Bawdy house wares displayed
BawdyStaff at massage parlours often victims also, say police
Posted By COURTNEY WHALEN, THE PACKET AND TIMES
Posted 1 year ago
Laid out on the table in the Orillia OPP Crime Unit are the spoils of Wednesday's raid on an alleged bawdy house: massage oils, piles of Canadian and American money, a log book and some less-than- official looking certificates.
Just after noon on Wednesday, members of the Orillia OPP Crime Unit and detachment members executed a search warrant at the Body and Soul massage parlour located on Western Avenue (in the plaza adjacent to Goodwill).
Three people were arrested and charged in the raid -- two workers and one customer.
Det. Const. Dave Felstead was one of the crime unit officers involved in executing the warrant. While it's the second such raid in the Orillia area in the past two years, there have been 13 bawdy house raids carried out in central region in the past three years, said Felstead.
In April of 2007, Orillia OPP raided and shut down an alleged bawdy house on Atherley Road across from the Atherley Arms. Less than a month later, four more bawdy houses were shut down in Wasaga Beach, Oro-Medonte and two in Springwater Township.
Felstead said the Atherley Road bawdy house was a unique situation for local police.
"Before, we didn't know how to go about it," he said of the investigation and eventual search warrant.
But with information coming in about the Atherley Road location, they had to adapt. Police got in contact with the York Regional police "morality squad," which specializes in areas like bawdy houses, to train them.
So, when information that Body and Soul could be acting as a bawdy house started surfacing in June, police were ready.
They began surveillance and when customers left the building, police would stop them a safe distance away to get statements about the activity. Those people, who he said are usually older men, aren't charged.
"Nine times out of 10, they don't have criminal records," he said, noting often they're just average citizens.
"The day of the warrant, we set up surveillance and wait for a customer," he said. "Customers usually stay about half an hour to an hour. After about 15 minutes, we go in."
Felstead said $40 will often get you basic service. Extras, such as workers taking off their clothes or performing sexual services, cost more with up to $200 for full intercourse.
"The blow jobs and full sex are very rare in this area. It's mostly hand jobs," he said.
Many of the workers Felstead has encountered are landed immigrants and they are often the victims -- especially since they are usually only getting a small portion of the money paid by customers. While investigations into bawdy houses may lead police to suspect organized crime involvement, there's often no proof, he said.
After the raid on Wednesday, Felstead said police discovered the two workers, who came to the area from Toronto, appeared to be living in the unit as well.
Arnold Billings owns and operates the adult video store Stardust Videos a few units down from Body and Soul. When asked if he had suspected anything, he had a simple answer.
"Yes," he said. "They'd be open weird hours. Days I thought a place like that would be closed -- like Sunday -- it was open."
He's glad police came in and raided the parlour.
"It doesn't look good. My business is an adult store and some people already don't like it," he said. Billings stresses that there is no connection between his store and Body and Soul.
Despite the lucrative nature of the business, evident by the money seized by police and a log book whose pages are full of times and dollar amounts, Felstead said police try to prevent the same business from starting up again by completely dismantling it.
Felstead said there's no evidence to suggest that proximity to Casino Rama makes the area more attractive for the establishment of bawdy houses and said patrons they've spoken to have come from the local area as well as farther away. He does anticipate that more bawdy houses may try to take root.
"I think it's kind of an untapped resource up here," he said.
And that's the way he wants it to stay.
"It's probably always going to go on, but we don't want it here," he said.
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