The Dangerous Side of 'Silly' Crimes

July 15, 2004 -- -- Despite the initial snickers it may spark, underwear theft is no laughing matter — and could be a harbinger of more sinister crimes.

Police in Corvallis, Ore., say underwear theft is one of the main reasons they consider Sung Koo Kim a person of interest in the disappearance of Brigham Young University student Brooke Wilberger. Wilberger, 19, was last seen May 24 at a Corvallis apartment complex her sister manages.

Kim, 30, is accused of stealing women's underwear from three different Portland-area college dormitories or laundry rooms, including an April burglary at Oregon State University's Sacket Hall — which is near the site where Wilberger was last seen. Police who searched Kim's home said they found more than 3,000 pairs of women's panties and recovered dryer lint that was traced to Wilberger's sister's apartment complex.

Kim has not been charged in the Wilberger case. He has pleaded not guilty to burglary charges in the alleged underwear raids. His lawyer has said that there is evidence that places him away from Corvallis on the day Wilberger disappeared, but police say they cannot verify the alibi.

If investigators had never identified him as a potential suspect, his alleged panty pilfering may have been a candidate for local newspapers' weird crime columns. But experts say fetish crimes — such as sock stealing and underwear theft — can be a warning sign that a suspect is capable of more dangerous crimes.

"One of the things it could indicate is that the person is working their way toward rape of a real person," said criminal profiler Pat Brown, CEO of the Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency. "By sneaking into someone's place, they're showing that they can invade their territory. What that person is showing the other person is that he has no problem invading her space.

"Taking someone's underwear does two things," Brown said. "It shows that you were there and that you're taking a souvenir of your accomplishment. He is getting as near to the person's skin, so to speak, as he can possibly get."

Stealing Socks, Locks of Hair

Underwear theft isn't the only peculiar crime that can reflect individual fetishes. On July 2, an Ohio man allegedly grabbed a 9-year-old boy, took him behind a store and stole the socks from his feet after the boy refused to sell him the footwear. Suspect Maurice Teague told investigators he had more than 500 pairs of children's socks, police said.

The "Haircut Bandit" terrorized long-haired women and girls in Long Beach, Calif., for about a month starting in December 2001. The attacker would sneak up behind a woman from behind and chop off a hunk of hair with either a knife or scissors, then run away. When police arrested a suspect, they found dozens of photographs of nude women in various stages of having their hair cut and several videos with pornographic hair titles.

Some serial killers had noted fetishes. Convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin collected the underwear of the 17 prostitutes he killed in the New York area. Kansas serial killer John Robinson Jr. met some of his victims in sadomasochist chat rooms, where he used the moniker "Slavemaster."

Hadden Clark, who is serving time in Maryland for the murders of a 23-year-old woman and a 6-year-old girl, wore women's underwear — which investigators had purchased for him at his request — when he allegedly confessed to more slayings in 2000. Clark called himself a serial killer, saying he had cannibalized some of his female victims so that he could "become" them. However, the places where he told police to look for victims' remains turned up empty, casting doubt on his claims.

No Way to Predict ‘Graduation’

But do sock thieves, haircut bandits and peeping Toms really belong in the same category as serial killers?

A fetishist becomes sexually excited by a nonsexual object — but there's no way to tell if that person will one day commit a fetish crime, either something seemingly minor, like stealing socks, or something more sinister.

"The widespread belief used to be that the individual that exhibited the perversions was unable to consummate the sexual act, that the only was he was able to carry out a sexual act was from afar," said Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University. "It used to be thought that the individual did not graduate to rape or murder. That's what the belief was, but that turned out to be less than 100 percent [accurate]."

Police have to make more serious crimes their top priority, so they may not recognize that a seemingly harmless obsession is a warning sign until after a violent offense has occurred.

"You know hindsight is always 20/20, and people are always seeing the signs after the fact," said Levin. "That's what makes these cases so difficult. There are thousands who engage in minor sexual perversions and most of them never graduate into something more serious."

‘A Sick Satisfaction’

Fetish crime victims may not be close to suspects — or even know them at all. In cases like these, the fetish crime suspects are after sexual gratification they may not be able to get through more traditional ways, but they can also be motivated by rage or a need for power.

"Usually the guy that will go to do something more serious is the one who likes upsetting people," Brown said. "He wants to make people uncomfortable, invade their territory. He wants to bother them, upset them. It's a rage thing. He wants to vent his rage by invading their territory. He has a sick satisfaction of knowing that's he upset you. He's angry at society, and he gets satisfaction out saying, 'Ha ha! Look what I've done to you.' "

Meanwhile, Corvallis police investigating Brooke Wilberger's disappearance are looking for any new leads in her case, and wondering if they can somehow connect Sung Koo Kim's alleged fetish to the missing student's fate. For now, he remains just one of five people whom police have looked at.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Corvallis Police Department Dispatch Tip Line at (541) 766-6989 or 877-367-2270. Or visit the Web site: http://www.findbrooke.com.