commentary by Patriock H. Moore
Rape is clearly no laughing matter, yet occasionally a rape or attempted rape occurs that is so bizarre that one can barely restrain a covert chuckle or two. Such was the case on the last day of February in a San Diego, California, Big Lots restroom.
The victim, Jane Doe, who naturally requested that she not be identified, was in the Big Lots restroom doing her business Friday afternoon when she got the shock of her life. To experience vicariously what she went through, imagine that you are there in the women’s bathroom and you are busily relieving yourself and you happen to look down only to be confronted by the appalling sight of two bare male feet, soles facing into your stall, as the intruder wriggles eel-like under the door.
In an interview with KGTV-TV, Ms. Doe described what happened:
“I was looking and I saw two feet slowly planting on the floor and they were a man’s bare feet. He went underneath the stall really quickly and then he came into my stall and the door was still locked. I didn’t even have time to act. He grabbed my neck and he pushed me all the way against the wall and he started squeezing my neck and I start yelling from the top of my lungs and then he covered my mouth.”
So far we have a typically vicious rape attempt by a criminal so desperate that he was willing to commit the crime right there in public in a woman’s bathroom. How in the world he expected to get away with it is anybody’s guess?
But now comes the weird and arguably comical part. In the midst of her intense fear and loathing, Ms. Doe could not help but notice that her assailant was wearing a pink Barbie costume. They say that truth is stranger than fiction and that time-worn adage certainly applies here.
Although she is not sure, Ms. Doe believes that the suspect must have stolen the Barbie costume from somewhere in the store. This is certainly possible but playing’s devil’s advocate, I wonder if Big Lots actually sells pink Barbie outfits in sizes suitable for adults. (Perhaps the store had some left-over Halloween stock still on hand.)
Despite being choked and shoved up against the wall, Ms. Doe fought back and somehow managed to escape. Her Barbie-assailant then ran out of the restroom with a jacket over his pink Barbie shirt.
I suspect that some our readers are old enough to have dabbled in shoplifting back in those long-forgotten days when the art of store pilferage was a rite of passage for many red-blooded American boys and more than a few girls. Those of you who have taken an item or two from a store or two undoubtedly remember that naked moment of truth when you take a deep silent breath and hoof it out through the double doors, hoping fervently that you’re not observed.
Well, in this case, as might be expected considering he was wearing a pink Barbie costume and was apparently running, the failed rapist was certainly observed by at least one security guard, who reportedly stepped up and confronted him. This, however, did not phase Ms. Doe’s assailant who allegedly threatened the guard with a screwdriver and hightailed it out of there, according to NBC San Diego.
According to Fox5 San Diego, the rapist, who turned out to be a 40-year-old ‘not-so-gentle-man’ named Gregory Schwartz, was arrested Sunday afternoon about a mile away from the store. Although there is no evidence that he returned to the crime scene, he was apparently lingering a bit too close for his own “safety”.
Schwartz was not wearing the Barbie costume at the time of his arrest, according to a police spokesman who declined to comment on if the outfit has been recovered.
For her part, Jane Doe displayed a ready wit during her interview with KFMB-TV. “I don’t know how it fit,” she said, apparently suggesting that Schwartz was a bit too robust to fit comfortably into the filmy Barbie material.
As for Barbie herself, I always knew that the heart of a criminal beat deep within the comely woman’s bland and pleasing exterior.
Schwartz, however, not Barbie, is the one who took the fall here. I imagine that his antics should get him somewhere in the vicinity of five to ten in a California State Prison.