Kinky Couple Arrested For Valentine’s Day Date

The first story in the headlines was just “Kinky couple arrested after woman spotted naked and bound in the back of Subaru on Valentine’s Day date”.

So I was pretty pissed off to read that the cops arrested them and took them to jail and charged them with disorderly conduct – it was two consenting adults, after all. My take was, hey, remember to cover up your naked and bound lover when you drive them around in the back of your car. The cops will want to see that.

But then it turns out it gets worse. Dan Savage:

Valentine’s Day Bondage Date All Kinds of Wrong

Valentine’s Day ended badly for Stephanie Pelzner and it’s not because she spent part of the afternoon naked and bound with her mouth taped shut in the back of a Subaru. Pelzner, 26, and her boyfriend Nikolas Harbar, 31, were handcuffed and carted off to jail after their kinky stunt sparked a frantic police search in Portland, Oregon, because witnesses feared Pelzner was being kidnapped. Harbar and Pelzner say they were just having a romantic bondage-inspired Valentine’s Day date, but Portland officers were turned off.

…punishing bondage fans by slapping the handcuffs on ‘em seems a little counterintuitive. And it turns out that Pelzner and Harbar weren’t exactly boyfriend-and-girlfriend:

A man and woman arrested Wednesday night in a reported rape turned out to be engaging in consensual bondage sex after meeting through a Craigslist on-line bulletin board. Detective Jim Strovink, Clackamas County sheriff’s spokesman, said a homeless woman spotted the couple and called police, believing the bound woman was being raped. When deputies arrived, the couple ran…. The man told deputies he ran because he didn’t want his wife to find out.

And here’s where I see Dan’s point:

“Letting someone you’ve just met tie you up… getting tied up in public and alarming passersby… cheating on your wife… running from the police. They’re so much wrong here I hardly know where to start.”

Okay, I get that it’s not cool to freak out the public – everyone had to assume that it was a horrendous kidnapping and rape. And he did run from the police (so disorderly conduct was the least they could charge him with) but it’s still two consenting (if stupid) adults. The police didn’t have to make it public to shame them. Sex is still evil in our country, despite that it’s being used to sell everything.

Via: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/02/15/valentines-day-bondage-date-gone-wrong