Posted on 09/03/2009 12:49:01 PM PDT by Bodleian_Girl
DAYTONA BEACH -- The men's restroom on the second floor of the Volusia Mall Sears is no place for children, police said Wednesday with the release of surveillance photos of a man believed to have made sexual advances toward a 13-year-old boy.
"Our biggest fear is children going into these bathrooms, especially with these predators circling around," Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "It was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen."
The boy, visiting from Illinois with his godparents, was propositioned two weeks ago in the restroom, Chitwood said.
The man was in a stall and slid toilet paper through one of the cracks. Then he asked the boy a lewd question.
"I guess that's what they do now. It used to be tapping their foot," Chitwood said, making reference to a 2007 undercover sting inside the same restroom, in which nine men were arrested and accused of engaging in questionable behavior.
The boy rebuffed the suspect, a report states, and, when the youngster came out of the stall, the man was waiting for him near the urinal and repeated his lewd question. As the boy hurried to the door, the suspect exposed himself and "began rubbing himself."
This Sears restroom still appears on a Web site that exists for men to meet one another, Chitwood said.
"They advertise these bathrooms," the chief said. "A 13-year-old boy comes to our city, and this is what they are exposed to."
He said a number of the men arrested "in the Sears bathroom we all know so well," are from the west side of the state.
During the 2007 sting, some of the men were local, notably former Daytona Beach City Commissioner Mike Shallow.
Misdemeanor charges against Shallow, who was nabbed by Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Rich Gardner during the operation, were later dismissed by a judge. A county judge ruled that Gardner's peeking at Shallow through the stall was an "illegal search."
julie.murphy@news-jrnl.com
“I visited other countries like New Zealand and Japan and their bathroom stalls offer much better privacy. Full length doors and partition walls and no cracks between door and partition. “
You also have holes in the ground in much of Japan.
Hey I live in Florence Ky and I haven’t heard a thing about this. Please give me some info.
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