Why This Nice Christian Girl Frequents Strip Clubs

Act #206: What are you willing to stake out for?

It's just another typical Saturday night out on the town for the 32 year-old single, fun-loving, spirited woman, who looks at least 10 years younger than the age printed on her driver's license.  It's 10 p.m. and they are cruising the streets of what their parents would probably consider the "shady" part of town - neon-lit night clubs with people lined up on the sidewalks, strip joints with bright flashing signs, adult bookstores with life-sized mannequins donning frilly French maid outfits.  She and her friends are the adventurous type.  She isn't shaken by much.  She has a concealed weapons permit.  She spent her college days backpacking through foreign countries, learning tongue-twisting languages and tasting exotic spiky, fragrant fruits never to be found in American grocery stores.  She lives for the shady part of town.  She pulls her car into the parking lot right next to a well-known, bustling night-time establishment.  She can't wait to get her evening started.  One of her friends pulls out a handmade, carefully crafted cardboard sign.  It says $3999.  He puts it in the windshield of her car.  They turn off the engine and lights, lock the car doors......and they duck down with only their eyes peering over the window rim.  She switches her cell phone over to camera mode.

They are parked at a used car lot adjacent to a run-down motel.  The motel rents rooms by the quarter hour.  That means you can rent a room for 25 minutes at a time.  In just one night, during the busy hours of 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. this motel has the potential to make $560 if it charges $20 for each 25-minute block of time. The 32 year-old and her friends watch as the same vehicle pulls up to the front door of the motel multiple times through the night, each time a girl emerges from the car to approach the front desk and check in.  Sometimes it's the same girl, sometimes it's not.  The girls all look 17. 

The 32-year old and her friends are volunteer organizers for a local anti-human trafficking task force.  Earlier in the week they approached this particular motel to ask if they could leave specially-marked chapsticks at the front desk and in the lobby restrooms.  The chapsticks have been outfitted with pre-printed sleeves with the simple question:  Do you feel like you are being forced into sexual activities?  And it lists the national human trafficking hotline number.  The motel that they are staking-out refused to accept the chapsticks, which is why they are now hunched down in their car on a Saturday night with a fake for sale sign in their window, hoping to get some indication, some evidence that would warrant local authorities to further investigate the suspicious activities of this establishment.  The 32-year old has spent the last 3 weekends assembling the chapsticks and distributing them to local motels, strip clubs, and truck stops.  She will do whatever it takes to save just one more vulnerable, under-aged girl who is being forced to have 15 minutes of sex with strangers for $20 - that goes directly to her pimp.

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Many victims are young children who are runaways or victims of abduction.  The average entry age of American minors trafficked for sex is 12-14 years old.  It is real and it is most likely happening right now in your hometown.  If you suspect human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (1.88.3737.888) or visit:  http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/national-human-trafficking-hotline/the-nhtrc/overview.