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Visitor to NB area offers words of
caution about public restroom use

TO THE EDITOR:
In response to the Sunday Night by Mary Helen Swanson (July 31, regarding children being molested). I can give you an example of that type of situation in your own town.
My son was on the job bringing a handicapped young man back from a medical hospital up north to his group home. They stopped at a gas station in North Branch to get something to eat and use the restroom. My son did not know where the restrooms were, so he asked, (what looked to be a nice person, male and in his early 20s), where the restrooms were. This young man said he would show him where they were, so my son followed. After the door closed, my son proceeded to use the urinal, when all of the sudden this same guy Ýran in, tried to pin him up against the wall, and rape him. But unknown to this stranger, my son took three years of Tae Kwon Do as a young teen and, thank God, everything he learned came back to him in seconds. He was able to elbow the guy in the ribs and push him back a bit, then gave him a good hard kick in the collar bone and upper rib area. When this guy flew back, he hit the sinks in the restroom and fell to the floor. At that point, my son ran out of the restroom and got in the facilityís van and left. My sonÝis very shook up and angry over the whole ordeal. We are trying to get him to go back to North Branch and report it, but so far he is refusing because of the embarrassment of having to tell the police about it, and possibly have to go to court if they caught this perverted guy. My son is 19 years old,Ýhe isÝfrom a smaller town andÝis not used to having to be so cautious while using a public restroom. This pervert, or should I say rapist, has affected my sonís life forever. He has also affected our whole family, we are all angry and hurt over what happened, and sorry to say, but our family will not be stopping in North Branch any more like we used to on our way to the cities. And we will all make sure to use restrooms in pairs now. I will end with that, and hope that the guy who did this to my son was hurt bad enough to have to go to the hospital, and will think twice before he tries to rapeÝanother person. This happened, Saturday Aug.10,Ý2002.Ý
Sincerely, disgusted and hurt,
Linda Reinen
Grand Rapids, MN ÝÝÝ

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