YNOT – A naked mannequin in a Nebraska shop window is not “obscene,” according to an attorney for the store.Local residents beg to disagree.
In mid-July, residents of Beatrice, a town of about 12,500, inundated the local police department with outraged complaints after a window dresser left a mannequin in the front window of Hannah’s Treasures. The female dummy was clad only in tennis shoes, and a pair of pants puddled on the floor around its ankles. Police covered the window for about a day while someone helped the display regain its decency.
City Attorney Tobia Tempelmeyer told the local media the volume of police reports generated by the kerfuffle overwhelmed his office. Most of the complainants referred to the mannequin’s state of undress as “obscene.”
“We’re not able at this point to issue a determination whether it’s obscene or not,” Tempelmeyer told the Beatrice Daily Sun.
Hannah’s owner Kevin Kramer dressed the mannequin in a bikini, but has threatened to sue over the ruckus.
“Nothing about a naked mannequin constitutes obscenity,” Kramer attorney Dustin Garrison told the newspaper.
