Veteran fire captain arrested after off-duty dare from girlfriend to walk naked into 7-11
Lynnfield, MA Capt. John Walsh placed on leave after Rhode Island arrest
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Well this story sure is special. A 60-year-old fire captain from Lynnfield, Massachusetts was arrested after he took the challenge from his 29-year-old girl friend to walk naked into a Middletown, Rhode Island 7-11 store. Capt. John H. Walsh is now on leave from the department. Chief Glenn Davis says they take the charge against Capt. Walsh very seriously. Walsh has been on the department for about 40 years.
John H. Walsh, 60, was arrested after a clerk at the 7-Eleven in Middletown called police around 3 p.m. last Wednesday and told the 911 dispatcher that a man came into the store without clothes on and then drove away in a black Mercedes-Benz, according to the police report obtained by Boston.com.
Police caught up with the vehicle “moments later,” the report said. They found Walsh driving with a female front-seat passenger; both had clothes on. Police asked what happened, and the female passenger said that Walsh is her boyfriend and “that she ‘dared’ him to walk into the store naked because Walsh told her it was ‘legal’ in Rhode Island,” according to the report.
A “visibly shaken” store clerk, with tears in her eyes, told officers that she was “horrified” at the sight of Walsh’s exposed genitals as he approached the register “with a smile on his face,” police said.
“It’s not funny at all. In fact, it’s very scary when you have someone come in, completely naked in the middle of the day,” said the 7-Eleven employee, who did not want to be identified. “He was extremely comfortable in the store, handed me the Coke, and smiled, never said anything. It’s absolutely the worst thing that ever occurred in my life. I really think this man should have to register as a sex offender. What he did is horrible. What his girlfriend did was horrible, and she should be charged as well.”
Walsh and his girlfriend, Tammy McDougal, were later tracked down on Miantonomi Avenue after the clerk told police that he had driven off in black Mercedes Benz with a Massachusetts registration.
