A 57-year-old registered sex offender was arrested for indecent exposure after police say he was masturbating in his vehicle in a grocery store parking lot.

Port Arthur Police Chief Mark Blanton said they received a call around 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18 about a man masturbating in his vehicle in H.E.B. parking lot, 4800 FM 365.

The caller was able to give a description of the vehicle, the license plate number and where the vehicle was parked.

Police ran the plate number down and it came back to a known registered sex offender from Port Arthur. Officers responded quickly and an officer caught the suspect in the act and he was immediately taken into custody, he said.

The suspect was charged with indecent exposure — a Class A misdemeanor, and brought the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. The suspect has had several indecent exposure arrests including indecency with a child by exposure for an incident with a 16-year-old female in 1995 and another incident of indecent exposure in 2009, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety Sex Offender Registry website.

According to Port Arthur Police Department Facebook page, there have been calls in both Port Arthur and Nederland regarding a man who masturbates while visiting various businesses, mostly along FM 365. He sometimes goes into stores but many times he sits in his vehicle while in the act. Sometimes he is gone by the time police arrive and other times he is there but not committing the crime.

“The callers either do not want to cooperate with police or did not see enough to accurately describe the what he was doing. Unfortunately, there has been little that we can do without catching him in the act. We can usually only ask him to leave the business with the manager’s permission,” according to the press release.

Blanton said the caller did the right thing in reporting the crime and recording the license plate and location of the vehicle, which enabled police to respond quickly.

“I encourage everyone to report suspicious activity of this nature of any other,” Blanton said.

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