NEWPORT BEACH : Suspect Held in Lingerie Capers

Police said Monday they have arrested a Garden Grove man accused of using underwear and other garments in stores to fondle unsuspecting women.

Sgt. Andy Gonis of the Newport Beach Police Department said that Manuel Medina Bailon, 31, an unemployed laborer, was implicated in three separate incidents that took place in women’s clothing or lingerie shops in the city last month.

Bailon entered the shops posing as a customer and then apparently told women shopping in the stores that he needed their help in sizing a particular garment, Gonis said.

“He would pick up a garment of clothing, hold it up against (the woman’s) body and then fondle her as he was apparently sizing it,” Gonis said. “That of course is sexual battery, which is what he was arrested for.”

The victims were frightened, Gonis said, but no one was hurt.

Bailon was held on $5,000 bail on the sexual-battery charge, a misdemeanor, Gonis said.

Costa Mesa police helped lead Newport investigators to the suspect after a similar incident in their city. After failing to find Bailon at his Garden Grove home, investigators tracked him down by leaving a false message at his home about potential employment.

“He was looking for work, so we said we had to meet him at a certain location,” Gonis said. The arrest came Sunday at about 7:30 a.m. on Bristol Street, he said.