'Grandville Potty Peeper' Confesses To Peeking At Women In Restrooms

A Michigan man on Tuesday confessed to invading the privacy of a young woman while she used a supermarket restroom last year.

Robert James Bell, 56, of Kalamazoo, pleaded guilty to one charge of surveilling an unclothed person at Kent County Circuit Court, his second related offense. The judge dropped additional charges as part of the man's deal.

Bell admitted to looking over a stall in a woman’s bathroom in September at a Meijer grocery store in Grandville to watch the victim, according to Michigan Live.

He faces an increased maximum sentence of to five years in prison because this was the second time he had been convicted of the same charge. He will be sentenced May 24.

Amid efforts to reveal his identity, Bell received the name"Grandville Potty Peeper" by Silent Observer, an anonymous police reporting platform. Tipsters caught wind of what the man had been doing and identified him. He was then arrested on a probation violation and booked into the Kent County Jail, where he remains on a $50,000 bond as of Wednesday.

Bell’s has a history of illegal surveillance, including several arrests on similar charges. In 2013, he served jail time in Alabama on two counts of criminal surveillance after authorities accused him of following women into the restroom at a Walmart.

In 2011, Bell was convicted of surveilling an unclothed person stemming from an incident at a Kohl's in Kalamazoo County, the Birmingham News reported. He received a sentence of 37 days in jail, court records show.

"We had to think outside the box in order to charge this defendant with a felony," Morgan County District Attorney Steve Anderson told the publication.

"However, thanks to Investigator Lyon's thorough investigation, we believed that we could prove that Bell committed third-degree burglary when he entered these businesses with the intent to commit the crime of criminal surveillance. Our main concern was taking this repeat offender off the streets."