A man is once again facing charges for lewd sexual behavior in a Schuylkill County McDonald’s drive-thru.
Charges of indecent exposure and open lewdness were filed this week against Thomas Balutis, who has an address in Palmyra. Balutis was arrested and sentenced to ARD and community service for a similar incident in 2023, when he had a New Philadelphia address.
According to court documents filed by State Police-Schuylkill Haven, the more recent incident at a McDonald’s drive-thru happened on July 2, 2023. The incident allegedly occurred at the McDonald’s location in North Manheim Township, outside Schuylkill Haven.
Police say that just before 10 p.m. that night, Balutis ordered two McDouble burgers in the drive-thru. The clerk working the drive-thru window told police that when Balutis made it to the window to pay, he handed her his credit card. When the clerk returned the card to Balutis, she noticed that Balutis had exposed his penis and was pleasuring himself.
Balutis then drove away from the scene. The clerk was unable to get a registration on Balutis’ vehicle but did note that he had a sleeve tattoo.
Police then opened an investigation in an attempt to identify him as the culprit. In October 2024, police say they subpoenaed McDonald’s Corp. to get credit card information from the receipt.
McDonald’s responded that it couldn’t provide full credit card information that would have traced the transaction to Balutis because it uses a third party to process card payments. But the company was able to connect the credit card to profiles on the McDonald’s mobile app. One of those profiles came back to a user named “TJ BALU”.
Another profile name on the app search led police to a Facebook account of a woman who is listed as being in a relationship with Balutis. A photo on that Facebook profile revealed that Balutis did have a sleeve tattoo.
Police then were able to connect Balutis to a similar incident at the McDonald’s restaurant in East Norwegian Township. That happened on June 28, 2023, just days before the incident at the McDonald’s near Schuylkill Haven.
In that incident, Balutis exposed his erect penis to a drive-thru clerk as she handed the food he’d ordered to him.
Balutis was sentenced to ARD and community service in connection with that incident.
A preliminary hearing related to these most recent charges is scheduled for Feb. 25 before District Magistrate Judge AJ Serina.
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