Bend man charged with stealing women’s jackets for sexual use

A 51-year-old Bend man faces theft and criminal mischief charges, accused of stealing nearly a dozen women’s jackets at Central Oregon Community College and OSU-Cascades over the past two years for sexual gratification.

Police received a report from a student on Nov. 7 that someone stole her jacket from inside the Barber Library at COCC, Lt. Clint Burleigh said.

Police learned from COCC Campus Public Safety that several similar jacket thefts had occurred at the library since November 2015, Burleigh said. They were “sporadically reported” to Campus Public Safety, Bend police or both, he added.

That day, police also learned from Campus Public Safety that they had conducted an independent investigation and had in March identified Mark Mahoney as the suspect in the thefts of women’s jackets between November 2015 and March of this year.

Police contacted Mahoney Nov. 8 at his southeast Bend home, and Burleigh said he admitted to stealing several high-end winter jackets since 2015. Several of the jackets were recovered by officers in the home or in Mahoney’s car, including the one reported stolen the previous day.

“Mahoney admitted to stealing the coats for sexual gratification,” Burleigh said in the news release.

In total, police were able to identify 10 thefts of jackets from COCC since 2015 and one from OSU-Cascades. Burleigh said they also determined he had stolen two jackets from the same victim on two different dates at the college library.

Mahoney was arrested and lodged at the Deschutes County Jail on three counts of second-degree theft and two counts of second-degree criminal mischief. A jail officer said he was released hours later to a responsible third party, pending a Nov. 21 court date.

Police asked anyone who experienced a similar jacket theft at the COCC library of OSU-Cascades or with other information to contact them at 541-693-6911.