# Businesses that are fronts for crime **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892 "2013-04-28T06:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/21 "2013-04-28T19:30:34Z")
I’ve mentioned this before in these threads. There’s a chinese place in Milwaukee that’s been around for as long as I can remember and for as long as I can remember there’s really never been any cars in the parking lot. From time to time, usually during lunch I’ll see two or three cars there, but that’s it. I see they now have a website and some (good) reviews on FourSquare and google, but that’s new. I know the restaurant business well enough to know that you can’t even cover your overhead on a handful of customers per day. I always figured something was going on there. There’s just no way they’ve stayed afloat on restaurant income alone. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a delivery truck there either. They’ve got a good location and if their food is as good as their reviews say, they’re really should be doing okay. Maybe they’re busy at night or when I’m not driving past. But, honestly, I’ve never seen more then two cars, usually none and I’ve never seen a full parking lot. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/22 "2013-04-28T19:35:39Z")
Not exactly fitting the OP, but once as an ambitious young salesman out doing cold calls, I stumbled into some office suite that was pretty obviously a white power/KKK/nazi/what have you “office”. I took one look at Maynard and Zed, and beat feet back to the outer world. Yes, this was in Idaho. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/23 "2013-04-28T20:20:37Z")
I don’t think anyone can walk through those long, long hallways in big office buildings and not wonder what crimes are taking place behind some of those featureless doors and names. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/24 "2013-04-28T20:29:29Z")
For a very long time my DH was convinced that a local comic book/cards/science fiction merchandise store near us was involved in money laundering or some other nefarious business. His prime evidence for this was that they had all “these old used comic books they were selling for huge amounts of dollars.” I thought it was hysterical even when he asked me if they had good weed after I bought some Battlestar Galactica stuff there. It took a very long time to convince him that various toy items could be valuable to adult collectors. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/25 "2013-04-28T21:11:47Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Years back (late sixties or very early seventies) there was a candy store in the neighborhood in Queens, NYC, in which I grew up. It was your typical candy store of the time. They sold (ostensibly) candy and cigarettes, and there was a small (maybe three or four stools) soda fountain counter. But the stools and counter were always piled high with boxes and junk, and the soda fountains looked like they’d been dry for years. The owner was always there, and he would sell you a bottled soda or a newspaper or a candy bar, or a pack of smokes, if you were an adult, but it always seemed like there were a lot of adult men hanging around without buying anything (except maybe the Racing Form). > > Later, when I was a bit older, I came to understand that it was a betting shop, and it took bets on the horses, and also the number. And that everyone in the neighborhood knew this. > > It’s not there anymore – that whole block of stores has been rebuilt since I was a kid, and it’s long gone. But it was definitely a front. There was one in my neighborhood,too. More of a newstand than a candy store. A couple of brands of cigarettes, a few types of candy and month- old magazines in the front. Bets on the horses, number and I think poker games and possibly illegal slots in the back room. The meetings were in the cafes that never had any customers other than the ten or so Italian men who sat there all day ---
**Author:** ![Blkshp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blkshp/32/7135_2.png) [@Blkshp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blkshp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/26 "2013-04-28T21:15:50Z")
When I was a kid my family would sometimes go to an Italian restaraunt that we all thought was shady. On a Friday or Saturday night the parking lot would be full of gleaming new Cadillacs and Lincolns (easily 30-40 cars), but we’d go inside and the place would be empty except for two waiters playing cards in a booth. Occasionally there’d be another couple there, but never a crowd even close to matching the number of cars in the parking lot. The food was oustanding, it was dirt cheap and since it was empty, the service was great. They never made us feel unwelcome or tried hurry us out, either. At first, we couldn’t figure out where everybody was, then we realized they had to be in the basement. It was a free standing building and there were apartments on the second floor - but never a sign or a sound of a party up there. The best we could figure was that there was an illegal casino in the basement, maybe a speakeasy set up left over from Prohibition days. The restaraunt is no longer there, but 50 years later it’s still a family joke. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/27 "2013-04-28T21:26:40Z")
My Italian immigrant ancestors opened a restaurant as a front for a numbers racket and producing alcohol during Prohibition. The illegal activities weren’t very successful but the restaurant operated for 50 years. ---
**Author:** ![Plumpudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/28 "2013-04-28T21:56:10Z")
At the first floor of a block I used to live in, we had a thai massage parlour. I lived there for over a year without seeing anyone leave or enter the front door. However, I met a lot of young asian women coming in and out of their backdoor, which led into the laundry room. From some reason, they washed about three or four machines of white linens several times a day, all week. I have no idea what they were doing, but we used to joke about them using the massage parlour as a front for their household chores. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/29 "2013-04-28T21:59:11Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Might it be a bar? Some people do have an unusual sense of humor. Never felt the desire to investigate. There is a sort of pall of weary sadness that seems to hang over that town, out of which occasional craziness emerges (IMLE), mostly we just wanted to get on to the next town from there. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/30 "2013-04-28T22:17:11Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > …My dad makes tale of going into a Russian restaurant once, and being made to feel **very** unwelcome. Along the lines of them saying brusquely, “is closed now!” despite there being many be-suited Russian men inside. My mother once worked at an Italian restaurant like that. She quit after a few weeks, but did mention she was extremely well paid for a waitress. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/31 "2013-04-28T23:00:06Z")
