A man from Lakeland, Florida, found himself in serious trouble after a disturbing incident at a local Chick-fil-A on Thursday. The police reported that Awny Abdel Malek Basta, who is 57 years old, was caught on security camera grabbing a 16-year-old girl’s buttocks.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd didn’t hold back in his description of Basta, calling him “an evil, nasty, scary, ugly man” and labeling him as dangerous. According to the sheriff’s office, the young girl was sitting at a table in the Chick-fil-A at 4625 South Florida Avenue, trying to do her schoolwork when Basta sat down right behind her.
As she worked, the girl kept feeling something touch her. It wasn’t until she turned around that she saw it was Basta’s hand. The surveillance footage showed him reaching behind him and touching her. The girl confronted him, and he quickly tried to defend himself before making a run for it.
When deputies arrived at the fast-food restaurant around 2:55 p.m., Basta had already taken off on foot. But the restaurant staff didn’t let him escape easily. They followed him and saw him hop onto a city bus. After flagging the bus down, they asked him to get off, and then they informed the deputies about his location. He was soon found and detained near the Imperial Swan Hotel.
Basta was taken to the Polk County Jail and faces a charge of lewd and lascivious touching. Sheriff Judd shared that Basta has a long history of sexual offenses, going back to 2006. He mentioned that in 2015, Basta was accused of groping a woman at a Panera Bread in Lakeland, and another incident occurred in 2023 at a Starbucks in the same city.
The sheriff urged anyone who might have experienced similar incidents with Basta to come forward and contact the Special Victims Unit of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 863-298-6200, emphasizing the importance of holding him accountable for his actions.
