Hero cat: Suspected Grey Lynn peeping tom caught

It appears a hero cat - Skinny - may have played a part. Photo / Facebook

A man has been arrested following a series of peeping tom incidents around Auckland's Grey Lynn.

And it appears a hero cat may have played a part.

Detective Senior Sergeant Marcia Murray said Avondale police arrested and charged a man "in relation to an incident in Grey Lynn around 2.30am this morning, where a person was reported to be peering through the window of a house".

Ms Murray said inquiries were continuing into other incidents in Grey Lynn, where an offender was reported to be taking images of occupants on his cellphone, through windows.

Carly Marr was outside having a cigarette after a marathon evening watching Game of Thrones when she saw her cat, Skinny, come scampering down the driveway.

She followed her cat's fearful gaze down the driveway towards Sackville St when she spotted the man.

"The guy was outside my bedroom squatting by the window and he was trying to look through my blinds of my window holding a phone.

"I yelled at him while following him [with my brother] and got the police on the phone."

She said police arrived with a police dog and apprehended the peeping tom not long after.

"My window was open behind the blinds, it's good I looked, because who knows what would have happened?"

Ms Carr said at the time she'd been more angry than scared of the guy, who she described as having hair tied in a bun.

Skinny was rewarded with cuddles and extra food. Photo / Supplied

Today she'd rewarded Skinny with some cuddles and extra food.

"That's all she cares about."

In March, the Herald revealed a peeping Tom was taking advantage of Auckland's weather to reach through open windows and film people.

At the time the man was understood to have images or film of several people on his cellphone, which he lost in a scuffle with a rattled victim.

Police were also called to a house in Grey Lynn one night last week after a resident reported a man using a cellphone to film occupants through a window.

The offender fled after a police dog and handler couldn't track him.

The Herald reported that on February 25 a Grey Lynn woman saw a forearm hanging through her open window. The man was holding a cellphone and filming her.

The woman ran over and hit the man's arm to make him go away. The cellphone dropped to the floor and was later handed to police, who found images of several people on the phone.

The woman had left her window ajar to try to get cooler air circulating during Auckland's nightly heatwave.

Police were aware of similar incidents in the same week and are still advising people to be vigilant when it comes to home security, and to use locks on their windows at night.

University of Canterbury criminologist Professor Greg Newbold said earlier this year incidents such as this were likely to happen because of the prevalence of cellphones.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice show 128 people were convicted of offences relating to intimate visual recordings in the five years to 2014.