MOUNT PLEASANT, Ill., June 9 (UPI) — Some residents of a Chicago suburb are calling for the removal of a business catering to adults who enjoy acting like and being treated as babies.
The Mount Pleasant store, Tykables, only allows customers inside by appointment and has its doors locked and windows blocked at all times, but some local residents expressed outrage at the activities that take place inside the store.
The store owner gave a tour of the facility in a YouTube video and showed off the shop’s adult-sized items including a rocking horse, a high chair, a playpen and a 7-foot-tall crib.
“Things for people to come and play, take pictures with. Not everybody has access to a nursery,” the owner said in the video.
The store specializes in selling adult diapers, which the owner said are marketed toward those with medical needs as well as “ABDL,” or “Adult Baby Diaper Lovers,” some of whom have sexual fetishes related to wearing diapers or acting like babies.
“It’s hard for us to swallow in this community,” a resident said at a village hall meeting Tuesday night.
“He’s getting his party on in there, and we’re supposed to sit back and watch,” another local said.
Some residents defended Tykables.
“They’re not having sex with their diapers on, they’re having people feed them and act like a baby,” one resident said at the meeting.
A village official said there might not be much officials can do about the complaints.
“It’s a business that many people find at best distasteful, but that is legal,” the official said.
The village attorney said civil rights laws might protect the store from any potential action, even if the owner was found to have been dishonest in his business application.