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Homeless man charged with exposing himself to woman in Jax Beach

A homeless Jacksonville Beach man is in jail after a woman said he exposed himself to her at work.

The incident was reported last month at the Kangaroo gas station on busy Third Street North.

“I walked to the garbage to throw away my garbage, and as soon as I threw one bag in, he had followed me behind and shut the doors and pulled (his) private parts out and asked me to do explicit things to him,” said the Kangaroo employee.

“I yelled at him to get away from me. I kicked the door open and I ran inside and called the cops.”

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Jacksonville Beach police quickly tracked down Jared Aronson, a homeless man who has been arrested at least 10 times over the past decade for non-sexual offenses.

Aronson's mother tells Action News Jax he suffers from schizophrenia.

Cmdr. Mark Evans said officers are cracking down on public sexual offenses because, in a beach town, they can get out of hand quickly.

“Especially in the summer months, our beaches are packed. We’ve got young people, old people, families, they’re at the beach, they’re in water, they’re in swimsuits,” said Evans.

Jax Beach police investigated nine indecent exposure cases last year.

Just six months into 2016, there have already been seven.

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