A parks worker at a Manhattan playground exposed himself to a mother and toddler while he was on-duty. He said that he was "high on PCP."

As per witnesses and video footage, he also relieved himself in the street and laid down in the middle of traffic to fondle himself, reported New York Post.

A copy of the police complaint revealed that he was held for exposing himself in May in Fort Tryon Park in Inwood. After the arrest, the 36-year-old worker, Jeremy Soto, told police, “I’m high on PCP."

Records showed that two days later, he was in trouble again for allegedly hugging a woman from behind on a subway platform in the Bronx, touching her breasts and kissing her neck.

Soto has 15 arrests on his rap sheet. They go back to 2003. In January he was charged with twice grabbing bottom of a woman who was walking near the same park, police said. He even pled guilty.

“Why was he placed in a playground?” asked a witness of the May 1 incident that happened inside the park. “I teach my children that if they get in trouble in a public place to look for someone in a uniform, and the idea that they could have gone to him is horrifying," said the woman.

Recalling the incident, the mother-of-two said that it took place on a peaceful Saturday morning. Back then some people were enjoying a Zumba class at the park’s Anne Loftus Playground. As the Zumba instructors led the class from a park building patio, Soto came in a jacket which said “staff."

“He was sort of dancing, gesturing to the music. Everyone sort of laughed. The teachers were good natured about it," the witness said.

They gently guided Soto away, but he returned. “I noticed he was focusing on one of the teachers who was a female. He was staring at her in a way that made me uncomfortable. He was sort of walking around after her in a menacing way," she said.

After being shooed away, Soto moved over to nearby swings. “He took his penis out of his pants. I saw him take it out and start swinging it around and gesturing, lewdly. Crude gestures. Sexual gestures toward a mother and her toddler on the swings," the witness claimed.

Following the incident, the Zumba class participants called police. Phone video showed him standing on Broadway and urinating before walking away. He then laid down and used his left hand to play with his exposed penis, reported Fox News.

The witness said that Soto’s colleagues tried to coax him to get up before the police came. Soto was later handcuffed and taken into police custody. A summons for exposure was issued. Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor said that Soto was fired on May 1.

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Swing Image by Ulrike Mai from Pixabay