Alleged stalker arrested in Coolidge, police say he was watching women sleep

COOLIDGE, Ariz. - Sometimes it takes a bit of creativity by law enforcement to nab their suspect. That's exactly what the Coolidge Police Department did to catch a stalker that was peering through a woman's bedroom window on numerous occasions.

Police arrested 39-year-old Guadalupe Palos for stalking, but how they tracked him down is the real story.

Last month, a single mother of two, who did not want to be identified, started to notice some strange things happening around her home at night.

"Things were out of the norm and I decided to call the cops," she said.

"She would see that her bedroom window screen was removed from her window and she was finding candy wrappers and potato chip wrappers in her backyard -- right underneath her window," said CPD's Commander Mark Tercero.

The victim in this case, believed someone was stalking her at night, watching her through her window while she slept.

"It's really scary to me, because it's a total invasion of privacy," she said.

After the Coolidge Police got the initial report about a possible stalker looking through her windows -- they came up with a pretty genius idea: install a camera that senses motion and therefore they'd be able to catch the perpetrator. They did that -- and it worked.

"They saw this guy -- and it shows him looking in my bedroom window, then walking up to my back porch, unscrewing my light bulb and then going back to my window," said the victim.

"From our officers and what our detectives can uncover, that 10 to15 minutes at a time he was there, just peering through her window," said Tercero.

One of the detectives recognized the suspect and he was arrested the next day.

"I was surprised they made an arrest so fast," said the victim.

"This is a perfect example of if you see something, say something. Our partnership with the community only enhances the police department's ability to solve community problems," said Tercero.

CPD says this is the first time they've used this type of camera and they say they'll use it again in the future.