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Vendor Charged With Taking Indecent Liberties With Child At State Fair

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RALEIGH — A man has been charged with kidnapping and taking indecent liberties with a minor at theState Fair.

The fairgrounds police say 31-year-old Joseph Rehrig, a vendor at the fair, was caught with a 13-year-old boy in a bathroom stall at the Red Cross lounge at 11 p.m. Sunday night. He worked at a jewelry booth next to the Red Cross lounge.

Fairgrounds police say they caught Rehrig after another fair worker saw him molest the 13-year-old boy. Authorities say the bathroom patrols will be stepped up.

"This is an isolated situation, to my knowledge it has never happened before," says fairgrounds police chief Matt Cleary.

Wesley Wyatt, fair manager, says he cannot do background checks on all of the fair's workers, but he may consider a policy of not inviting back vendors with employees who cause trouble.

"We can certainly put those type of sanctions in place, I guess, to encourage them to pay closer attention to their employees," he says.

Rehrig is being held in the Wake County Jail on $1 million bond. Fairgrounds police say he was hired as a vendor a month ago. He does not have a prior criminal record.

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