Although the police are keeping an eye on the situation, the individual— who was described as being in his 40s, having a medium build, about 6 feet tall, with a short "Elvis-like" haircut—has not been seen in these parks since the police talked to him on June 8.

"There was something really off about the guy," said one mother in the Las Madres Campbell group, who did not want her name in the paper. "The first time we saw him, he walked right into our group and sat next to one of the mothers while acting like he was browsing through his newspaper."

When that happened, the mothers became immediately uncomfortable and called the police. Although the incident occurred sometime in May, the women continued to contact the police on several other occasions, but said the response was less than speedy.

The Campbell Police Department said it is definitely concerned with issues like this.

"I'm saddened to hear that they felt their calls weren't met with interest," Campbell Police Capt. David Dehaan said. "We do take these things seriously, especially when it comes to crimes against children."

Dehaan said the police department had received a number of calls, but whenever a unit arrived on scene, the man was gone. But once they found the man, who was lingering in Jack Fischer Park, the police discovered pornographic materials in his van. Then they learned he had an obsession with women's breasts, which was the reason he was paying so much attention to the Las Madres group. Many of the mothers in the group nurse their children.

Dehaan also added that unless the man was showing the pornographic material to minors or harassing the women, he could not be arrested. However, that didn't deter the police from warning him about his behavior and making sure he knew they would be on the lookout for him in the future.

When the group's members learned that the police finally caught up with the man, they were relieved.

But the Las Madres incident isn't new, according to Campbell resident Shereen Jarrett. As a member of the Bay Area Chapter of the Attachment Parenting International parenting group, Jarrett said she noticed the same man six to seven months earlier. Her group was so frightened by the man when she saw him at John D. Morgan Park, the group decided not to visit Campbell parks again.

"At first we didn't think anything of it," she said. "But then some of us noticed that he situated himself very close to our group even though the whole park was empty. And after a while, he started moving closer and closer."

Eventually, she said, a number of parents noticed him acting suspiciously, peering over his newspaper just to look at the women as they changed their children's diapers. She said she called the Campbell Police Department and told the dispatcher and officers about the stranger. But whenever the man noticed someone pulling out a cell phone, he would suddenly get up to leave.

Moreover, she said, the police told her that since the man wasn't doing anything illegal, they couldn't do anything to him. Many mothers became upset when they heard that the police couldn't do anything unless he was actually committing a crime, she said.

"It was really disturbing," she said. "All we wanted was for a police car to patrol the area. We didn't need an arrest, just something to show the person that it wasn't safe for him to do what he was doing."

When Jarrett learned about the June 8 intervention by the police, she was also relieved. "That's really great," Jarrett said. "That's all we wanted anyway, someone just to scare him away."

And since then, the Las Madres group said it hasn't seen him in the park.