Good morning. It’s Friday, September 4. Expect a warm, humid weekend with no hurricane landfall but maybe some spotty rain. Rip currents will be brutal, so be cautious about going into the water.
The evolving L.A. media language for an olfactory offender
A screenshot from a KTLA broadcast on Tuesday, September 1. (KTLA)
The name “Calese Crowder” may not mean much to you. But the phrase “serial butt-sniffer” probably does.
Crowder first became nationally prominent in 2023, when he was arrested after video of him sniffing multiple butts at a Burbank Barnes & Noble was posted on TikTok. He was arrested again in 2025 for the same behavior at a Burbank Nordstrom Rack.
The story played out again this week with very few distinctions from the previous installments, except Crowder had moved his activities one town over to Glendale, where security cameras caught him crouching to inspect a low shelf at a discount store, then allegedly sniffing an employee's butt. Based on court records, Crowder has been convicted of crimes in at least fifteen separate incidents since 2005, on charges ranging from robbery to multiple incidents of “peeking while loitering” — a criminal offense under California Penal Code Section 647(i).
Crowder’s repeated cycles of catch and release have also given L.A. journalists multiple opportunities to cover his activities — and a close examination of the coverage demonstrates a significant evolution in the language deployed by news outlets to describe his behavior. Perhaps even an evolution in our culture writ large.
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