I live in a pretty quiet neighbourhood. There’s a Persian restaurant on the main road a few minutes away. It has an ornate frontage and is a medium sized restaurant. I’ve never noticed customers at any more than one table. My ex and I tried the place out once and were the only people there. The staff were lovely and the food was good if rather plain, there was nothing fancy on the menu. It’s being going for years and yeah, I’m sure it’s a front for something. In a complete contrast of style, was a strip of businesses near a bus stop I often used. Most of them were tacky looking takeaways and every one had a group of youths hanging around. Every so often a car would drive up, a youth would go to the window, collect something, go into one of the takeaways and return to hand something different to the driver. It was some of the most ridiculously blatant dealing I have ever seen outside of festivals. Funny thing was, the reason I was at that bus stop every couple of weeks was that my, far more discrete, weed connection lived in the nearby flats. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/32 "2013-04-28T23:08:31Z")
Here’s a local one fresh off the presses. After the story broke my kid said she always wondered how he could stay in business as a lot of his skater/surfer shop oriented merchandise was well out of date. [http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013304240093](http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013304240093) [He’s sad now.](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fgNEQMhqerc/UXbJWXIDvMI/AAAAAAAAmtc/2ZyODC3ETUk/s1600/H.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/33 "2013-04-28T23:11:04Z")
I’ve seen quite a few ice cream trucks and mobile hot dog carts busted over the years for dealing drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/34 "2013-04-28T23:20:06Z")
In my neighborhood there’s a suspicious 24-hour tanning salon. First off, my neighborhood is all young families and its hard to believe they have enough 4 am tanning emergencies to justify staying open. Second, their staff consists entirely of young hotties. I couldn’t figure out their scam at first, but my latest theory is, its a brothel. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/35 "2013-04-28T23:23:18Z")
For years and years, there was an egg roll stand across the street from campus on the main huge crosswalk. It was a vastly busy intersection and the food was incredibly cheap – in 1997 or so it was $0.75 for a huge egg roll (the size of a gas station burrito), or two for $1.25, fried rice, various Indian breads stuffed with various stuff. It was all pretty good; certainly it was amazing for the price. It was run by this cheerful little old Vietnamese lady. She used to sell us her leftover stock when it got close to five. We had more than one egg roll and fried rice feast, feeding half a dozen or more hungry students for five bucks. Then she got busted for selling stolen electronics. No more happy egg roll lady. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/36 "2013-04-28T23:55:53Z")
> [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](#): > > Then she got busted for selling stolen electronics. No more happy egg roll lady. ☹ Was that at UT-Austin by any chance? My partner and I joke about a tire shop on the corner by our house being a drug front. I’ve only seen cars out front a few times. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/37 "2013-04-29T00:04:52Z")
Here in Bug Tussle, it’s picture framing stores. Sky-high prices, and almost never open. Money laundering fronts? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/38 "2013-04-29T02:53:26Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > About 20 years back a bait shop opened up not far from me, and since I fished quite a bit at the time, I had to go check it out. That there was no fishable water for 20 miles though, so I really should have taken the hint. Don’t remember what I saw in there, but it didn’t have much bait-shop merchandise, not even bait. A few months later, the police arrested some folks and it closed. Think it had to do with gambling, or slot machines, or both. IDK if this is still the case, but in the late 1990s, Sioux Falls, SD had dozens, if not hundreds, of little hole-in-the-wall “sandwich shops” that you had to be 21 to enter. They sold very few sandwiches, but did have slot machines. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/39 "2013-04-29T02:59:02Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > . 2) We quickly discovered pretty much everything on the shelves was some combination of expired, useless/visibly broken, and covered in dust, having never been touched at any point during the last century (…the hell?) > > (snip) > > nothing in the store was actually buyable. > > Yeah, some shit was going down. We didn’t ask what, and just never went back. There was a store in the small Illinois city where I used to live that advertised itself as a “thrift store” but the people were vague as to where the money went (if it was for profit, all they had to do was say so!) and it too had lots of expired, unsalable merchandise. 10-year-old packages of Today contraceptive sponges, that kind of thing. They did have a room with secondhand kids’ clothing and baby care supplies, as well as those cheap plastic toys on cardboard; IDK where they got them, but it looked like this was where most of their sales came from. My best guess is that much of their merchandise was purchased from assorted salvage operations; whether the business was legal was something I also didn’t know about. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892/40 "2013-04-29T03:31:29Z")
[Previous thread on the topic](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=418278&highlight=maria). In it, I posted: \*\*There are a number of bars in Bangkok that don’t seem to have any reason for existence. They’ve been around for years but never seem to have any customers when I go in. The Other Office Bar in Patpong 2 jumps to mind immediately. I’ve always wondered whether they’re a front for drug-money laundering. There’s a Mexican Restaurant here, too, called Tia Maria that’s actually quite good. It opened in 1990. In a rather hard-to-find spot. The food is actually quite good – for Mexican food in Bangkok – but we’re often the only customers in there. I remember we had a big meal in there once with some friends and lingered over margaritas for a full two hours during a weekend dinnertime, and NO ONE else ever came in. We DO see other customers from time to time, and once or twice I’ve seen it MAYBE a quarter full, but it’s rare to see more than one other table with people, if that. ## When we were living in Honolulu, there was a golf-pro shop close to Waikiki that DID get busted by the narcs. Owned and operated by South Korean or Japanese nationals, it was not a money-laundering setup, but rather the drugs were actually moving through there. The funny part is that after the raid and the arrests, the cops did not lock up, and I knew some people who went inside and helped themselves to a lot of stuff. There were some mighty fine bottles of alcohol in there; I know because the imbibing of some of it was shared with me.\*\* Since that post, however, Tia Maria finally closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-are-fronts-for-crime/656892.md?page=3)