Local & State Headlines

Albany vendor arrested

• Store officials recognized the suspect in a surveillance video as a food vendor, investigators say.

J.D. Sumner

PALMYRA — An Albany food vendor was arrested Thursday after being caught on tape groping a 14-year-old girl while strolling the aisles of Wal-Mart, investigators say.

Christopher Wyatt Duren, 36, of Albany, was charged Thursday with one felony count of sexual battery of a child under 16 years of age. He was released Friday on a $10,000 bond, jail officials said.

If convicted, Duren could face up to five years in prison and be forced to register as a sex offender, Col. Duane Sapp of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.

According to incident reports filed with the LCSO, the girl told investigators that she was standing with her uncle and other family members near the store’s entrance as a greeter was checking a receipt when a man walked up and grabbed her on her buttocks and then quickly disappeared around a corner July 4.

Surveillance video showed the man approach the girl and firmly grab her, Sapp said.

The victim’s aunt said that she thought she knew the guy as someone named Chris whom she used to work with, but wasn’t sure, the report says.

Duren was identified by store personnel who recognized him in the surveillance video as being one of the store’s food vendors from Albany.

“It’s a pretty simple message,” Sapp said. “Leave children alone because we will come after you and lock you up. We take our children very seriously.”

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