Police Arrest Panera Bread Bathroom Intruder

Anne Arundel County police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with two at a Glen Burnie Panera Bread.

Michael Nicholas Villa, 50, of no fixed address, was charged with two counts of peeping Tom and two counts of private place prurient intent—meaning he violated the victim's privacy, according to police spokesman Justin Mulcahy.

According to a police press release, officers responded to the located in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway at about 10:35 a.m. Tuesday because a female employee recognized a man from previous peeping Tom incidents.

On March 27, police responded to the Panera Bread at about 7:30 p.m. when a customer said she saw a man in the women's restroom. The woman told police that she was in the restroom outside of the the stalls with her two small children when a man exited one of the stalls and was laughing.

She alerted Panera management who showed police video surveillance of the man. Police said the man was the .

Police spoke with a 19-year-old female store employee on March 5 who said she was using the restroom the day before at about 6:10 p.m. when an unknown man entered the bathroom and held a camera phone under the stall. At that time, management also gave the officers surveillance video of the suspect.

On Tuesday, a female employee said she was leaving the women's restroom when she saw the same man attempting to enter it. She yelled for a male coworker and the man fled the store.

Employees followed the man to his car and got his tag number. A short time later, officers located him at a shopping center in Brooklyn Park and arrested him.

Through investigation, police determined the suspect was Villa, who is a registered sex offender. The state's website of registered sex offenders states that Villa is "non compliant," meaning he has "failed to register or re-register as required by law or court order."

Villa has worked as a for Liberty Tax in Brooklyn Park.