NY- Nassau authorities arrested four people and fined businesses in Valley Stream, Elmont, West Hempstead and Franklin Square for improper placement of pornographic magazines inside their stores and selling such adult materials and alcohol to minors, officials said Wednesday.
The Nassau County Office of Consumer Affairs and police officers with the Fifth Precinct were part of the investigation that began after residents' complaints.
More than a dozen stores were targeted for prominently displaying pornographic magazines and videos in violation of county law, according to a new release from the Office of Consumer Affairs.
In some stores, shoppers with young children were forced to walk past a wall of pornography to pick up milk, juice or soda, said Roger C. Bogsted, consumer affairs commissioner.
"There will be zero tolerance for convenience stores that sell so-called 'adult material' to the children of Nassau County," Bogsted said. "This is a very important issue, and we will not allow unscrupulous store owners to place our kids in jeopardy."
In one case, Bogsted said, a sales clerk sold a pornographic magazine to a boy even after he told the clerk he was 15.
To purchase the material, Bogsted said, consumers must be at least 18 years old.
According to county law, pornographic items should be clearly marked as adult material and concealed in a way - often with black placards covering the items - so minors won't be exposed, Bogsted said.
During the crackdown, authorities also witnessed the sale of alcohol to a minor, police said.
In addition to the four arrests, police imposed fines of more than $9,000 on business owners, the release said.
Bogsted said his office monitors the way pornography is sold at stores, but said he will be even more vigilant.
"Now that we see it is clearly a problem . . . we are going to continue our investigation in other areas," he said.
