Neb., police block store window after mannequin drops pants in wardrobe malfunction

Mannequin’s wardrobe malfunction draws complaints

BEATRICE, Neb. — Residents who complained about a nearly naked female store mannequin prompted police to conceal the window display and stirred a debate about obscenity. Police covered the window at Hannah’s Treasures for about a day last week after several people in the southeast Nebraska city of 12,500 complained about the mannequin with a pair of pants around its ankles and wearing shoes but no other clothing.

City Attorney Tobias Tempelmeyer said Monday he had yet to receive all the police reports on the semi-naked mannequin.

“We’re not able at this point to issue a determination whether it’s obscene or not,” Tempelmeyer said.

The owner of the closed shop later dressed the offending mannequin in a bikini.

Store owner Kevin Kramer’s lawyer, Dustin Garrison, didn’t immediately respond to a message Monday, but he told the Beatrice Daily Sun that Kramer might sue over the dispute.

“Nothing about a naked mannequin constitutes obscenity,” Garrison said to the Beatrice Daily Sun. “I think we’ve all gone into a department store and seen a naked mannequin at one point in our lives.”

Kramer said the shop in Beatrice was closed because he was in the process of moving his business to Lincoln.

Tempelmeyer said the dispute was resolved amicably, and that he was OK with the mannequin wearing a bikini.