Parents buying racy costumes for halloween

(LOUISVILLE, September 16th, 2004, 2 p.m.) -- A new Halloween costume for kids is so controversial that some stores in Kentuckiana refuse to sell it, but others have no problem selling the pimp and prostitute outfits. As WAVE 3 Investigator Eric Flack reports, some parents want the questionable costumes on local shelves.

At Ron's Halloween Store on Hurstbourne Parkway, Mike Flood knows there are all sorts of choices for 6-year-old Cory Cooper. But an outfit designed to make him look like a pimp is not one of them. "He doesn't even have that option, there's no way -- no. It would go right back on the shelf."

The controversial costumes for kids are this Halloween's most talked about items. You'll find both of them at Halloween Express; Ron's is only carrying a little pimp outfit.

Both stores say they decided to offer them because parents wanted them. Tiffany Galyean, with Ron's Halloween Store says "yeah there was some discussion about whether we should carry it, but when so many people ask for it, we kind of have to do what the customer is asking for."

In this case, however, Chuck Mattingly, who owns Horner Novelty, doesn't believe the customer is right, and says you will not find kiddie pimps and prostitutes costumes at Horner Novelty. "My first reaction was that I couldn't believe they were making something for children in that line."

On a night when children can dress up as everything from Jesus to GI Joe, Mattingly says he wasn't about to let his business give children the option of dressing up as pimps or prostitutes. "Those individuals out there that want to let their kids do that, more power to them. But I think it's the wrong message for children."

Sue Testermen, a mother who was shopping for Halloween supplies, says "it's a true reflection of the world that we are selling this stuff and allowing our children to wear it."

Thankfully for his father, little Cory is more interested in ghosts and goblins. "Prostitution's not cool, and the people behind the girls doing that definitely aren't cool."

Obviously, not everyone agrees. "It's definitely a big change from the angels and kitty cats that we were when I was a kid," Testermen says.

The costumes sell for about $40. One California website that had been offering the pimps and prostitutes outfits for kids has stopped, possibly because of a lot of negative buzz it was generating on the Internet

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