Man dressed as Spider-Man draws concern from farmers market

Phil Pagano, the manager of the Sarasota Farmers Market, is trying to get high-level officials to focus on a potentially serious security threat affecting the weekly downtown event.

He’s posted warnings on the market’s Facebook page and tried to track down police reports regarding a suspicious figure. He first became aware of the issue in mid-March. As he recounted his initial encounter with the man in question, the gravity with which Pagano views the situation is obvious — even if the content of the story may seem bizarre.

“A couple of weeks ago,” he explained, “there was a Spider-Man walking around.”

On two weekends in March, a man in a Spider-Man costume attended the market, posing for photos with visitors. While that might not raise any suspicions on its own, multiple reports of troubling behavior have Pagano worried.

Pagano wanted to make clear this person isn’t associated with the market. He’s tried to reach out to the chief of police and the city manager, because he fears the man behind the mask isn’t necessarily a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Or, perhaps, he’s an overly friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Pagano said he didn’t pay much attention to the costumed man at first. There was a person dressed as the Easter Bunny there that weekend, too. Pagano figured it might have just been another attraction a local group or vendor brought in to entertain children.

But later that day, he got a call from Chris Keesecker, the owner of market vendor Java Dawg. Keesecker said his daughter told him the man in the Spider-Man costume was making advances on her as she walked throughout the market, commenting on her clothes and offering to buy her a beer. She said the man persisted when she told him she was underage.

After checking in with others, Keesecker and Pagano determined the Spider-Man was focusing his attention on a lot of women at the market that day. Worried about the performer’s motives, Pagano decided to confront the man and ask him to leave.

“Somebody puts the mask on, they feel like they can do whatever they want,” Keesecker said.

Pagano found the Spider-Man holding a child upside-down by the legs, posing for a photo. Pagano told the man to put the kid down. The Spider-Man said he had a First Amendment right to be in the same outdoor space the farmers market was using. Despite the tense stand-off, Pagano hoped the issue was settled that day, and the market could go on without issue.

“It seems like if someone was doing it for fun, or helping kids out, they would say, ‘Hey, sorry about that.’ But this was weird.” — Phil Pagano

The next week, though, the Spider-Man was back. A vendor told Pagano the costumed man had focused his attention on another female customer, and the customer’s husband subsequently chased the Spider-Man down the street. Pagano decided to call the police.

According to a March 24 police report, the man in the Spider-Man costume is named Elvis Groman. Groman, 38, told an officer he had done nothing wrong. Anyone he had touched had asked him to pose for a photo, and Pagano was the only person complaining.

Pagano disputed that characterization. He said it was suspicious Groman shied away from Pagano’s efforts to have a face-to-face conversation after the police arrived — and once the mask came off.

“It seems like if someone was doing it for fun, or helping kids out, they would say, ‘Hey, sorry about that,’” Pagano said. “But this was weird.”

A tangled web

The saga of the Spider-Man extends beyond the past two weekends at the market.

When Pagano posted about the Spider-Man on the market’s Facebook, commenters said the same person had been causing issues in Siesta Key Village.

Sure enough, on the Bonjour French Café Facebook page, there’s a photo from March 8 of a person in a Spider-Man costume perched on a ledge and striking a web-slinging pose. And Wendell Jacobsen, general manager of Beach Bazaar and chairman of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce board of directors, said merchants had taken note of the man dressed as a superhero in their business district.

Jacobsen said he hadn’t personally encountered any significant issues with the Spider-Man. He did have one customer who complained — understandable, he said, when a masked stranger runs up behind you.

But Jacobsen said the mask was the only real point of concern he had heard within the village. Having a person dressed up in a costume is one thing, but an inability to identify that person is another.

“We’re so tourist oriented, with so many people here from different cultures and places, that it could easily upset someone,” Jacobsen said.

There is at least one sign of the same behavior alleged at the farmers market occurring on Siesta Key. A Jan. 22 Twitter post, geotagged on Siesta Key, said “Spiderman is in Sarasota just walking around right now” — and shares an exchange that suggests the Spider-Man was trying to “hit on” a woman.

“Somebody puts the mask on, they feel like they can do whatever they want.” — Chris Keesecker

Groman, meanwhile, has racked up a series of arrests and citations throughout the state — as Spider-Man and otherwise.

His history as Spider-Man dates back to at least 2010. A charging affidavit from Volusia County said Groman was arrested in March 2010 in Daytona Beach for conducting business without a permit. The report said Groman was dressed as Spider-Man and allowing people to take photographs of him for money.

In 2011, Groman was cited for a code violation in Key West for performing in the street.

The Volusia County report lists Groman’s name as Elvis Aaron Harmon Groman. A Facebook page for an Elvis Aaron Martz Harmon includes several pictures of a man in a Spider-Man costume in locations including Honolulu, Hawaii. The profile lists Harmon’s profession as the “#1 Street Performer in the world” beginning in February 2010. It also includes multiple references to the conspiracy-theory network Infowars.

On March 23 of this year, Groman — out of costume — was mentioned in a police report regarding an incident at Whole Foods on First Street in downtown Sarasota. The report said Groman tried to record a person sitting outside the grocery store and punched the man in the face when he pushed Groman’s phone away. In his defense, Groman said he thought the other man was trying to steal his phone. Neither party wanted to press charges.

Groman’s record also includes a 2012 conviction on charges of felony battery in Monroe County. Groman did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the police report from the farmers market, Groman said he would not return to the event in costume. Pagano was happy to confirm Spider-Man did not make an appearance at the March 31 farmers market.

Still, Pagano remains on alert for any future run-ins with the masked man. He hopes others are equally vigilant.

“You know how they always say — if you see something suspicious, say something?” Pagano said. “What’s more suspicious than someone going all around the county in a mask dressed up, where nobody knows who he is?”