Rick Lucas, 55, was arrested at Brookfield Zoo because he is a sex offender and was not supposed to be in any zoo.
RIVERSIDE, Ill. (Fox 32 News) - A registered sex offender was arrested at a zoo near Chicago on Friday after police tried to help his girlfriend, and found out he was in the zoo.
Riverside Police said they found Rick Lucas, 55, in Brookfield Zoo on Friday afternoon after having a chat with his girlfriend.
She had been sitting in a car outside the zoo in a way that made police think the car was disabled. It was not, and the girlfriend, 69, told them she had been too tired to go into the zoo with her boyfriend.
Riverside Police checked the license plates on the car and discovered they belonged to Lucas, a registered sex offender, who is not legally allowed in a zoo.
Lucas is charged with one count of being a sex offender in a restricted area, a Class A misdemeanor.
Police also confiscated his phone and camera.
Lucas was previously arrested in 1991 for two counts of first degree sexual assault of a child in Waupin, Wisconsin.