A week ago Sunday, Charles Lee Johnson, 46, parked his wheelchair next to the Little World Food Store on Malcolm X Boulevard and began asking passing customers for money. A store employee, unable to persuade Johnson to leave, called police, who shooed the 46-year-old away and issued a criminal trespass warning.
The warning meant that if Johnson returned he would be arrested. But mere warnings have never phased Johnson. He's been convicted of misdemeanor trespassing four times in the past three years, and this time was no different.
Johnson was back at Little World Food Store early this morning, once again asking passersby for money, only this time there was an important difference: He wasn't wearing any clothes.
It's unclear whether his nude panhandling was successful. Anyway, it wasn't long before a store employee called police and told them there was a naked man in the wheelchair harassing customers. A pair of police officers arrived and saw Johnson, who they note in a police report was indeed "on a wheelchair on the property panhandling."
Officers took Johnson to Lew Sterrett where, presumably, he was given clothes.
