'He violated me,' says woman who reported I-75 indecent exposure in Lee

Brenda Radford drives a "jacked up" pickup. 

That is how the North Fort Myers woman spotted a man in a vehicle next to her's exposing and touching himself inappropriately as the two cruised along Interstate 75 on Wednesday.

Radford said he lowered his window and was watching her as he touched himself. 

"He's in a little Camaro and I look down and I was like, 'Oh my God,'" Radford said. 

"He messed with the wrong woman is what he did."

Radford, the owner of Nothing But Hawgs, drove to her motorcycle repair shop and reported the crime to the Lee County Sheriff's Office. 

According to an incident report, the indecent exposure happened on the southbound lanes of I-75 near the Palm Beach Boulevard exit on Wednesday morning as Radford was headed to work. 

"He violated me," Radford said.  

The indecent exposure incident comes three days after the hashtag #MeToo trended across the nation as woman shared their stories of sexual assault and violation. It was incidents like this and unsolicited sexual advances the campaign was trying to highlight. 

"It was a creep," Radford said. "If someone violates you like that don’t let it happen because it can happen to your daughter and it can happen to anyone."

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Radford said investigators told her the man could only be charged with a misdemeanor, but Radford said she doesn't care if it's just a slap on the wrist. 

"I don’t care as long as he gets prosecuted for this," Radford said. "If he did that to me, he's got to be doing that stupid (expletive) to these young girls out there."

Radford was able to take video and photographs of the vehicle. The incident report indicates deputies identified the registered owner of the vehicle and Radford was able to identify him from a photo line-up. 

The case remains under investigation. 

She said she is glad her 11-year-old daughter was not in her vehicle with her. 

Radford said she "should have run him into the guardrail." 

"It's just sickening," she said. "Maybe the man needs help. Maybe there is something not going right in there.

"I wouldn’t want this to happen to anybody. We do what we  have to do to protect our young ladies."

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