BY KELSEY RYAN
kryan@wichitaeagle.com
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article72658607.html
Diamond Spa, 180 S. Rock Road, sits in a strip mall next to a nail salon. It shares parking with a Wendy’s, Burger King and a church.
A neon red “Open” sign is in the window. All the shades are drawn.
Massage parlors have been in the news in Wichita lately. I decided to go into one.
When you walk in, there’s an empty front desk in a small waiting room with a handwritten note asking you to ring the bell.
A security camera in the corner stares down. Fake flowers sit in a vase. And there’s a foot reflexology poster on the wall.
A sign says you can get an hour massage for $60 or a half hour for $45.
A woman comes out before I even ring the bell.
“Foot massage?” I ask.
It’s $40.
She takes me through a door and to the back.
She speaks with another woman in hurried Mandarin and takes me to a private room. There’s only a night light, and I can hardly see anything except for a massage table in the middle with pink towels on it.
The woman is probably in her late 40s. She’s dressed in black with shoulder-length black hair.
She tells me to sit on a recliner in the corner of the dark room. Then she asks for payment up front. I hand her two $20 bills.
She and the other woman don’t seem to know what to do about me. They seem flustered. Then they tell me to lay on the table instead.
She turns on a lamp. It has a red light.
Human trafficking in Wichita
Diamond Spa has been a known spot for prostitution in the past, according to Wichita police records.
In 2015, two women were arrested there for selling sex. They pleaded guilty in municipal court.
Police say up to 30 massage parlors in Wichita may be fronts for prostitution and human trafficking.
Kansas is one of a handful of states that doesn’t regulate massage businesses. No licensure, no inspections.
Police say that human traffickers have told them that they come to Kansas and to Wichita because there are no regulations.
30number of massage parlors in Wichita that may actually be fronts for prostitution and human trafficking, police say
In response, the Wichita City Council approved regulations Tuesday that backers hope will lessen human trafficking within massage businesses. The ordinance would put in place fines, permits and required education for massage therapists.
Many of the local massage parlor cases involve Chinese nationals who initially come to the U.S. on B1/B2 visas, which are for visitors on business or pleasure.
The women being trafficked aren’t the young women seen in Craigslist ads for these businesses.
Victim advocates say many of the women come to the U.S. for the prospects of legitimate work but can’t find it. Some have had their families threatened if they don’t do this, and some are sending money earned here back home.
Pink-lit room
The woman puts a hot towel on my feet and wipes them.
“OK? More harder? Too harder?”
It’s fine.
“Are you from China?”
“Mmmhmm. You born here?”
There’s more small talk. Then silence as she rubs my left foot.
“I think it would be hard to be a masseuse. My hands would get too tired.”
She laughs.
“Where do you work?”
I say I’m a reporter at the newspaper.
“You work five days a week?”
“Usually.”
Then the front door slams. Someone rings the bell.
The woman quickly gets up and leaves me alone in the red-lit room.
‘Menu’ of services
Massage parlor workers in Wichita generally see between four and eight patrons a day.
The workers themselves get maybe $10 to $15 per customer, plus tips, Wichita police Sgt. Dan Oblinger testified in a recent massage parlor trial in federal court.
Oblinger heads the Wichita Police Department’s undercover vice unit, which has investigated massage parlors since 2010.
24number of massage parlors Wichita police investigated for prostitution and human trafficking in 2015
In 2015, Wichita police investigated 24 massage parlors and made 22 arrests for prostitution and human trafficking.
“The vast majority of parlors we’ve investigated are Chinese and speak Mandarin,” Oblinger testified.
The women come to Wichita from California, New York and Las Vegas, he said.
“Over the course of the massage, some massage businesses engage in acts of prostitution,” Oblinger testified. “(They have) various levels of services offered. Menus, if you will.”
Some parlors offer full service, or intercourse. Others only provide “small acts” with “happy endings,” he said.
On Craigslist, the advertisements are subtle. But other websites offer more explicit descriptions of services.
“Michelle is my favorite provider. She always offered two pops,” says one 2012 review of Diamond Spa on RubMaps.com. The review was used as evidence in a recent federal trial.
“That means the male patron ejaculated twice,” Oblinger said in court.
‘We work too hard’
There’s more Mandarin. Then I hear a man’s voice in English.
“How late are you open?”
“You want a massage?”
The walls are paper thin. I hear the woman who was giving me a foot massage talking to the man. The door to the room next door closes.
The other woman comes into my room.
“She has customer. This OK? This too hard?” she asks as she hastily rubs my foot.
She says she is from Beijing. Her English is harder to understand, and she’s a little older. Maybe in her 50s. She’s wearing glasses and has long black hair up in a ponytail.
She asks what I do, and I tell her.
“How long have you been a masseuse?”
“One year,” she says.
“That’s not very long.”
“Wichita we work too hard. Yes.”
A Craigslist ad for Diamond Spa, featuring a photo of a much younger and bustier woman, says the business is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
“Did you move here from Beijing?”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“That’s a big change.”
“Beijing big city. Lot of people. Lot of people. And Shanghai. Lot of people.”
“What made you decide to come to Wichita?”
She pauses.
“I want to go to San Francisco. My daughter live in San Francisco. My daughter University of California-Berkeley. It’s lot of money. … I like San Francisco.”
“Do you think you’ll move to California to be with her?”
“Yeah.”
Real victims
To investigate the parlors, Wichita police go undercover as patrons, sometimes multiple times before a sting. They also park outside and observe patrons.
“All you see is men going in and out. No female clients,” says Wichita police Capt. Kevin Mears.
And they’re not staying in there the full hour, he says. These are mostly cash-only businesses.
There’s been an increase in complaints and cases since 2013, Mears says.
“When you start seeing it, you’ve got to take a proactive stance.”
There would have been more police stings last year if the department had more resources, he says.
In some of the cases, the women are forced to live in the back of the parlor.
“People sometimes have the misperception that these people aren’t real victims,” Mears says. “Do you think your wife, mother or daughter would wake up one day and want to be in the profession? Somebody is exploiting them, using them to make money.”
All done
“So what do you like about Wichita?”
The woman rubbing my foot shakes her head no.
“We work too hard. Too hard. And windy.”
She makes a whoosh sound.
“Were you a massage therapist in China, too?”
“I did in China bank working.”
“That’s a very different job.”
“I was bank manager.”
“What made you decide to change to this?”
She pauses again. Then she says something about the cost of American education.
“For your daughter?”
“My daughter and my nephew good education. I want to pay education. NYU. My daughter at Berkeley. Good school. International student. Lot of money. Lot of money. … Tuition. Lot of money. Everybody good education in my family. My parents in my country good education. Doctors.”
“Do you have a husband? Did he come to the U.S. also?”
“Divorce. My husband 20 years … No good.”
Then she says we’re all done.
I sit up and put on my shoes and she turns off the red light.
She quickly escorts me to the front door.
“Bye-bye.”
It’s bright outside. I leave and walk back into the light.
Kelsey Ryan: 316-269-6752, @kelsey_ryan