By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Hundreds of bras and panties, DNA from a pizza crust and intricate handwritten notes have allegedly helped link a Bowling Green man to at least seven burglaries committed in the city over the last five years.
Bradley Feasel, 33, of 236 S. Grove St., was indicted last week on 11 counts of burglary and one count of breaking and entering.
Police believe there will likely be more charges as they continue to go through the evidence found at Feasel’s home.
“It’s pretty alarming,” said Bowling Green Police Major Justin White.
Bradley Feasel
Police reportedly found a folder of handwritten notes at Feasel’s home, listing dates with names of females. Under the names were notes indicating the items that were taken and the method of entry into the residences.
In one note under “Manville House,” it reportedly reads “all rooms masturbated.” At a home on Byall Avenue, a bullet point mentioned “red panties.” In some cases, women were sleeping at the homes when Feasel allegedly entered. On a few incidents when Feasel was seen by the residents, he was barefooted.
Many of the victims reported to police that they believed their homes had been entered multiple times. Many were college students, who shared clothing with their roommates, so the disappearance of underwear was not initially noticed.
Police said they also found a Google pin map, with handwritten notes on it. One notation reported said “65 enters.”
After gaining search warrants for all of Feasel’s electronic devices, police found that Feasel had allegedly made Google searches for several of his victims. He also reportedly searched for them on Facebook, Pinterest, Linked In and MySpace.
It also appears from the police reports that Feasel frequented a downtown bar where one of the victims was employed and other victims told police they often visited.
This is not the first time for Feasel to face charges of illegally entering homes and taking women’s underwear. He served six months in 2004 after being found with several women’s bras and panties that he had stolen from a Bowling Green apartment.
This time around, the search of Feasel’s residence in 2017 reportedly turned up “several containers” full of women’s bras, panties and clothing stored in the loft area of the garage.
In addition to bras and panties (seemingly preferring Victoria Secret items), Feasel allegedly took hair extensions, vibrators, headphones, photos, and one woman’s copy of the book, “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Many of those items have been identified by women – some who reported the crime before, and others who didn’t even realize items had been stolen. Police were able to locate some of the women by using Feasel’s notes, his mapping, and sometimes by student names on sorority clothing that was stolen, they said.
“Once we realized his mode of operandi and after getting evidence from the search warrant, we were able to go back and connect cases,” White said.
In one case, Feasel was linked to a crime scene by the DNA he reportedly left behind when he finished up a partially eaten pizza in a box in the refrigerator. He ate all but the crusts, which BCI tested and reportedly found Feasel’s DNA.
“He had such a cavalier approach,” White said, noting the number of times Feasel apparently entered the same homes.
In another case, Feasel reportedly stole the bottom half of a bikini, with the victim still having the top half.
The police are continuing the scour all the evidence found at Feasel’s home and on his electronic devices, and looking for other possible victims.
“There definitely is that potential,” White said. “I believe there is still more evidence.”
Police reportedly found multiple videos showing Feasel inside residences rummaging through bedroom dresser drawers. Some videos show the exterior of the homes, the women’s vehicles, and in one case, one of the victim’s birth certificate.
Feasel reportedly took videos outside bedroom windows of his victims in various states of undress.
Police also reportedly found video of Feasel took of himself lying on a bed in an unknown apartment, masturbating and ejaculating onto a pair of women’s underwear.
In some of the homes, he reportedly was caught when residents arrived home unexpectedly. In one case, he left a “very large pile of bras and panties,” containers of food and a laptop on the ground outside one of the windows, a police report said.
The police also reportedly found video during their search of unsuspecting women driving next to Feasel, women in parking lots, walking down the street, in parks, in bathroom stalls and in gyms. Some of the videos appear to be of breasts of unsuspecting women.
Police said they have spoken with a woman who was previously engaged to Feasel for 18 months, ending in March of 2016. She reportedly told police that she knew Feasel had previously been a “panty thief,” but he had attributed it to a nervous breakdown when he finished college.
The former fiancée said in the fall of 2015 that she discovered a pair of women’s underwear and an eyelash curler in Feasel’s work bag. She reportedly told police that she assumed he was cheating on her with another woman.
Police said most of the homes targeted by Feasel were unlocked when he entered. In cases where he was confronted by residents, he left, usually without speaking. His journal reportedly had detailed notes about several of the homes he visited, such as: No lights, easy window opening, no cars in drive, no blinds or lock, “must be a hot girl,” where to park, or door is locked so to look for alternative entries like the roof.
In many cases, the window screens had been tampered with, according to police.
So far, police have linked Feasel with stealing from homes in the following blocks:
- 100 block of Manville Avenue on May 22, 2012
- 100 block of East Court Street on Sept. 14 at 2012
- 100 block of Byall Avenue on May 21, 2015
- 200 block of South College Avenue on July 23, 2016
- 400 block of South Grove Street on March 5, 2017
- 300 block of East Merry Avenue on Sept. 9, 2017
- 200 block of North Enterprise Street on Oct. 22, 2017
After years of reportedly entering residents and taking personal items, Feasel was caught this past fall, police said.
In September, college students living in a house on East Merry Avenue reportedly found a man in their residence when they returned home around 1:30 in the morning. The man fled, leaving a pile of the women’s underwear and clothes under a window as he escaped.
The women reported that they believed this to be the third or fourth time the man had entered their home. They also told police the dead bolt to the basement had been damaged, and they felt Feasel had been down there listening to them. They have since moved to another location.
The next month, Feasel was arrested for trespassing in the 200 block of North Enterprise. In that case, the residents reportedly heard Feasel trying to enter by the front door. They called police, who apprehended Feasel outside the house. The search warrants reportedly allowed police to link Feasel with the previous crime.
Thirteen years ago, Feasel was charged with some of the same offenses. According to police reports from 2004, Feasel broke into 1480 Burrwood Drive, stealing personal items like jewelry and perfume. He apparently made several trips to and from the home in one night.
A female student in the home reportedly walked out of her bedroom at about 2 a.m. and saw Feasel standing in her bathroom. She locked herself in her bedroom until help arrived.
Feasel, a BGSU student at the time from Cygnet, was arrested and charged with burglary. Feasel told police that he was just curious and wanted to see what was happening at the residence.
According to police, Feasel’s pockets were overflowing with items he had tried to steal from the women early that morning. Reported stolen were underwear, bras, a video recorder, photographs, perfume, jewelry, make-up, tank tops, sweatshirts and a sorority bag.
The BGPD obtained a search warrant for Feasel’s car and apartment also in 2004. Among other items, Feasel had a telescope in the trunk of his car and police found sex toys, jewelry and underwear that were not just the Burrwood women’s items.
Police also found a journal kept by Feasel. The journal detailed Feasel’s plans for a website describing how to watch attractive people, how to dress up like a woman and how to set up a hidden video camera.
He was sentenced to six months in 2004.
After his arrest in October of 2017, police were reportedly able to determine that Feasel was researching how to remotely erase items from his iCloud and how his car could be retrieved from the location where it had been towed. He was reportedly unable to do either.
Apple requested that the police send an external hard drive due to the large data size of Feasel’s iCloud, according to police.
Feasel is being held in the Wood County jail.
