Posted 11/17/2004 05:56:00 PM by Douglas

How many times has this happened to you? You go to your local IHOP at midnight for some grub, and after a few pots of coffee and a "Rooty, Tooty, Fresh and Fruity" breakfast, you've just got to go out in the parking lot and get it on? Happens to me all the time. But I generally make sure I'm not gettin' my freak on right next to a cop car.

Police arrested an Amarillo couple on charges of public lewdness Monday morning behind the International House of Pancakes, 2100 S. Western St.

Noise from the couple's parked car in the restaurant's parking lot led Amarillo police officers to knock on their window, where they found the couple in an intimate situation.

When officers arrived at the restaurant about 1:50 a.m. to get some food, they heard screaming and moaning coming from the parked Toyota Camry, said Sgt. Randy TenBrink of the Amarillo Police Department.

Because of the noise coming from the car, which was parked four spaces away from the officers' squad cars, police thought someone might have been in danger, TenBrink said.

"Officers thought there was a sexual assault in progress because of the noise," TenBrink said. "When we hear something like that, we check on that."

Instead of danger, though, officers found the couple engaged in a consensual sexual encounter, TenBrink said.

They wanted it "scattered, and smothered," but not covered. Who knew?