(as dictated to Mrs Grumble)
It looks like some baristas in the state of Washington might be needing a good barrister.
They have been charged with prostitution after investigators found they charged customers to touch their breasts and buttocks at an espresso stand where servers wear bikinis to draw business.
The Everett Herald reports the women were charging up to $80 (NZ$111) to strip down while fixing lattes and mochas.
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 north of Seattle.
Alf is sure this sort of carry-on doesn’t happen in Eketahuna and hasn’t heard of it happening in Wellington. Certainly not in Bellamys.
But in Everett, Police have received more than 40 complaints in the past year of women exposing themselves at coffee stands
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 Everett city council is expected to decide next week whether to change the city’s lewd conduct ordinance to cover espresso stands.
The five arrested baristas are scheduled to appear in Municipal Court in a few weeks to answer misdemeanour charges.
Alf Grumble 