Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — On March 25, 2024, a concerned mother contacted the Fagatogo Police Station (FPS) regarding an unknown male who was caught allegedly looking inside her bedroom window.

The suspect was apprehended and later charged with the following:

Count 1: Stalking — a class A misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to one (1) year, a fine of $1,000, or both; and,

Count 2: Trespass, a class B misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to six (6) months, a fine of $500, or both.

The defendant’s bail was set at $3,000.

According to the affidavit, on March 25, police responded to a call from a woman reporting that she had caught an unknown male outside her house peeking into her room from the window.

Upon arrival, police met up with the woman who reported the matter, and was also the victim in this case.

The victim showed the officers footage of the unknown male that she recorded using her phone camera when she walked out to check the outside of her house. The victim verbally briefed the officers and stated that she was in the room with her kids but her youngest child heard a noise outside their window. Her child told her about the noise and then she turned off the bedroom light, the television and the tablet and she noticed a flashlight from a phone shining from her window.

The victim further stated that she rushed outside of the house to her bedroom window area and observed an unknown male bending down to the window and peeking inside her room.

The victim called out to him and asked him who he was and what he was doing there? The victim explained that the unknown male ignored her and walked through a hole in her gated fence and took off.

The officers then asked the victim about the direction the suspect fled to and the victim pointed the officers towards her neighbor’s house where the suspect was renting.

Officers canvassed the area and located the suspect consuming an alcoholic beverage (wine) in the backyard and the landlord was confronting the suspect about what he did at his neighbor’s house. The landlord identified the suspect as Paia Fono.

The officers immediately apprehended Fono with the assistance of the landlord and placed him inside the police unit.

The victim was taken in a separate police unit to identify the unknown male that she said had been peeking into her bedroom, which she positively identified. Officers then secured the suspect and transferred him to the FPS for further investigation.

Upon arrival at the FPS at about 8:11 p.m, the suspect was Mirandized and he waived his rights and was willing to answer questions.

Fono was later booked and confined at the Tafuna Correctional Facility to await the next sitting of the District Court on March 26, 2024.

The defendant is identified as a 45-year-old U.S National.