UPLAND, California – They came from miles around, young and old, in business attire and street clothes.By 10:30 a.m. Thursday, they had packed the parking lot.
But what customers of Mustang Adult Books didn’t know was another group of people had also stopped by for a visit.
The police.
“There’s people from outside the area coming in and engaging in inappropriate conduct,” said Upland police Lt. Jack West. “The businesses around them are asking for our help to address the problem.”
Within the first 15 minutes, undercover officers arrested six men after spotting them engaging in lewd conduct in the store, West said. By the end of the day, 22 people had been arrested, including a parolee and a registered sex offender.
Upland officers had already arrested 62 people in prior stings at the business since the city annexed the north Central Avenue area in July. The arrestees live as far away as San Diego and Agoura Hills. People arrested Thursday came from various cities: Chino, Ontario, Mira Loma, La Verne and Rialto.
Police said they’re not picking on Mustang, but are responding to complaints by neighboring businesses about its customers.
Business owners complained of their parking lots being littered with sexual and drug paraphernalia and Mustang patrons engaging in lewd conduct in their cars. Many of the customers park in the bookstore’s parking lot, but others use neighboring businesses.
Up until about three months ago, Joel Lebron, owner of neighboring Joel’s Auto Repair, said he had to clear his parking lot of used condoms, adult magazines, syringes and even enema bags, he said. He suspects the items are left behind by Mustang customers.
“Some of our clientele won’t come through here because of that establishment,” he said.
Veronika Ulbricht, owner of EZ Take Out Burger, applauded the police department’s crackdown on Mustang customers.
“It would be nice if they cleaned it up,” she said.
But an attorney representing the business said the police stings are unnecessary.
“They’re trying to put this place out of business by this constant harassment,” said Santa Monica attorney Roger Diamond.
Mustang Adult Books is a business placed amid restaurants and stores, including a Christian bookstore across the street. Mustang contains video viewing booths in darkened hallways on two floors of the main building.
Signs are displayed throughout the store prohibiting customers from exposing themselves in the booths and loitering in the parking lot for more than 10 minutes. But police said that doesn’t stop the customers from breaking both of those rules.
“We don’t have any issue about the particular type of business,” West said. “When any business generates complaints, we have to respond.”
Police lined the arrestees up behind a neighboring liquor store and then towed their vehicles away. One of the men arrested had a gray van with a bumper sticker, “World’s Greatest Uncle.”
A man arrested in the store declined comment, only saying, “My life is over.”
It is not the first time the business has been at odds with government officials.
In the 1990s, Mustang Books nearly had to move because new San Bernardino County zoning prevented an adult business from operating in the area, Diamond said.
The former Mustang owner, Gilbert Earl Kohl, filed a federal suit against the county in 1994 challenging the zoning law. Kohl won a preliminary injunction, and the case was eventually settled in 1998. He was allowed to continue operating his business until 2010, according to court documents.
The new owners will also have to abide by the 2010 deadline even though the area has been annexed by Upland, Diamond said. The store owner, who runs the business with her daughter, had no comment on the police sting.
Among the people arrested Thursday were Ronald Nelson, of Ontario, on suspicion of violating parole and committing lewd conduct in a public place, and a registered sex offender from Riverside. Several people arrested were also held on suspicion of drug charges.