VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. Nov. 3 2007 — A high school teacher and a former city commissioner were among nine men busted in a sex sting at the Volusia Mall in Daytona Beach. Security officers at Sears called police after they witnessed several men engaging in lewd behavior inside a men’s restroom.What is scary is that these are people that we trust to be political leaders, we trust with our children,” said Chief Michael Chitwood of the Daytona Beach Police Department.Police received a tip from mall security and the information was confirmed when they read several posts on Craigslist.org. Detectives arrested former Daytona Beach city commissioner Michael Shallow and David Behringer, a teacher at Sea Breeze High School, Thursday.The arrests came after a 10-hour stakeout of the men’s restrooms at the Sears store in the Volusia Mall. A total of nine men are accused of lewd and lascivious behavior and exposure of a sexual organ.“This is a clandestine sub-culture event where there are certain signs that we wouldn’t pick up on unless you knew what they were,” Chief Chitwood said.According to undercover officers, the suspects would go into the bathroom as Sears and tap their feet or zip their zippers up and down several times and even look under bathroom stalls, seeking others to join in sexual misconduct. Police learned the men used the restroom as a place to meet from websites like Craigslist.org.“There was an incident that occurred on October 29th where security saw this guy doing his business. They kicked the door in and threw him out of Sears. That incident made Craigslist,” Chief Chitwood stated.Police said two of the nine men arrested were registered sex offenders, including one who was previously caught masturbating in the restroom of a daycare center. All of them were booked into the Volusia County jail with bail set at $1,000.“We’re coming up on the Christmas season. You’re out there shopping at the mall. Your kid wants to run into the bathroom and you’ve got a bunch of sick perverts that are in there doing their thing,” Chief Chitwood said.Sea Breeze High School teacher David Behringer resigned Friday after his arrest and the school district accepted his resignation.Eyewitness News found that the Sears bathroom is not the only store named online for sexual activity. Eyewitness News also found a Macy’s and a JC Penney’s bathroom mentioned. The list goes beyond parks and a few department stores, though. Skydive DeLand, the bathroom at a New Smyrna Beach convenience store and the parking lot at a Home Depot in Port Orange are named as places for men to hook up.
No comments:
Post a Comment