Store, club visitors get a memento

There are more than half a dozen adult businesses in the town of 6,100.
KENNEDALE, Texas (AP) -- Patrons of the XXX Super Store and the Fantasy Foxx strip club have been getting a souvenir in the mail recently: an I-know-where-you've-been postcard emblazoned with a photo of the customer's car parked outside one of the adult businesses.
The card reads: "Observed you in the neighborhood. Didn't know if you were aware there is a church in the area."
Oakcrest Family Church pastor Jim Norwood and his followers have been snapping the pictures and mailing out the cards over the past six months or so -- a campaign that helped Norwood get elected mayor of this Fort Worth suburb last month with 66 percent of the vote.
"Anybody that knows me will say that my heart is to try to help these people," said Norwood, 56. "But if all of these places close up, that's not a problem with me."
Trash in parking lot
Norwood said he was fed up with finding porno magazines, condoms and drug needles in the church parking lot, situated around the corner from some of Kennedale's sex clubs and stores.
Many residents say more than half a dozen adult businesses in a town of 6,100 people is too many. But some don't agree with Norwood's approach.
"That's borderline invasion of privacy," said machinist William Pratt, who did not vote for Norwood. "It's their right to go there."
One man who declined to give his name before going into Showtime Cabaret said he had never received a postcard but would angrily throw it away if one came in the mail. He said he goes to the topless bar a few times a month and has no plans to stop.
Those who own the adult businesses and their attorneys declined to comment on what effect Norwood's crusade was having on their bottom line.
Where he got idea
The picture-taking idea stemmed from Norwood's work as a chaplain in jails, where sex offenders told him their problems may not have escalated if their wives or girlfriends had found out about their addiction to porn, he said.
Mark Wright, who served as mayor for six years, does not dispute he lost the election, in part, to Norwood's crusade. But he said the city was already trying to run the clubs out of town, using zoning ordinances.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.