Man Busted For Licking Stranger’s Scraped Knee

OCTOBER 18--An Arizona construction worker is facing an assault charge after he allegedly licked the scraped knee of a woman who had fallen and injured herself as she walked to her car in a Chandler parking lot.

The bizarre incident began Thursday afternoon when the victim, having just finished work, tripped and fell to the ground, scraping her left knee in the process. While on the ground, three men drove up in a golf cart to see if she needed assistance (the men were working at an adjacent construction site).

After one of the workers helped the woman to her feet, she continued walking to her vehicle. The victim told police that “two of the subjects drove back towards the construction site, but a third one did not,” according to a Chandler Police Department report.

That man, identified by cops at Martin Soto, approached the woman as she sat in her car with the driver’s side door open. Soto, 43, “asked to see her knee and if she needed medical help.” The woman, whose name cops redacted from police reports, said that, “not thinking about it,” she “rolled up her jeans exposing the scrape on her knee.”

As soon as she did this, Soto “bent over and licked her scrape.” The woman, describing herself as “freaked out,” quickly pushed her pant leg down. As she was doing this, Soto, who was wearing a reflective vest, allegedly began to hug her (one of his hands was under the woman’s shirt). He also “licked the left side of her face several times” before the woman pushed him away and shut her car door.

In short order, investigators identified Soto, who was working for a steel subcontractor, as the suspected licker. When confronted Friday by police, Soto “admitted to licking” the woman’s knee. He was then arrested and booked for assault.

Police records do not indicate why Soto, pictured in the above mug shot, decided to lick the scraped knee of a stranger. After appearing before a Chandler Municipal Court judge, Soto was freed on his own recognizance. (3 pages)