San Jose Police have arrested a 60-year-old man in a creepy case of a naked lurker who seemed to be peering into windows in a San Jose neighborhood on multiple nighttime occasions in the last month. And they've seen this guy before.
The suspect is Mark Veregge, a former Stanford lecturer and principal percussionist with the California Symphony since 1989. NBC Bay Area picked up on the story Thursday, and an arrest was quickly made likely based on previous incidents, and police recognizing Veregge from video footage.
Back in 2017, KPIX/CBS SF reported that Veregge was arrested on suspicion of prowling after a similar incident in San Jose. In that case, a former student of Veregge's, whom he had apparently taught music in elementary school, claimed that they had seen Veregge peeping into their house going back two years — sometimes in the nude, sometimes in a woman's bra and high heels. KRON 4 reported at the time that he lived in a South San Jose neighborhood with his wife, and was known to be a "stand-up normal guy" by his employers at Opera San Jose.
It's unclear how that case resolved, but two years later, Veregge has been arrested again in a different San Jose neighborhood, and was similarly caught on surveillance video in the nude — and also wearing women's clothing.
As KRON 4 reports, Veregge is suspected of making multiple appearances between February 15 and March 5, including one in which he's wearing a purple dress. And as CBS SF notes, "In every incident, he is smoking a cigarette."
The targets don't seem to be random, either. In the recent incidents, Veregge apparently visited the same home on Meadlowlands Lane twice, both times in the middle of the night, and one time knocking on the door before running off.
But in this case, as KTVU notes, none of the homeowners recognized him. His bail was set at $50,000.
Via CBS SF, one Meadowlands neighbor had a message for Veregge, who now sits in the county lock-up. "Knock it off! Knock it off. Please stop. It’s really making a lot of us very, very nervous."
