MARCH 17--A Florida computer repair business with the unfortunate name “CP Distributor” paid $240 for an ad in a coupon book that was distributed earlier this month.

The company’s ad, seen below, touts the firm’s computer cleaning and diagnostic services. It also includes a graphic of a bear holding a laptop adjacent to the firm’s name (the “CP” is in a larger type size).

The bear pictured, though, is no ordinary mammal. It is actually “Pedobear,” an Internet meme that is shorthand for pedophiles, perverts, child molesters, child porn aficionados, etc. Pedobear, of course, is positioned next to the oversized letters “CP”--the acronym for child pornography.

The advertisement, it appears, was an inside joke by whomever designed it for America’s Favorite Coupon Book, which distributes monthly coupon books in various Florida counties.

The owners of CP Distributor, though, are not laughing. Especially since one of the firm’s principals, records show, happens to be a convicted sex offender who spent seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12.

Robert Dicks, the ex-con who runs the Lakeland computer repair business with his sister and brother-in-law, told TSG that “we didn’t know anything about the bear or what it was when the coupon book was published.” Dicks, 55, noted that the firm approved the ad before its publication, but stressed, “We’re a legitimate business.”

He said that after his company recently began receiving e-mails complaining about the ad, it contacted the coupon book publisher, which disavowed knowledge about the significance of “Pedobear.” TSG messages seeking comment from Dick Davis and Bruce Hughart, executives with America’s Favorite Coupon Book, were not returned.

[UPDATE: In an interview this afternoon, Hughart, the coupon book’s publisher, claimed that the ad was designed by a female employee in her mid-40s who found the "Pedobear" image online while searching for clip art to include in the CP Distributor coupon. Hughart, who would not identify the designer nor allow a reporter to speak with her, could not explain why the art department employee chose to include a bear, of all things, in a computer firm’s advertisement. Nor could he provide insight as to why the designer chose to put the letters "CP" in a larger type size nestled next to “Pedobear.”

Hughart, who said that 120,000 copies of the March coupon book were printed, said that he was “shocked” to learn of the “Pedobear” meme. He asserted that the use of the image was “as innocent as it can be.”]

When a TSG reporter sought to ask Dicks, pictured in the above mug shot, about his criminal history and sex offender status, he hung up the phone.

But before cutting the interview short, he said that CP Distributor planned to have an ad in the coupon book’s April edition, “but there will be no bear in it.” An updated version of the ad, sans "Pedobear," was found today on the coupon firm's web site (click to view).

Along with the firm’s North Combee Road address and phone number, the coupon book ad includes a second Lakeland address for CP Distributor. That Hendricks Road location is the home of Dicks and his sister and brother-in-law. It is also the address at which Dicks has registered with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which maintains the state’s sex offender registry.

Florida state records show that CP Distributor was incorporated last August, with Bernhard Schonaich listed as the company’s president and secretary/treasurer. His wife (and Dicks’s sister), Peggy, is vice president of the computer repair firm. (1 page)