One man's earnest attempt to pleasure himself outside a college classroom ended in the most Brooklyn way possible when a lithography student spotted the creep and drew a sketch that helped police apprehend him. The Daily News has the ALL CAPS EXCLUSIVE on the arrest of 46-year-old Christopher Thomas, who was sentenced to four months behind bars for Public Lewdness at the Pratt Institute in Clinton Hill.
The student who spotted Thomas spoke to the News on condition of anonymity, explaining that she was daydreaming in lithography class when she noticed Thomas standing in the doorway with his penis out and about. She quickly used her artistic training to render a sketch of the man, and subsequently turned it over to investigators. Although the drawing is crude and abstract, prosecutors argued that it helps corroborate allegations made by a credible witness.
After word spread of roaming masturbator, a wood shop professor said she'd noticed Thomas in the building earlier, and that she recognized him as the same guy she got dinner with a few months ago. Thomas had given her a business card with an alias, but it also had his address, enabling investigators to find him and make an arrest.
During trial, Thomas tried to argue that he was not guilty of public lewdness, because the Pratt classrooms aren't public. According to the Post, prosecutors argued that the statue "prohibits lewd exposure or conduct committed in view of non-consenting, unsuspecting passersby, irrespective of whether the conduct occurs in a quintessentially public place."
Judge John Gleeson sentenced him to four months in prison, to be served concurrently with a separate federal sentence for bank fraud. Here's the sketch that helped bring him to justice:
This is incident is not to be confused with another Pratt masturbation incident that happened last year. Jerk-offs just love Pratt!
