Police: 'Peeping Tom' suspect caught in act

HOUSTON It turns out the man has allegedly done it more than 20 times before. Now, that girl's mother is calling for a change in the law.

According to the mother of a pre-K child, they're both the victims of a serial Peeping Tom whose intentions, she fears, went beyond spying on them in a bathroom. She's mad, but she's also asking a lawmaker to help her get even with new legislation.

Ten days ago at a Meyerland Plaza restaurant, a bathroom break for the mother and daughter turned into the stuff of nightmares.

"I saw a man looking up at me ... he was on the floor ... sticking out underneath," Tracey Gable said.

Even more disturbing, the man had been watching Tracy Gable's daughter as she was alone in the bathroom stall. The man they identified to police is 59-year-old Lincoln Moreno.

Gable called for the manager. Moreno was corralled in the restaurant until police arrived. What stunned the mother even more was what she says was found in his briefcase, which she called a rape kit.

"He had a recording device, electrical tape, duct tape, a clear, plastic bag, a sock with a pacifier inside of it," Gable said. "At that point, I had to walk away."

Moreno has been charged with criminal trespass. It's his 26th offense. His first conviction more than 30 years ago sent him to prison. The charge was felony sexual abuse of a child.

"Prior felony convictions for sexual abuse of a child, yet he's allowed to frequent establishments that are geared toward families and children," Gable said.

On Wednesday, Gable took that question to State Rep. Garnet Coleman. Moreno's sex offender conviction predated the sex offender registry law. He says he plans to close that loophole.

"It tells me that we had a guy out there who was looking to kidnap a child," Coleman said. "It tells me that our law isn't appropriate to the crime that was committed."

Coleman says he plans to introduce a law for people who commit criminal trespass with the intention of sexual gratification.