WENDELL - Police arrested a Raleigh man last Tuesday after he exposed himself outside the Wendell Public Library early in the afternoon.

Several incoming library patrons informed library employees of a young man standing near the corner of Lake Drive and Hollybrook Street with his pants down just after 2 p.m.

Library Manager Linda Wilkes called 911 and Wendell police arrived at the scene within a matter of minutes.

Officers arrested Travis Lamont Wilson, 27, of 911 Wake Towne Drive Apt. 209 in Raleigh, at 2:30 and charged him with indecent exposure.

Wilkes said Wilson had been dropped off at the library that morning and he had been in the library earlier in the morning.

“He left like anyone else. We didn’t follow him,” she said. “Then customers came in and told us they had seen him.”

Wilkes said the crime didn’t have anything to do with the library other than the fact it was the closest location the street corner Wilson exposed himself from, but stressed the public nature of a library makes it vulnerable to all types of visitors.

“It is a public place,” Wilkes said. “Staff is trained for emergency and safety situations, but being a public place anyone can walk in the doors.”

Wendell Police Lt. Bobby Langston said Wilson left the street corner, but didn’t travel far before he was picked up by police.

“We were able to locate him at the end of the Cedar Trace apartment complex right across Hollybrook Road from the library,” Langston said. “We didn’t have any issues arresting him.”

Wilson has a history of crime dating back to October 2005, when he was charged with larceny, injury to personal property, felony breaking and entering, and peeping. He was convicted of felony breaking and entering in January 2006. He served just over a month in prison.

He was also convicted of misdemeanor peeping in October 2008 and sentenced to probation.

As of Friday Wilson remained in the Wake County Jail under a $2,000 bond.