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What has a penis pokey ever done to anyone?
For one man walking past Urban Outfitters in SouthPark Mall last week, it was enough to make him call the police.
Urban Outfitters is known as an edgy store that sells products like the famous "Buck Fush" T-shirt. The shop also sells books about sex and relationships, but they're far from the explicit ones you'd find at The Red Door or Adam and Eve.
According to an article in the Charlotte Observer, last Monday a pastor was in the mall and complained when he saw books like The Penis Pokey and Position of the Day Playbook (the Observer chose to blur the cover images of two books in the story).
After store and mall management didn't react the way he wanted, the pastor called the police.
CMPD spokesperson Julie Hill said the police went to the store because of the number of complaints they'd received.
"We had very little legal authority; what the police did was mitigate," says Hill. While police did ask the store to move the books from the front of the store, if any charges would come, they would have to come from the District Attorney's office.
Creative Loafing called Urban Outfitters and the store manager says they're not allowed to comment on the situation. The store's home office also offered no comment.
Hill says this is the first time that she's seen a mainstream store face complaints about sexually explicit material.
"We receive complaints about stores that are adult-orientated, and there are different expectations and ordinances in place, but in terms of a mainstream store selling something like that, not very typical," she states.
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