‘Computer licking’ man identified, charged

Store owner found behaviour bizarre, so he took surveillance video to police

Hamilton police have charged a 61-year-old Hamilton man with mischief under $5,000 after he was seen conspicuously licking both his hands then rubbing them on computer merchandise in a store on Tuesday.

The man, whose name police have not released, was identified after police received an anonymous tip from the community in response to an alert that went out Wednesday, accompanied by surveillance video from Parvenu Computers. It showed a man putting his hands in his mouth and then touching computer products on a rack in the store.

“We don’t yet know his motive,” said Const. Jerome Stewart, “but he was interviewed (by police) and then charged.” Stewart said there is no indication one way or another if the man has or has had COVID-19.

But for store owner Ed Chow, who dealt with the man when he came into Parvenu Computers, the whole episode was utterly “bizarre.”

“He talked very intelligently (about computers and such),” said Chow. “Then he starts putting his hands in his mouth and I’m thinking to myself, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ ” But it didn’t stop there. “He starts rubbing the computers. I mean, not just touching them but rubbing his hands all over them.”

What amplified the strangeness of what transpired was the incongruity of it. Chow said that the man was neatly dressed with a bag over his shoulder and was courteous and not in any way confrontational or mysterious, apart from the hand licking and subsequent rubbing of the products. And he apparently never made any attempt to hide what he was doing. It all happened right before Chow’s eyes, said the store owner.

“I’d never seen him in the store before, but he was no bum. I didn’t know what to do.” He did not challenge the man, who left the store as quietly and peacefully as he entered it.

But it turned out that right after the incident Chow had a scheduled call to make, to do computer work for well-known Hamilton lawyer Dean Paquette, a client of Chow’s computer business. Chow showed him the footage.

Chow said that Paquette told him, “That’s mischief,” and suggested he go the police, mischief being a chargeable offence. That’s what Chow did. Const. Stewart said that the way the police handled the complaint and the speed with which they put out the alert was totally affected by a consciousness of the gravity of the COVID situation.

“One hundred per cent,” he said. Under normal circumstances, police would have handled the case internally and, if they were to pursue it at all, would have exhausted all avenues before issuing an alert.

Said Chow, of his decision to go to the police, “I don’t want to see a second wave of COVID started.”

He added that this was only the second incident he has ever had at Parvenu Computers, and in the previous instance, he also stepped up, on the basis of surveillance equipment.

“My wife’s vehicle was parked behind the store and this guy breaks into it.” He saw him on the surveillance in the store. When Chow confronted him the burglar dashed and got onto his nearby getaway bicycle. But, undeterred, Chow gave chase and actually ran him down, putting him in a half-nelson.

In The Spectator report on the incident, back in 2010, Chow was described as running not just like a “whippet” but also like a “cheetah.” And so he became know among his friends as “cheetah man.”