Spencer's May Hide its Sex Toys Before Police Inspection
Orland Park police are scheduled to inspect the Orland Square Mall store next week to see if a separated section for explicit materials and sex toys fits a state statute.
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Spencer's Gifts is considering two options for rearranging its store to keep sexually explicit merchandise from the view of minors, village staff said on Thursday.
The novelty gift shop at Orland Square Mall can either carve out space in the back or ditch the explicit items altogether before a police inspection next week.
"We don’t care either way,” Village Manager Paul Grimes said. “They need to come into compliance with state statute.”
In December, Orland Park police seized about $22,000 in sex toys, inflatable love dolls, lubricants, gels, sado-masochistic products and sex-themed Christmas items. According to an Illinois statute, the merchandise was considered “harmful materials.”
Before the seizure, Orland Park police officers visited the store after receiving complaints about the openness of the merchandise. A store manager told officers he had to keep a corporate-mandated floor plan that did not include cordoning off explicit items, according to a police report.
A 19-year-old cashier was arrested the same day of the seizure and accused of selling bondage gear to two teenagers who were working undercover for police. She is scheduled to be in court Feb. 4.
Grimes said representatives from the village, including police, met last week with Spencer's representatives to review a proposal that would put all explicit items on a u-shaped shelf in the back of the store with signs warning unsuspecting shoppers and minors.
“The new layout does appear to comply,” he said.
There is a possibility that a separate room, entirely shielded by a door, may be necessary for the store to be compliant, Orland Park Police Sgt. Scott Malmborg said.
Spencer's staff has deferred all questions to the company's general counsel, Kevin Mahoney, who was not available for comment. Nor was Les Morris, spokesman for Simon Property Group, the owners of Orland Square.
If Spencer's staff cooperates with police, Malmborg said the charges against the cashier may be dropped, and the store manager would be expected to visit the police station to collect the idle sex toys.
Laura
4:26 pm on Friday, January 28, 2011
Michael- I can already tell what kind of person you are just by you saying Spencer's is one of your favorite stores. I don't think anyone is overreacting here except for you. There is a reason why laws like these are made. Children and Teenagers should be able to go to the mall and walk into any store with out being subjected to these things. I don't think we should blame their parents for them wanting to go into a store like that, I think we should blame you. The customer who keeps the store open. Who does business with a store that can't follow simple laws.
Rich Schmidt II
12:39 pm on Sunday, January 30, 2011
Oh "R" it must be nice to hide behind just a letter. By the way I do have kids and I also have 3 nieces and nephews. But, keep making excuses.
I suppose the same kids that we are worrying about going into Spencers also go online?!?! Maybe we should shut down the whole internet like Egypt did too.
Tracy
7:14 am on Monday, January 31, 2011
Michael, seriously? "If a kid wants something like a sex toy give it to them because its more unlikely the kid wont have sex"......First of all, with that comment you're the kid is likely to have sex. Second, what makes you think its ok for a kid to have a dildo or a blow up doll?
Concerned
5:53 pm on Monday, January 31, 2011
1. The title is not only misleading, but inaccurate. There is no mention of the store hiding their merchandise form the Village in this piece.
2. The phrase "idle sex toys" assumes that the items were in some way in use prior to their seizure. Again, this is misleading and inaccurate.
3. If people are that worried about what a child will see whilst in the mall, the children should be supervised. It is not the responsibility of those working at the mall to babysit. As for these teens wandering the mall aimlessly, they are not being "subjected" to the items. They come in specifically FOR said items--to laugh at or attempt to buy them. No one is forcing people to look at that merchandise. We have free will. A person can walk out of a store at any point.
Jesse Marx
7:11 pm on Monday, January 31, 2011
Concerned,
(1) Orland Park police said the store may have to place all explicit items in a separate room, shielded entirely by a door. To hide means to conceal from sight: in this case the sight of minors, not the village. The village knows where the items will be and is asking that the store do so to comply with state statue.
(2) Idle, as it was intended in this context, means of no commercial worth or importance. Sitting in a police station locker, these items have no value. They loiter.
(3) Thanks for the articulate point. Well said.
moonglow
7:40 am on Tuesday, February 1, 2011
At the video stores in most areas, including Orland Park, explicit sex tapes are in a separate room covered by either a door or a curtain. SPENCERS should do the same with their sexual merchandise.
elena
3:51 am on Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Very good if in Orland Park police seized about $22,000 in sex toys, inflatable love dolls, lubricants, gels, and sex-themed Christmas items... it should be done and www.sexshop-romantic.ro beacause is not online today