ALBANY -- A 25-year-old city man was arrested Sunday for asking women inside two Lark Street shops to help him masturbate, police said.

On Oct. 5, Lashawn Johnson went into the Exscape smoke shop at 302 Lark Street at 11 a.m., exposed himself, began masturbating and asked a female customer if she "could help him out," said Officer James Miller, a police spokesman.