A man suspected of causing a scare by marking shoes belonging to women in a community in Taichung’s Shalu District (沙鹿) likely has a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a psychiatrist said.
Police said that the man, surnamed Lin (林), faces charges of trespassing and damaging personal property.
Lin, 23, works at a fish market in Taichung, and is married with two children, police said on May 19.
In March, in a community near Providence University, where many female university students rent apartments, women began to notice black dots on their shoes, police said, adding that they were scared that their shoes were being marked by would-be assailants.
Investigators found that Lin had lived in the community and after moving out allegedly retained the magnetic access card.
Records showed that he went there on March 22, when he apparently used a black marker to draw dots on the sides of shoes, investigators said.
Lin allegedly only marked shoes belonging to women, they said, adding that the dots corresponded to the shoe size, with a size 23 shoe having two plus three dots on it, for example.
Commenting on the case, Wen Wei-chun (溫偉鈞), a psychiatrist in Taichung, said that Lin could have obsessive-compulsive disorder.
If a student always places a cup of water at a specific spot on their desk when studying, or a person needs to check that the gas valve and windows are closed several times before leaving the house, they are showing signs of the disorder, Wen said.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder might only affect the sufferer, but other people would see it as odd behavior, he said.
When such behavior seriously interferes in a person’s life or the lives of others — for example if they continuously wash their hands, despite having already harmed their hands by over-washing, or have to check the gas valve so often that they are always late or are afraid of leaving their home — they need professional treatment, Wen said.
If people know of someone with such problems they should try to get that person to visit a psychiatrist or neurology specialist, Wen added.
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