Mid City drugstore makes changes following 2 On Your Side report about bad behavior
BATON ROUGE - Four months after 2 On Your Side exposed the filth happening behind a dumpster at a Baton Rouge Walgreens, the drugstore company is finally taking action.
For months, Brian McGowen has been capturing surveillance footage of what's been going on between his fence and a dumpster at the Walgreens next door. It's stuff you would never want to see happening around your house.
"Nudity, drug use, people facing my windows with their pants down urinating," McGowen said.
A motion sensor on the cameras projects an audio recording of McGowen saying, "Welcome to YouTube, where everybody is a star." He used to upload obscene camera views to the website until YouTube banned his channel — even they don't want to see the nasty footage.
McGowen and some of his neighbors have reached out to Walgreens in the past hoping for change. Nothing happened until a 2 On Your Side story aired in August exposing the bad behavior.
"Nothing got the attention like you did. I appreciate your help," McGowen said. "I want people to understand why we don't want this nastiness."
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McGowen called attention to what was happening behind the dumpster because his granddaughter plays on the other side of the fence, just feet from where people are urinating. He doesn't want her to see anything inappropriate.
"It's not me that gets shocked. I can't have her look out the window and see this," he said. "We have four windows that observe that behavior."
Last month, Walgreens filed a permit with the city-parish to move the dumpster to another spot on the property. Work to dismantle the current dumpster and install a new one started Monday. It'll be moved to a more centralized location that's visible to the street, parking lot and store.
McGowen is excited to see progress. It's a response he's been waiting for.
"I wanted it to end," he said. "Thank you, Channel 2. Thank you very much, and of course you, Brittany."
He hopes that with the dumpster moving, he won't see any more bad behavior.
In October, Walgreens told 2 On Your Side that following the first story, it installed more lighting around the store and trimmed the trees. It said its goal is to deter unwanted activity.