Not myself actually, but my girlfriend, who is sharing a floor in her apartment complex with two “Massage Therapists”.
All day and well into the night there is a steady stream of furtive men thumping up and down the stairs, sometimes loitering in the halls waiting their turn (or perhaps mustering their courage). The last straw was a nasty blow-up with a “customer” last night which had me running there from across town clutching a Louisville Slugger.
The property management seems unwilling to do anything about this despite multiple complaints and rules about running any sort of business out of the apartments, let alone questionable ones.
The irony is that I had the same problem a few years ago, and had to chase a creepy tweaker woman away by snapping pictures of her “Johns” and threatening them with “See you on the Internet!” – something a little too perilous for my GF to do.
So, anybody ever have to deal with this before? If asked, will the vice squad do anything about this? Is there any legal recourse if there isn’t anything overtly illegal going on?
Real Massage Therapists (like me) have strict schooling and licensing requirements. They vary from state to state, and sometimes from city to city, but most of the time they’re designed to prevent exactly this kind of thing. You might try informing the city that someone is doing business without a license, and in most cities, the Vice Squad will be very interested.
By the way, after I graduated from my training (2 years of night school), I was required to take an AIDS test and have my background checked through the local PD, specifically because of hookers using massage as a front. It was both humiliating and infuriating. It’s also a little off-putting to have clients who expect hand jobs because they think all massage professionals are hookers. If your city won’t take any action, I’ll drop by and beat the crap out of them for you.
(comes crawling on back momentarily, bloodied, battered, yet still defiant)
uh. just a vet of several multi-paged debates on prostitution. don’t mind me.
Re: a practical alternative to your issue - the police can be contacted on a regular basis, but I suspect that you’ll find more assistance by working with your city officials, for example, housing authorities, commerce regulators, city council (or your local version of small time elected officials). If there’s a crowd waiting on the stair well, that’s a fire hazard, you might want to get the fire dept. involved - etc.
It is a problem for your g/f, steady stream of strangers at all hours of day and night cannot make for comfortable living situation. (and before folks get too irate - the issue is in an apartment complex, you’re inside, but not home yet, so a steady stream of strangers awaiting their turn can prove to be at best uncomfortable for others living there)
((tentitively approaching an obviously agitated Wring))
Well, exactly. This isn’t even a prostitution debate and I don’t want it to become one. I’m just wondering what the best coarse of action is.
That’s part of the problem actually. No other tenants are bothered. Imagine a “T”. Each apartment door is on either side of the “arms”, so it’s just been a “She said - they said” thing up to now.
Over the last two weeks my GF has called the cops twice to resounding apathy. I’m unwilling to wait for another ‘blow-up’ to get results.
Like I said, I figure your best friends in this situation are likely to be city officials who live for this sort of thing “what, an unregulated business in a residential zone?” “Oh no??? illegal crowding on the stairwells???” “Ohmygosh, an opportunity to weild my semi serious power as a minor league city official with the local constabulary???”
Start with any city office that regulates zoning. A commercial enterprise in a residential setting generally needs special zoning permits. Move on to fire officials, elected officials, mayors office etc. Start keeping a log "on this night x number of people, at the rate of y per hour came tramping up the stairs. on the next night, from such and such time to such and such time, there were a total of " etc. she may have to spend a night or two watching like a hawk out the window or through the peep hole, but if she also is able to provide some description etc, it’ll help. I wouldn’t suggest face to face confrontation of course.
Really, work on the business license angle. Yeah, you might find somebody concerned about zoning, but business licenses cost money. Anyone who doesn’t get one is depriving the city of it’s green. Nothing gets the attention of a city official as quickly as the possibility of dollars. They’ll probably respond more quickly if they are the injured party than if the girlfriend is the injured party.
Wrong time of year, but you could get some older Girl Scouts with a sense of humor to set up cookie sales in the hall and scare the “therapists’s” business away…
Perhaps a call to the local Fox affiliate television station’s “action” news crew. See if they’ll come out to the building, stick their big van out front, raise up the antenna, fire up the bright lights and put them on the evening news.
“Looka here what’s going on RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THE CITY OFFICIALS, POLICE AND THE LANDLORDS OF THIS BUILDING! Residents here have had no success those responsible to help us rid our fair city of this obnoxious trade, and they’ve call us here at Channel 86 to help!”
That’ll light a fire under some politico’s bottom!
Invite some Jehova’s Witnesses to stand/discuss/recruit outside the “therapist’s” door. Bring them iced tea and cookies every hour. Within one week, therapist will relocate.
Buy a couple Hooker Hotels and scatter them around. Wait a few days and presto! Hookers check in, but they don’t check out! If that idea bothers your conscience then get some live traps. Once they’re caught you can safely transport them and release them into the wild (like downtown Detroit).
If all else fails, consult the professionals: Tramp B Gone. For a small fee they can come over and take care of the problem for you.
This is actually a really good idea. That and calling your local municipal business-licensing agency, as mentioned by seawitch and others.
You also might want to look into public service legal organizations – in many cities law firms love to take on this kind of work for free and a legal aid agency might be able to hook you up.
Don’t short sell those zoning board folk, I know where of I speak. My Da-yad was the chair of one such thing, it’s an appointed position, the folks who get appointed and stay there are interested in their cities, but also unable to gain an elected seat. AND take their task very seriously. But a multi faceted approach would also be good.
