WICHITA, Kansas – Eleven suspects are facing charges after an undercover bust at an adult bookstore in Wichita. Police call it a ‘morals sting’ and they say they’ll continue to do them as long as lewd and lascivious behavior is against the law.
The suspects, all men, face a laundry list of charges after the undercover sting operation at Vegas Video on W. Kellogg.
“Periodically we look at all the adult bookstores and video stores in Wichita,” said Gordon. If we receive a complaint we’ll obviously conduct an investigation there,”
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The men were arrested on a variety of charges, including indecent exposure, lewd and lascivious behavior and public nudity.
Police say managers at Vegas Video were cooperative with the investigation. Undercover cops focused their sting on the ‘video arcade’ inside the store, where customers can pay a small fee to watch pornographic films in a private booth, and arrested anyone they saw break the law in those private booths.
“First of all it’s against the law,” said Sgt. Jeff Davis of the Wichita Police Department. “Anything against the law and the morals crimes will generally lead to other crime; assaults, robberies. If you can nip part of the problem, your other problems will decline.”
Two years ago the city dramatically changed its zoning laws regarding adult video stores by keeping them 500 feet away from residences. At that time there were 16 such stores in the city. Now, there are less than 10.