Friends,
The news desk here at Jaunty Central is humming at least 24 hours a week to bring you aggregate the latest news about Idyllwild (or containing the word “Idyllwild” somewhere in the text). This morning, chilling news about a man who appears to be a pencil distributor. The Press-Enterprise’s own John Asbury has some, but not all of the details:
Man arrested outside Idyllwild school
6:15 AM Tue, May 12, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted by: PE NewsAn Idyllwild man was arrested Monday after deputies said he was offering children pencils outside a school.
A parent called authorities to report that a man tried to lure four 11-year-old students to his car to give them pencils outside the Idyllwild School, according to a Riverside County sheriff’s report.
Police arrested [some dude], 64, on suspicion of child annoyance and a probation violation.
I get the annoyance part. If he was handing out Wacom tablets and copies of Photoshop, they might have changed their tune a little. My question (and yours too, I would think) is what is this fella on probation for? My guess is not for the wanton distribution of writing implements…
– bob
UPDATE: Leave it to the Town Crier to flesh out the story. We still don’t know why this guy’s on probation, but J.P. still brings the goods in this week’s paper:
Man arrested at school
By J.P. Crumrine, News Editor
[Some dude], 64, of Idyllwild, was arrested last Friday on suspicion of annoying children at Idyllwild School. Principal Matt Kraemer sent a note home with the students alerting parents to the situation.
On Thursday, a man apparently approached several students and offered them free pencils to use for the state testing exams, which had already concluded. The man told children that if they accompanied him to his car, he would give them the pencils.
None of the students whom he approached complied. Instead, several came to the school office and reported the man, who was gone by the time Kraemer went searching for him.
On Friday, a suspect fitting the same description repeated his solicitation with an 11-year-old girl and her three friends who were on the school steps. Her parent reported this to the school and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
While Kraemer was discussing the incident with a sheriff’s deputy, [that dude] entered the office area to complain that a parent had tried to abridge his free-speech right.
Kraemer escorted [that same dude] into his office and listened to his complaint. After informing him that the right does not carry onto school grounds and children, the officer arrested [the dude].
Late Friday morning, [creepy dude] was booked at the Southwest Detention Facility for annoying school children and violation of probation, according to Sgt. Stephen Mike of the Sheriff’s Department Hemet Station.
Free speech? Are you kidding? And by the way, how great is it that exactly none of the kids at the school fell for this joker’s “solicitation?”
I didn’t know being annoying to children was a criminal offense. I’ve been annoying the hell out of Lovely Daughter for years, up to and including about an hour ago!