Suspect who allegedly rubbed sleeping women's feet in middle of night after sneaking into luxury resort rooms is arrested

A man who was accused of fondling women's feet as they slept at a Lake Tahoe resort was arrested after a nearly month-long investigation.

On two separate occasions, Mark Anthony Gonzales allegedly broke into a luxury resort in Nevada and rubbed the feet of a sleeping woman in the middle of the night, according to the New York Post.

The 26-year-old was not known to be suspected of the crimes when reports of a foot fondling emerged after the Fourth of July weekend, when the alleged crimes took place.

The Club Wyndham South Shore hotel is where two women said they both woke up at 4:30 a.m. on the Sunday and Monday of the July Fourth weekend, respectively, to a man "fondling their feet." The women do not know each other.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office reported that “during the early morning hours between July 1-3, 2023, an adult male entered two Stateline resort condominiums by opening unlocked screen doors," a statement from the department added. “Once inside, he positioned himself at the foot of the bed and rubbed the feet of two separate adult females.”

The rooms were located on the first floor of the resort, which allowed the accused to enter and then exit as soon as the victims woke up during the incidents.

“Each female awoke from their sleep as the subject was rubbing their feet,” police stated. “Once awake the females confronted the male subject and he fled the scene.”

Douglas County investigators reportedly said Gonzales was known in a different county as a suspect in the theft of women's shoes, trespassing, and what was described as sexually self-gratifying himself during some incidents.

Gonzales was identified through forensic techniques, police noted. He was booked into Merced County Jail for two counts of burglary and two counts of battery, according to KOLO 8. He is held on a fugitive warrant with a $50,000 bail.

“I am extremely pleased that my Investigators were able to identify, locate, and arrest this individual,” said Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley. “These types of crimes are especially alarming to a community, and being able to make an arrest allows the victims and community to feel safe again.”

Bizarre feet-related crimes are in no shortage in recent years. A 2018 report described a man insisting that a female customer woman had a bug in her boot, until he eventually removed it, caressed her foot, and then appeared to smell his hand.

Another man in Pennsylvania was accused in 2017 of breaking into women's homes and taking pictures of their feet, while a 2015 story described a "suspected foot sniffer on the loose" who was smelling women's feet in a library.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!