnamed victim told Fox31 that the man came into her home through a window in July, while her roommate was sleeping. The roommate found the intruder holding a sex toy in his mouth and rummaging through a box of intimate items — ignoring the money, medication and electronics in the house.

After the man pushed the roommate into a wall, she stabbed him twice with a knife, though the wounds were "pretty shallow," the victim said. The man ran before police arrived at the scene, but he returned three weeks later and again at the end of October. The victim caught footage of him on a security camera during his second visit.

Another anonymous victim told Fox31 that she found her office window wide open without the screen on a December morning, with footprints visible in the snow outside. While no valuables were missing, she later discovered that all of her clean underwear had disappeared from a drawer.

Police believe this intruder is likely the same man who committed the earlier burglaries, because of the similar stories and how close the victims live to one another.

Police tell Westword they haven't received any reports of new burglaries since they released photos of the panty thief suspect on December 12. But that doesn't put the residents of Park Hill at ease.

"It's incredibly disturbing and unnerving and creepy and unsettling and predatory," says Lori Midson, executive director of Greater Park Hill Community Inc.

Neighborhood rumors and posts on NextDoor speculate that the bandit could have moved on to another area, but that's scant consolation. "There's no question that women are feeling incredibly violated," Midson adds. "I just hope that they find the person who's doing this before he potentially moves on to something more sinister."

A $2,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest; call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.