Local

‘I thought they were older,' says Casselberry man who asked teens if they were strippers

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A mother called police claiming a stranger acted inappropriately toward her daughter and her daughter's friends inside a Winter Springs McDonald's, but the man says he did nothing wrong.

The mother told police the man asked the girls if they worked at a local strip club, and then he appeared to touch the shirt of one girl.

Channel 9 is not identifying the man because there are no charges against him.

Police said the Casselberry man approached members of a Winter Springs dance team Tuesday afternoon and asked them if they were strippers.

Police said the man touched the tank top one of the teenage girls was wearing and adjusted it, something he at first denied doing.

“Did you approach those girls?” asked Channel 9 reporter Jeff Levkulich.

“No, I didn't touch her,” the man said. “I just talked to one girl (who) said, ‘Oh we’re dancers.’ I said, ‘You naked dancers?’ She said no.”

He nodded his head “yes” when Levkulich asked him if he asked the girls to dance.

Levkulich asked him if he grabbed a girl’s shirt.

“Well, what I did, talked to girl (and) she had tag sticking out, a name tag,” he said.

The man said he thought the girls were older and that they shouldn’t have been afraid.

“I thought they were older. Some look older than you,” he told Levkulich.

The man said he did nothing wrong.

“I didn't do anything. Is it illegal to talk to somebody?  It's not. It's freedom of speech, right?” he said.

Levkulich showed his interview to Winter Springs police, who watched it Friday afternoon.

Police said they have had run-ins with him before, but he has never done enough to get charged with a crime.

Police are still trying to get a clean feed of the surveillance video from the McDonalds to help in their investigation.

They said they are looking at charging him with simple battery.

Jeff Levkulich

Jeff Levkulich, WFTV.com

Jeff Levkulich joined the Eyewitness News team as a reporter in June 2015.