By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A man charged with sucking on a woman’s toes at a Toledo mall is wanted for accosting a woman in the shoe section at the Meijer store in Bowling Green.
A warrant has been issued for Joseph Jones, 29, Toledo, for unlawful restraint, assault and menacing a woman on Wednesday in the early evening.
Bowling Green Police Major Justin White said Jones reportedly approached a Bowling Green woman shopping in the shoe section at Meijer and complimented her on having nice feet. Jones then reportedly started caressing her feet, White said.
“She was a little freaked out by this,” White said.
Jones then reportedly reached for the woman’s hand and started reading the lines on her palm. He then asked her to stand on her tip toes and twirl like a ballerina.
The woman tried to shake his hand as a way to say farewell, but Jones reportedly did not let go of her hand – which led to the unlawful restraint charge. Jones then told her he wanted to take her pulse.
“She ripped her hand away,” White said.
The victim called police from the store and waited inside for a while. When she walked out of the store, Jones reportedly drove past her very slowly. That allowed her to take a photo of his license plate – which led police to his identity.
Jones has numerous pending charges in Toledo, including “felonious toe sucking,” White said.
“He’s obviously got some problems,” the police captain said.
According to an Associated Press story in March, Jones was charged with taking off a woman’s shoe and sucking her toes without permission and with massaging the feet of other women without their consent.
In those cases, he is facing menacing and sexual imposition charges.
He told a judge he is being targeted after earlier pleading not guilty to sexual imposition.
“I’m actually a good person, I’m a business owner,” Jones said in court, according to the Associated Press. He was placed on electronic monitoring, told not to contact the women who asked for protection orders, and banned from Franklin Park Mall.
Court records show he was first accused of sucking the toes and kissing the cheek of a store employee at a Toledo mall in December. Jones reportedly asked to see the woman’s shoes and then began sucking on her toes. She said she froze and didn’t know what to do.
