Guests, police say Carowinds too slow to respond to man allegedly exposing himself

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Worried parents told security guards that a man was sitting in the water park at Carowinds on Sunday, exposing himself. He was fondling himself, a little girl was sitting on his knee, and the witnesses wanted authorities to do something. By the end of the day, the accused man was in the hospital and one family said they would never go to the theme park again. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say park officials should have gotten in touch with them sooner – the delay makes it harder for them to investigate.

Read more from The Charlotte Observer.

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Jeff's avatar
This sounds awfully one sided. The park can't simply accuse someone of this without seeing it happen, and I wonder if the guy was being observed but didn't do anything more, thus the inaction. Just sounds like there are gaps in the story, especially with no one being charged with anything.
I agree Jeff, I don't know the whole story. But he should have atleast been detained before leaving the park and his information taken.
The guy gaught off lucky with only a concussion and missing tooth. I would have done a little more damage than just knocking him out. Predators like that should be busted immediately by the park security and the police department. The police should have been called first inside of waiting around for security to handle it.
The whole story needs to come out. Maybe there's something to the accusations, and maybe there's not, but the news account raises several questions.

Why in a crowded water park is a man allegedly exposing himself and fondling himself seen only by members of one family? Since when is not liking the way one person looks at someone else grounds for charging them with a crime? I think someone intent on molesting someone would be overly friendly, not menacing looking.

If the park brings in police and haul the guy off and it turns out he wasn't doing what he was accused of, the park faces a lawsuit for harassment along with damages for embarrassing the guy. As it stands now, that Rikard guy might be facing a lawsuit.

Jeff's avatar
Yeah, vigilante justice fixes everything! Just beat the crap out of whomever you want! *rolls eyes*
Lord Gonchar's avatar
Saw this on the Charlotte news the night it supposedly happened. (We went to the park the next day)

It was incredibly one-sided. The way the local news told the story, you'd think that Carowinds condoned and encourage public masturbation in the water park.

What seemed like really happened if you looked past the drama, was that one guy claims he saw the man exposed withhis daughter on his lap, told officials, and then when they couldn't prove it, the guy waited at the gate and clocked the man.

I'm all for kicking the living crap out of people who do stuff to or around kids, but even I was saying, "I'm not so sure..." the night we saw this on the news.

kpjb's avatar
It was his daughter on his lap? If it was a random girl I'd easily label him a pedophile. Knowing that, I don't know... maybe he was just adjusting his boys. In the small amount of time that I work at a waterpark each year, I can't tell you how many times I've seen a slip of a wing wang or bajinga from people innocently adjusting their suits. If I went around staring at people's crotches, I'd probably see more.

(As a side note, if they ever do offer a public masturbation day at Carowinds, we should make it a club event. Maybe get some EMT.)

The accuser lost all credibility when he assaulted this guy. He should've been arrested and charged with assault.

Talk about major paranoia. If criminals are lurking at every corner, then why do people go to water parks?

I wonder if this would fall under the same types of rules as the ones that require teachers, health workers, and others to report child abuse to authorities any time that they suspect it.

Also, the article doesn't say anything about the girl being the man's daughter. It only mentions that she might have been a relative.

There are definately a lot of details missing from the story but some of those details might not be able to be released.

Talk about major paranoia. If criminals are lurking at every corner, then why do people go to water parks?

Reminds me of a news article I read yesterday of a man in England who took his two kids to an inflatable slide in a park and was taking pictures of his own kids. The operator of the slide and another patron alerted the police, suspecting this man as a pedofile (spelling). For once common sense won out over "Zero Tolerance" when the police questioned him and he showed them the innocent pictures of his kids having fun on the slide. The police agreed with him that "the world is going crazy" when they saw that it was over reaction by the paranoid others.

*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/17/2008 11:19:16 AM ****** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/17/2008 11:20:30 AM ***

The park shoould have immediately contacted the police who then could have conducted a proper imvestigation and if they had probable cause that a crime was committed they would arrested the subject. And if probable didnt exist, then the guy wouldnt have been arrested.The park wouldnt have been the one accusing the guy, it would have been the witness who said he obsvered tha guy's actions.To me the park has a DUTY to safe guard kids in the parks and should report this activity immediately if reported to them and let the police investigate and detemine if a crime was committed.
*** This post was edited by Bob O 7/17/2008 9:32:29 AM ***
MajorcutL It's people like you that give sensible vigilantes a bad name!

Don't you miss the days, when stories were investigated, and researched before they are made available to the public?Corporate media sucks.It sounds like some guy was trying to adjust his swimsuit, and happened to catch the eye of some guy who wanted to be a hero. Crazy.
*** This post was edited by El Gato Coastro 7/17/2008 12:24:07 PM ***

matt.'s avatar
"In the small amount of time that I work at a waterpark each year, I can't tell you how many times I've seen a slip of a wing wang or bajinga from people innocently adjusting their suits."

Sounds like I need a new part-time job.

I was thinking it might have been something as innocent as a "re-packaging" issue, and the guy was looking around hoping that nobody was watching him as he adjusted. I just don't have the vocabulary that kpjb does.

Now if the complainant had said the guy was doing this for 15 minutes, I'd say yeah there's an issue. But all it says it that they saw him exposing himself and fondling himself.

I guess we'll have to go back to the days when people went to the beach covered from neck to ankles in the name of good taste. What next-- guys in men's rooms and changing rooms are exposing themselves?

matt, when you get that job, make sure somebody doesn't have a problem with the way you look at anybody.

I'm all for putting the boots to child molesters but I do agree it appears there is a lot of information missing from this article. I agree with whoever said there's countless accidental mishaps with baithing attire. If you go around looking for it you are bound to see it even more so. Perhaps the park could have called the police sooner and they could have made the determination if a crime had happened. You never know, maybe the park sent someone to check this guy out or observe him and determined he was doing nothing wrong.

People today are very parinoid and call the police or whoever way too many times for stupid things. Things have become so odd in this country. Everyone is affriad of everything. People are affraid of strangers to the point they call the cops on them and authorities are affraid to take action sometimes because of all the lawsuits. People want to sue everyone and everything for millions if the police simply come up to them and ask them some questions in public. I really don't know where we will be as a whole in 10 years.

If people keep voting Republican, most likely dead, or heavily debt-ridden
^ That statement makes as much sense as saying that if people vote democrat then child molesters will be allowed to run free.
The Republicans have allowed a major bank to fail, and allowed predatory lender to give out bad mortage. If you do not think the current US problems are not the fault of the Republicans, then you are delusional.
The Mole's avatar
Republicans also took the trees out of Dorney!

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