Watchful residents help police nab suspicious man

A Poplar Bluff man will appear in Municipal Court later this month after he allegedly was seen performing a sex act on himself at Whiteley Park.

Robert Phillips, 73, is to appear for his initial arraignment on a summons for the infraction of sexual misconduct before Municipal Judge W. Dean Million on Oct. 20.

Phillips was issued the summons on Sept. 5 after Poplar Bluff police officers responded to a report of a “white male subject (who) was seen watching children and masturbating while sitting in a blue Ford passenger vehicle” at the park, said Capt. David Sutton.

Phillips, of the 2000 block of Glendale Road, was told to leave the park after being issued the summons, Sutton said.

Police Lt. Josh Stewart stressed anyone who sees something “that draws enough of their attention” to make them think “something isn’t right, they need to call us” no matter where they are at.

Officers, Stewart said, do patrol the parks on a regular basis, including when sporting events are going on and especially after dark.

Stewart said the parks close at dark, but people will “park in those areas and be up to no good. … We run people out if they are parked there” after dark.

“A lot of times it’s drug-abuse issues,” Stewart said. “They’re parked there using illegal narcotics” or in an unlocked restroom using narcotics.

But, Stewart said, those instances are “few and far between.”