He Just Wanted to Shake Women’s Hands—as Cross-Dresser in Restroom

People often dress up for movies—Harry Potter fans being the latest example. But one visitor to the Grossmont Center cinemas was acting up in the wrong place at the wrong time Sunday—a man in the women’s restroom.

That afternoon, a possibly middle-aged man was reported to be wearing older women’s clothing and a face mask, pretending to be a woman, La Mesa police said Wednesday. 

The dressed up man came out of a stall inside the women’s restroom at the movie theater at Reading Cinemas Grossmont Center 10, said police Lt. Dan Willis.

“At the time, the reporting person, a woman washing her hands at the sink counter, was approached by the dressed up man, who asked the woman if he could shake her hand,” Willis said. 

“When the woman said ‘No,’ the subject left and was walking around the lobby of the movie theater asking to shake the hands of women. 

A police “calls for service” report mislabeled the incident as indecent exposure, Willis said.

But it was merely a Municipal Code violation—an adult being in the opposite sex bathroom. 

“There is no further information on the subject, and we have not had any similar calls,” Willis said.