“Word of warning to female movie-goers”

“Dear PoPville,

I was at E Street Cinema this past weekend to see Tully (great movie!). I was seated alone near the end of a row, and there were about a dozen other people in the theater. Before the start of the movie, a man sat at the end of my row, two seats away. Once the movie started after the previews, I could see from the corner of my eye that he was constantly looking over at me, trying to catch my attention, and I noticed that he was making a “rhythmic motion” with his hand at the opening of his loose-fitting gym shorts. I froze and stared at the screen.

After several more minutes of failing to get me to look over, he got up and left the theater. I pondered alerting the theater staff but also didn’t want to miss the movie to report some pervert. He returned and left the theater twice more, staying only about 5 minutes each time, once seated near me again, and once seated in the row in front of me near another woman who was seated alone, and repeating the same behavior. I wanted to get a good look at him to be able to give a description to the management, but also didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my attention. If I was a bolder person, maybe I would have tried to take a photo.

After the movie was over, I reported the incident to the management, and they took my complaint seriously. Although I couldn’t give a great description, I hoped the fact that he had entered and exited the theater twice after the start of the film would be enough to at least identify him on the security cameras.

Has this happened to other readers? I don’t have the habit of going to the movies alone, but I imagine that I was a better “target” for that reason.”