A 51-year-old man has been arrested and charged for allegedly performing an indecent act at a downtown Vancouver mall earlier this week. Robert Finlay MacLeod was allegedly found masturbating in a stairwell at Pacific Centre around 8 p.m. Wednesday, the Vancouver Police Department said in a Friday news release. Security encountered MacLeod and asked him to leave, “at which point he allegedly exposed himself,” according to the release. “Security called 911 and followed the man out of the mall until police arrived and made the arrest nearby.” MacLeod remains in custody awaiting a bail hearing, which is scheduled for Sept. 17, police said. Online court records suggest this is far from MacLeod’s first time before a judge. There are more than 60 entries matching his name in the provincial Court Services Online database, including several from earlier this year. Records indicate a man named Robert Finlay MacLeod, born in 1975, was sentenced to one day in jail for performing an indecent act in public back in September 2025. He later received a one-day sentence on Feb. 25 of this year for breaching his probation related to the indecent act conviction. Less than two weeks later, on March 9, he was sentenced to three days in jail for another probation breach. The same name and birth year are also associated with two recent convictions for assault, which resulted in one-day sentences imposed on Jan. 16 and Feb. 25 of this year. MacLeod is due in downtown community court on Sept. 17 for an appearance on a charge of breaching probation in connection to the Jan. 16 assault conviction. The appearance location and time is the same as the one listed for the indecent act charge shared by the VPD.
