Man ‘moaned’ in pleasure while rubbing pregnant woman’s belly at Walmart, IL cops say

A Illinois man is facing felony charges after he allegedly rubbed a pregnant woman’s belly against her will at Walmart and appeared to derive pleasure from doing so, according to investigators.

The woman was shopping at a Walmart in Joliet — about 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago — on Oct. 23, when 27-year-old John Claude Novak approached, kneeled down in front of her “and rubbed her belly with both of his hands,” a criminal complaint filed Dec. 20 said, adding he “moaned as if experiencing pleasure.”

Novak touched and behaved “in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb” the woman, the complaint said.

This wasn’t the first time Novak had been accused of similar behavior, Patch reported.

He has a 2015 conviction stemming from an incident in which he allegedly touched a pregnant woman’s belly at a Kohl’s store, the outlet reported. Novak followed that woman into the parking lot and tried to kiss her stomach, the woman said.

Numerous women reported run-ins and encounters with him.

“In recent months the Joliet Police Department has received several reports of a young white male approaching pregnant women at local businesses,” police said in a 2015 social media post. “This person engaged the women in what was described as inappropriate conversations about pregnancy making the women feel uncomfortable.”

Novak pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct at the time and was put under two years of court supervision, Patch reported.

However, Novak could be hit with tougher consequences this time around. The Will County State Attorney’s Office is pursuing two counts of aggravated battery, in addition to a charge of disorderly conduct, documents show.

A preliminary court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12, records show.

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