This email is circulating around the soccer moms in Pensacola. This isn’t an urban myth, but an email from a concerned and frightened mother.
“Hey everybody, I think I am doing the right thing by getting the word out about what happened to us at the new fountain (Palafox Plaza – at the end of Palafox St.) today. First of all, we went last Thursday just totally spur of the moment and had a spectacular time so I thought I’d make it a weekly thing for the kids and me to do. So, this day I remembered the towels, the food for the birds, the dry clothes, the snacks, etc., etc., that I did not have last week just to insure that today would be even better.
When we got there, the fountain was not on, but a guy was working on it and said it would be about 10 minutes. So we got out to feed the birds and watch the boats. I remembered a pair of binoculars was in the car so I grabbed them just to add something else to do in case it took longer than 10 minutes. So, everything is going along beautifully. The fountain is fixed and the kids are playing and we’re all just enjoying the day.
About 20 minutes later I see a guy walking up the sidewalk. A completely normal, good looking guy wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, t-shirt and khaki shorts. He could have been any of our husbands or brothers; that’s how normal he appeared. Then he took out his camera and is taking pictures of the kids playing in the water. So, I go into high alert but then he takes some pictures of a boat, the pier, etc. so I calm down a bit.
Then he comes into the fountain area and takes pictures of the big plaque things at one of the entrances. I was sitting right next to one and he walked right up to it, took the picture but stood there to read it. He didn’t speak to me even though I could have easily reached over and touched him. That’s how close he got to me. So, I’m thinking, this guy does not respect boundaries because he got right into my ‘personal space’ without saying a word to me.
So, I’m back on high alert, of course. I noticed that he was standing with one arm behind his back while he was reading the plaque. It was the hand that held the camera and he is sneakily taking pictures of B. (her daughter – I’ve edited the name) playing in the water. G. (I’ve edited the name of her son, too) was sitting next to me and B. was the only one playing in the water. I grabbed the towels and the bag and tell B. it’s time to go.
Well, B. was having one of her ‘I’m the boss of myself’ moments which was causing G. to be unguarded. These days, ya know, it’s not just the little girls that can get hurt by these freaks.
I then announced that Daddy would be walking up to have lunch with us ANY MINUTE and they could ‘watch him walk up THAT side walk because he works in THAT building….’ So, he walked about 5 or 8 feet away from us. He still had that camera behind his back though. I remembered the binoculars in the bag so I looked over at him with them and he was steady pushing that button over and over and over at B.
As soon as he saw me with the binoculars looking at him, he walked away back up the street and I lost him from my vision due to the parked cars and traffic coming in and out of that area.
A few minutes later, a Pensacola police truck comes by and I waved to him to ask him about the situation. He said that area is crawling with pedophiles. I asked him to tell me what are the boundaries about strangers taking pictures of children. There aren’t any because it’s a public place.
He really went into great detail about the dangers of the area and said flat out that he would not bring his daughter down there. I gave him a description of the guy and he said that he would look for him and ask him for his identification. I really didn’t want the policeman to tell him that I had done the complaining so he said that he promised he could come up with a reason to ask him for his ID without mentioning anything about the fountain area. He wanted to do that b/c there may have been other complaints about him.
So, he drives off and I’m kind of OVER the whole fun day at the fountain idea, right? I take the kids to the car and I’m getting them in their dry clothes, snacks, whatever else they needed. I had backed into the parking place and parked by the port-o-potty things. I start the car, fix the rear view mirror and low and behold the same guy is standing sort of out from behind the potty things with a piece of paper looking at the back of my car writing down what I can only guess was my license plate information. I got out of there as fast as I could.
I saw another policeman in his vehicle in a nearby parking lot and told him about it. He was not so caring and quickly let me know that it wasn’t a crime to take pictures or write on a piece of paper standing behind someone’s car.
So, take it or leave it but I could not let the day end without warning as many people as I could. If you go, don’t go alone. There’s always more safety in numbers.
Please include my children’s safety in your prayers. Please let people know what is hanging around that area.”