It coulda been worse.
Posted on 05/31/2002 7:08:04 AM PDT by marshmallow
CLEARWATER -- After hearing a horn honking off Clearwater Beach on Sunday evening, beachgoers gazed out to sea, where they saw a man standing on a boat with his shorts down at his ankles.
What the beachgoers saw left little to the imagination. They saw him gyrate and swing his hips as if engaged in sexual activity. He was trying to get the attention of some women standing on a hotel balcony.
There were children on the beach who saw the man, some as young as 3 years old, police said.
When the adults asked the man to stop, they were met only with expletives and more swiveling of the hips. Police said the man then swam to shore, dropped his shorts to his knees, put his hands behind his head and gyrated some more.
The antics lasted for at least an hour.
Witnesses called the police, but the man had left by the time officers arrived. A perfect getaway for the Memorial Day weekend flasher?
Not quite.
Carissa Dolitsky, who was on the beach with her family, including her young niece and nephew, videotaped much of the incident. She zoomed in on the boat's registration number and its name: Relaxin'.
When the naked man saw her taping, his antics became more aggressive as he and his friends yelled sexual remarks at her. She also captured a unique dragon tattoo on his chest.
"When I started videotaping him, it became a show," Dolitsky said Thursday. "I was like, "Great, he's doing a show for a police officer, because that's who's going to see the tape.' "
Police came to the beach and viewed the video at Dolitsky's parents' condo.
Armed with the tape, Clearwater police Officer Stephanie Vilar tracked the man to his workplace Wednesday night. The man admitted dropping his shorts, police spokesman Wayne Shelor said.
Vilar arrested Timothy Hoskins Jr., 27, of 2049 Edgewater Drive, on a charge of lewd and lascivious exhibition. He was being held Thursday at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
The incident occurred about 6 p.m. Sunday in the waters off the 600 block of Gulfview Boulevard S. The boat Hoskins was on was parked 20 to 30 feet offshore behind the Continental Towers.
"The guy kept blowing the boat's horn, got the attention of people on the beach and elsewhere, and lowered his pants," Shelor said.
Dolitsky said there were as many as 100 people on the beach at that time, many of them children. Parents shooed some kids back to their hotel or condo, others led their children away from the exhibition.
Alcohol had an influence on Hoskins' actions, an arrest report states.
Dolitsky said there often are boats anchored in that area on weekends, and occasionally you will see a quick flash from somebody who had a few too many. But she had never seen such a display as she did Sunday.
"We look over, and there is a guy standing on the back of his boat with his pants around his ankles," Dolitsky said. "And at first, we were like, "Oh my God, you've got to be kidding.' We kind of chuckled at first.
"But they stayed down there," she added. "He just carried it on too far for too long."
Vilar tracked down Hoskins Wednesday night at Post Corner Pizza, 431 Gulfview Blvd. S. The officer took him outside and asked if he remembered what he had done on the boat. He shrugged his shoulders and said he did, Shelor said.
"He admitted to it after being read his rights," Shelor said.
It coulda been worse.
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