{"id":52766,"date":"2024-12-20T14:23:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T19:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=52766"},"modified":"2024-12-21T02:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T07:11:36","slug":"man-arrested-for-groping-teen-at-lakeland-chick-fil-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/12\/20\/man-arrested-for-groping-teen-at-lakeland-chick-fil-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Arrested for Groping Teen at Lakeland Chick-fil-A"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 57-year-old Lakeland man was arrested on Thursday after allegedly groping a 16-year-old girl at a local Chick-fil-A.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"6f6660\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6f6660;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"359\" height=\"430\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-73-7-png.webp?resize=359%2C430&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52767 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-73-7-png.webp?w=359&amp;ssl=1 359w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-73-7-png.webp?resize=250%2C300&amp;ssl=1 250w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Awny Abdel Malek Basta was booked into the Polk County Jail on Lewd and Lascivious Touch charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the incident occurred on December 19th at the Chick-fil-A on South Florida Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"705849\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #705849;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"196\" height=\"246\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-73a-png.webp?resize=196%2C246&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52768 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe was seated at a table in the restaurant doing schoolwork when Basta sat down directly behind her. She told detectives that she felt something touch the upper part of her buttocks several times. When she turned around to see what was touching her, she saw that it was Basta\u2019s hand,\u201d said PCSO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When confronted, Basta fled the restaurant but was apprehended by deputies nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sheriff Grady Judd expressed concern about Basta\u2019s extensive criminal history, which includes previous sexual battery charges and incidents of groping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAwny Basta is a pervert and a sex offender with an extensive criminal history. Because of his history, our detectives believe there may be additional victims out there,\u201d said Judd. \u201cIf anyone thinks they may have been a victim of this man, don&#8217;t hesitate to get in touch with the Special Victims Unit of the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office at 863-298-6200. We want to make sure he\u2019s held accountable for everything he has done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Sheriff\u2019s Office released surveillance footage of the incident, which clearly shows Basta\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Youtube aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"49e50647-459c-43ca-8db1-db4a5dd173d1\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-c5ebf1b1ae2d28715e12caf20e1493aa\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-496d3ee3089d3e1203e71cf794ed1966 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:340px; max-height:340px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Sheriff Judd discusses arrest of Awny Basta\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o7ann2vtoxo?feature=oembed&#038;color=red&#038;rel=1&#038;controls=2&#038;start=true&#038;end=true&#038;fs=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Man Arrested for Groping Teen at Lakeland Chick-fil-A\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 57-year-old Lakeland man was arrested on Thursday after allegedly groping a 16-year-old girl at a local Chick-fil-A. Awny Abdel Malek Basta was booked into the Polk County Jail on&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNFwvMTJcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtNzMtNy1wbmcud2VicD9maXQ9MzU5JTJDNDMwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTWFuIEFycmVzdGVkIGZvciBHcm9waW5nIFRlZW4gYXQgTGFrZWxhbmQgQ2hpY2stZmlsLUEiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.9PUZvmBX543Eq-D9AghTjt-wkTwfAU3pMzUXKGn43qsMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":52767,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-73-7-png.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10557],"class_list":["post-52766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-man-arrested-for-groping-teen-at-lakeland-chick-fil-a"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52805,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52766\/revisions\/52805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}