http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=114016&c=87
Two employees of the Sonic Drive-in on East Seventh Street in Joplin who were caught naked together in one of the restaurant's restrooms Wednesday night offered what would seem to be a wild explanation but one police say may just be true. Preposterous. But possibly true. Joplin police Cmdr. Jim Hounschell said a 16-year-old female manager and a 19-year-old male cook told another manager who discovered them in the compromising position a little before 9 p.m. in the women's restroom of the Sonic Drive-in at 1030 E. Seventh St. that they were following the instructions of a man who'd called the restaurant and identified himself as a police officer. A man who called the restaurant at 7:45 p.m. told a female manager that an elderly woman had come to the police station to report that her purse was stolen while she was at the drive-in and that a male employee was the suspect, Hounschell said. The caller asked the manager to describe the male employees on duty, and when she got to the cook, he told her that was the guy and that he needed her to conduct a strip search of him, Hounschell said. The female manager then asked the cook to accompany her into the women's restroom. "The caller then tells her to have the cook disrobe, and the cook does," Hounschell said. "Apparently, the caller was threatening to have her arrested if she did not cooperate. So she cooperated." The caller then ordered the manager to perform oral sex on the cook, which she initially refused to do, he said. But he threatened her with arrest again, he said. "He told her he'd send some officers down to arrest her," Hounschell said. "So, uh, she did." When the act was completed, Hounschell said, the caller asked her to give the phone to the cook. He said the caller then told the cook that he was not a suspect in the theft of the purse, that the female manager had been the suspect all along, and that everything he'd asked them to do up to that point was intended as a test of her innocence or guilt. He then ordered the cook to conduct a strip search of the manager to see if she had the purse or its contents on her, Hounschell said. In the meantime, Hounschell said, other employees of the restaurant had become concerned with what was going on in the restroom and contacted another manager by telephone. When that manager, a 27-year-old man, arrived and entered the restroom, he found them both naked and the cook still on the phone, he said. He asked them what they were doing, Hounschell said. While they were attempting to explain themselves, the male manager grabbed the phone and asked the caller who he was. At that point, the caller hung up, Hounschell said. The male manager contacted police at 9:16 p.m. and told them the story that the female manager and cook had told him. Hounschell said both the female manager and the cook told police that they believed the caller was a police officer and that they would be arrested if they did not do as he asked. A supervisor at the Sonic on Thursday said the company would have no comment on the case. Hounschell said the female manager's and cook's story would be more difficult to believe if police had not received a report of a similar call to another Joplin restaurant earlier Wednesday and yet another report of that kind a few months ago. A man who identified himself as a Joplin police officer called the Country Kitchen, 3434 S. Range Line, between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and told a manager there that an older woman had reported her purse stolen in his restaurant and that a female waitress was suspected. He described the waitress to the manager and asked him to perform a strip search on her. "But this manager was suspicious and started asking questions," Hounschell said. The caller hung up when the manager became wary, he said. The Country Kitchen caller was described as sounding between 40 and 50 years old, "professional-like" and "very convincing," he said. A male caller succeeded in getting a manager at a restaurant on Range Line to conduct a strip search of a waitress a few months ago, Hounschell said. The cases are difficult to investigate, Hounschell said, because the calls cannot be traced. Hounschell said it is never proper police procedure for an officer to order a civilian to conduct a strip search. He said officers themselves are limited in conducting strip searches without search warrants. He said about the only time that should happen is when an officer has probable cause to believe that someone is concealing something that poses a danger to themselves or others. "We certainly wouldn't have somebody else do it to one of their employees," Hounschell said. xponent The Nekkid Lunch Maru rob
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