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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Radio Show and Some Bad Business in Key West


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                          (Looks like an electric palm tree!)






RADIO SHOWS
As I mentioned in a previous blog, my girlfriend Dani Hoy and I are doing not one, but two radio shows all of the sudden!

Stop by our pages on Facebook for each show, which will have airing schedules listed. I know a lot of you are in Europe, the times posted are Eastern Standard Time, which is -5 hours GMT and -6 hours for the continent.

For the Key West Beer Tales - The Sum of All Beers:
https://www.facebook.com/KeyWestBeerTales

For the The Key West Music Show - Conch Rockin in the Keys:

https://www.facebook.com/TheKeyWestMusicShow

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SOME BAD BUSINESS IN KEY WEST

I really don't care what people do behind closed doors. That's their business, not mine and frankly, I have a lot more to be concerned about than being a busy-body, sticking my nose into other peoples personal affairs.

However, if it's a business and when the buisiness is being unethical, that's where I draw the line, especially if it's a detriment to the town of Key West.
The Key West Adult Entertainment Club ( formally The Scrub Club) at 1221 Duval St. seems to always be in the news... albeit not so much in the LOCAL news and the news is ALWAYS bad. Very, very bad.

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Lets set the stage: The Key West Adult Entertainment Club is a strip club that features only private rooms.

The story here is always exactly the same. A customer goes in, must sign a waiver and is charged something in the range of about (hence to referred to as "@")$200. After that runs out, everybody is naked and the guy hasn't achieved what he went in there to begin with for. They have an ATM, but it's down the hall. The guy being naked, takes the advise of the girl there and gives her his card to take out an additional amount of agreed money. Lets say it's another @ $200, for arguments sake. He stays in the room and she goes and gets his @ $200 from their ATM. Naturally, he doesn't see that the ATM fee is not$2.50, $3.00 or $4.00, but rather@ $50.00! The girl will NEVER come back with a receipt either. "Oh! I forgot to get your receipt and the transaction's already closed" Of course if they did the customer would see the @$50 ATM charge.

 Now here comes the fun part. Every report carries the same M.O. Only the amounts are different. What they are said to do next is put in for another withdrawl! There's another $50.00 fee and the ammounts withdrawn reports say are $600.00, $800.00, $1000.00, $1,500.00, $6,000.00... and so on! Meanwhile, the guys, more often than not, find out about this after they get back home, to Chicago, New York, Atlanta, New Orleans... You'll see it in their local papers and once in a blue moon, maybe, just maybe, in a Key West paper, albeit, just in passing. Every report says that it cases are being investigated, but that no charges have been filed.

It does seem odd that all of these cases that pop up continuously, from all around the country, never have anyone charged. While I grant you for thinking that the clientele are pretty stupid for giving out their ATM codes to begin with, one has to consider the fact that A) the establishment knowingly is stealing their money and no doubt violating the trust and responsibility issues of having an ATM, a.k.a. a remote bank, there on premiss and in their control in first place B) The clientele is usually inebriated to some extent or another, C) At this stage of the game they are 75% - 99% of achieving nirvana and in their condition, clearly not thinking rationally. I'm amazed that the city of Key West doesn't have the owners tared and feathered, then run out of town. However, they continue to operate.

There are police cars, often two or three, there responding to  issues there at minimum of once a day.

The word of mouth is perhaps the worst. What happens here is that these people go back home after being fleeced by this rat's nest, and allow me to ask the question: Do you think they're thinking of coming back to Key West? I doubt it. Likewise, can you imagine what they might be telling friends and acquaintances  of their overall experience in Key West? Granted, they may refrain from where they had their disastrous experience at this slut hut, but believe me, they're not trumpeting the fabulous virtues this town actually does have to offer.

Additionally, having known a previous manager,  I was brought up to speed on a few things. They put up for housing a lot of their female employees. There are "requirements" they have to follow in the business and if they didn't fulfill these "requirements" in any way, they are "fined". The fines would be levied on them for being late, not hanging out on their front porch hoping to lure in customers, not doing their required one hour strut down Duval St. in attempt to solicit additional  business ( this is against city code, by the way,) , and for not moping up the floor after their customers achieved what they went there to begin with for.

Really.

(Regarding the required hour long strut down Duval attempting to bring back business to the hovel, you may have noticed that it's mentioned that this is against city code? Well, they were cited for it in 2012. They had court date after court date postponed and put on to continuance until this week when it was all supposed to finally be heard. I'm not sure what happened, but the docket no longer has any record whatsoever of there ever being any kind of a hearing, or it ever even being on the record books at all. Unusual, to say the least.)  

There were cases when said previous manager worked, where some of the girls owed more than they actually made! Additionally, as they actually housed the women, they had them entirely over a barrel, so to speak. The girls didn't have any money, as they had to pay off their fines and the establishment applied and deducted them against their earnings. How can they leave? They can't. So they're stuck there. Yes, this is happening in the United States, not a back alley brothel, where the streets smell like urine, in Bangcock, Calcutta, Shanghai, or Mumbai. It's happening in Key West folks. This is a problem. This is a major problem.


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