Ranting Elmo Returns and Is Arrested in Times Square

By MICHAEL WILSON

A man with a history of shouting anti-Semitic rants while dressed up like Elmo at popular tourist destinations was arrested in his red costume in Times Square on Tuesday.

Adam Sandler, 48, who in June was removed from Central Park in an ambulance after going on a rant, was arrested in front of the Toys ‘R Us store in Times Square shortly after 3 p.m., the police said. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Mr. Sandler was shouting and drawing a crowd that was blocking traffic, and he refused to leave, the police said.

The police did not say what Mr. Sandler was shouting. A Reuters photographer was there, as were any number of tourists with Twitter accounts.

“Just watched Elmo go on an anti semitic rant, get taken down by cops and arrested in Times Square,” one person wrote on Twitter. “You stay classy, New York!”

The Reuters photograph did not i dentify Mr. Sandler, but he was recognizable after the Elmo head was removed from his own. He wore his telltale blue purse around his neck, to collect tips.

I met Mr. Sandler after his Central Park incident that landed him in Metropolitan Hospital Center for a psychiatric evaluation. He was released after two days and immediately returned to the park with no apologies. At least two similar incidents were videotaped and posted on YouTube, and Mr. Sandler said there had been a few others. He has a long and complicated reason for his rants that can be boiled down to his annoyance with and suspicion of people who pose for pictures with him and do not tip.

He said then that he was homeless and camping out in Forest Park, Queens, but on Tuesday he told the police that he lived in a house on 90th Avenue in Queens.

After a column about Mr. Sandler was published that described his work on a pornographic Web site that he operated in Cambodia called Rape Camp, he left Central Park for a while, he said in an interview. He was now working in Coney Island and business there, despite widespread coverage of the Central Park incident, was booming.

“It has had zero effect on my income,” he said. “It's a good job for people to get into when they're on the fringe, to make money.”