An Ohio woman confronted a sex offender who was recording her teenage daughter in a Target — and police say they can’t take any action to stop the man.
Monica Geisel was with her 16-year-old daughter in a Rossford, Ohio, Target this week when the incident occurred, local outlet 13 ABC reports. Her daughter caught the confrontation between Ms Geisel and the man on video.
“You took a video,” Ms Geisel tells the man. “Show it to me.”
The man, who police confirmed is a registered sex offender, claims he took a video of her daughter’s cart instead as Ms Geisel reaches for his phone.
“That’s disgusting,” she continued. In a later conversation with 13 ABC, Ms Geisel said she saw videos of other people on his phone too.
“I see a ton of videos of other people on there, other girls on there, and so that’s when I try to grab his phone and he instantly, you know, like, pushed my arm and like took it, and that’s when he started walking away,” Ms Geisel told the outlet. “It’s not that he was just recording people, he’s recording her inappropriately, and he’s zooming in on body parts of her.”
The video - which was filmed by Ms Geisel daughter and shared online - then shows Ms Geisel following the man to the store’s entrance, shouting to the room: “This guy’s making videos of underage girls at Target.”
Rossford Police Chief Todd Kitzler told The Independent his office cannot take action against the man, whose identity has yet to be released.
“Now, it’s disturbing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s, it’s not illegal,” Chief Kitzler said.
After the Target incident, Rossford police encountered the man while doing a traffic stop. While speaking to him, Chief Kitzler said his officers conferred with a prosecutor during the stop — who told them they cannot take any legal action.
“We contacted the sheriff’s office, which monitors his offender registration, and they said that there was nothing they could do,” Chief Kitzler told The Independent.
“We determined that he’s not on parole or probation or anything like that, so our hands were pretty much tied,” he continued.
Ms Geisel told 13 ABC she is now spreading the video and her story to raise awareness for other community members. That has led to many social-media users to comment about the situation.
“Why did no one help her as this was going on....and it’s not a crime for strangers to film underage children? Come on.... This world needs to start doing better,” one user posted on Facebook.
“Unbelievable that nothing can be done,” another said.
Other Facebook users praised Ms Geisel for her quick thinking: “We need more strong and bold moms like her out there protecting their daughters!”
