Gainesville man arrested after exposing himself to cashier at Wawa
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Benjamin Franklin Cunningham, 35, was arrested on November 25 after allegedly exposing himself twice to a cashier at the Wawa on E. University Avenue.
On November 16, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to Wawa (1007 E. University Avenue), where a cashier said Cunningham, who she described as a regular customer, exposed himself to her at the register and then came back a second time and intentionally exposed himself again. She said he tried to speak to her a third time to apologize, but she told him to leave the store.
The officer reported that surveillance video clearly showed Cunningham exposing himself at the register twice; later, Cunningham could be seen staring at the victim from outside the business.
Cunningham was charged via sworn complaint with a second or subsequent offense of indecent exposure, and he was arrested on November 25.
Cunningham’s criminal history includes five felony convictions (three violent) and 17 misdemeanor convictions (four violent). He served nine months in the Alachua County Jail in 2021-2022 after pleading to indecent exposure, loitering/prowling, drug possession, and violating a previous sentence of probation for indecent exposure. He is currently being held on $15,000 bail.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Joke bail amount.
Wawa: feeder into Grace Marketplace
They say America “used to” be great. America also used to have asylums for people like this. You can look at this man and see that something is not right. Yet he gets to be free until he does something like this… how long before the prison system let’s him out again for him to do something else to some other innocent person?
He hasn’t been in prison. Only in the local motel, I mean the county jail. Local Democrats keep electing these soft on crime prosecutors and judges. I guess they like living with increasing crime and violence.
I hope the lord gave him a big hammer because he shorted him in the brains department.
The courts should force him to change his name – Benjamin Franklin was not known for being a flasher.
That being said, it’s easy to understand why Gainesville has Wawas and not Buc-ees around. If he’d done this to the wrong person in a Buc-ees, he probably would have been shot.
I thought it had more to do with the crazy taxes and impact fees, not to mention the utility rates.
Wawa like em some wawa
Since government only encourage these folks to flock to Gainesville. Citizens have to step up and protect the vulnerable. I feel bad for the cashier that had to see this Handsome fool trying to pay with his “Benjamin” instead of Benjamins.
He is a Gainesville native. Has been doing this since his teens.
He has been going through that tragic revolving door of jail for 3 to 6 months and out in the public for usually less than a year. People have tried to get him jobs. Once he gets overwhelmed at the job, he exposes himself on the job property so he can go back to jail and not have to try and figure out life for himself.
There are many people who use jail that way. And when I went to court and pressed charges against him for the time he exposed himself to me, I found out he has never been on the registry list and he probably is not on it now. That’s ridiculous.
He was ordered to not be within a thousand feet of my residence, since he was near my residence when he exposed himself. However, when I reported that I was seeing him past my house every day, they said it was because he lived down the street and his residence doesn’t count because he’s got to live somewhere.
I’m telling you right now, the state attorney’s office is where issue with the system is as far as my year plus experience pressing charges and actually following through.
And you know what? They said that he was not enough of a nuisance to enough of the population or the right population of the city for them to do anything about it. I told them that they are waiting until he exposes himself to some people on a certain side of town with a certain flavor of skin, and when those people shoot him, all they’re going to say is here lies another black dude with a raggedy life.
A lot of this could have been deterred. That older person who he hit in the head with a brick years back, that never would have happened if he had been dealt with in a way that he should have been dealt with.
It’s ridiculous and sad.
Sorry you have had to deal with this idiot.
As long as I have known this BOY from the Dept of Juvenile Justice and our local hospital he has always been exposing himself. SMDH
Definitely should be a registered Offender.
This guy must have been a real hit in Headstart when it was time for ‘show and tell’.
Benjamin Franklin is turning in his grave. This is why District 1 is a “food desert” — one reason among others.
ACLUSPLCDNC 👹💩🤡👿👺
They should give that girl a restraining order. This guy sounds dangerous.
I pass this WAWA everyday on the way to work. I will never stop there because every morning there are people hanging out by the front door asking for money. Wawa does not care about my business because they will make most of their money during UF football games. I feel bad for the employees that have to deal with this everyday.
His face is scary enough, we don’t want to even imagine seeing anything else.