"It was like this freak show," Troy Harphant, 35, said today. "I was a little taken by surprise by what I'd seen there. It was out of place with what should have been going on over there, that's for sure."
Harphant was at the park with his wife, Wendy, and daughter, Hayley, 6.
He said he spotted a bikini-clad person on a bike path get into a Ford F-150 pickup truck with red emergency lights on top. He realized it was a man.
"My wife said, 'It's a lady,' and I was like, 'no, it's not a lady,'" he said.
He called police. Mason Police Officer Scott Miller arrived and wrote in his report that he saw the driver, Cole, wearing a blond wig and dark sunglasses.
"As Cole exited the vehicle, I observed Cole to be wearing a very skimpy woman's blue bikini with two tan water balloons taped to the top to simulate two woman's breasts and a pair of pink Speedo flip-flop sandals," Miller wrote in his report.
"I asked Cole what he was doing wearing a woman's bikini at the park where families frequent," the officer wrote, "and Cole did not provide an answer. Cole did state he was headed to a 'gay" bar in Dayton to perform as a woman for a $10,000 prize."
Cole was charged with driving under the influence, having an open container, public indecency and disorderly conduct. Police say he had a blood alcohol content of .174, more than the legal limit of 0.08. Cole was released from jail this morning.
Harphant said he hopes Cole is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
"As far as I am concerned, anybody that works in public service - firefighter, EMT, police officer, whatever - it's unethical and it ought to cost him his job," he said.
Cole did not respond to a call for comment at his home. Wayne Township's fire chief also did not return a call for comment.