A search warrant obtained Monday by 24 Hour News 8 described the 2007 incident.
A Muskegon-area woman told police she was walking through the Sam?s Club parking lot on Sherman Boulevard on Oct. 5, 2007, when she noticed a man videotaping her from his tan car.
She told police the car followed her as she drove away, but that she made a quick stop and got his license plate.
The woman told 24 Hour News 8 she immediately called police from her car, but that the man followed her a little longer before driving away. She said police warned her to keep an eye out for him.
Records show the license plate came back to Jeffrey Willis.
That police report was taken by Fruitport Police, which didn?t arrest Willis and didn?t issue him a ticket.
?Whether not he?d been on anybody?s radar, he was a person sitting in a parking lot, videotaping people,? Hilson said. ?Again, right or wrong, it?s not illegal.?
Six years later, the disappearance of Jessica Heeringa from a Norton Shores gas station led police to search for a silver mini-van ? based on a description and grainy surveillance photographs ? without a license plate.
Prosecutors said Willis?s van was among more than 100 checked out by police ? based on tips ? shortly after the disappearance.
The license plate on his silver van was the same plate he had on the tan car back in 2007 during that videotaping incident.