By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
EVERETT, Wash. — Five Washington state baristas charged customers to touch their breasts and buttocks at an espresso stand where servers wear bikinis to draw business, police said.
The five were charged Wednesday with prostitution. Charging money for that kind of touching falls under the city’s definition of prostitution.
The Everett Herald reports the women were charging up to $80 to strip down while fixing lattes and mochas.
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During a two-month investigation, detectives also saw the women lick whipped cream off each other and pose naked for pictures at the Grab-n-Go Espresso stand in Everett, about 30 miles 950 kilometres) north of Seattle.
Owner Bill Wheeler told KCPQ-TV employees sign a policy prohibiting the kind of behaviour alleged by police. He said anyone caught doing anything illegal would be fired.
The women, ages 18 to 24, were not arrested, said Sgt. Robert Goetz. They were expected to be in Municipal Court in a few weeks to answer misdemeanour charges.
Police have received more than 40 complaints in the past year of women exposing themselves at coffee stands. Goetz said the department investigated Grab-n-Go because it had the most complaints.
“This was about alleged conduct, not about what the women were wearing,” he said. “They could have been wearing parkas and if they continued to conduct themselves that way, we still would have filed the criminal charges.”
Undercover detectives began posing as customers in mid-July.
During one visit, a barista allegedly told a detective that for $20, she and another barista would give him a show. He paid and they bared their breasts and pulled down their undergarments.
The women also charged customers to play “basketball,” a game in which customers threw wadded up money at the women, who caught the money in their underwear, detectives said.
The city council is expected to decide next week whether to change the city’s lewd conduct ordinance to cover espresso stands.
This story reminds me alot of the topless doughnut shop story I ran last summer. That place also got shut down for lewd behavior and was then burned down, no doubt by some misguided zealot. This country needs to have a serious discussion about crime. If an action doesn't hurt or threaten anyone, its not a crime. How are naked pictures and feelskies at the coffee stand hurting anyone? In fact, its probably the only part of some dude's day that doesn't suck. I'd beg to say the practices of those baristas kept at least one lonely guy from killing himself.
I think I should team up with these girls and the folks from the topless doughnut and we could start a nude breakfast type of thing at the old Satin Club. That way folks could go to Jaguars, have a good time and then come get some naked pancake action and a cup of Joe to sober up. I think I'd be doing the community a favor.
P.S. - That basketball game described in the story is really fun. I played it Jaguars once. Of course the game I played included a shot glass placed in an orifice. When I scored a basket me and the guys jumped around like I had just earned a spot on the Contestants Row on 'Price is Right.'
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