Long Beach salon owner catches man pleasuring himself in public

A woman in Long Beach caught a man pleasuring himself in front of her salon in front of her horrified clients. 

"I was a little shocked," said Valeska Quinonez, who owns Salon 500. "He started looking inside and he started touching himself and masturbating. For, I want to say, like five minutes."

The lewd act happened two weeks after one of Quinonez's employees, Rebekah Pedersen, was sexually assaulted by a homeless man along a downtown Long Beach sidewalk. While she was not working when the gross episode unfolded, she wished she could've been there to help. 

"Enraged, I wish I was there for that moment so I could have gone out there and scare him away," said Pedersen. 

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said he is working with the city's police department to put a stop to these incidents. 

"We already engaged and deployed additional public safety responses," he said. "But, we're thinking comprehensively — business support, additional mental health support. So, in the weeks to come, we'll see additional engagement. We have to think about not just the immediate moment but how do we solve these challenges long term."

Quinonez said that this is just another case of harassment, which has made doing business more and more challenging. 

"We see homeless passing by all the time with knives and crowbars," said Quinonez. "And it's just gotten out of control."