VIP Salon & Day Spa has been a constant source of ire from local residents. Vice officers have raided the business a handful of times over the past 18 months, and the city has filed numerous complaints, police said.
After a Dec. 20 raid, cops discovered tiny cameras in the ceiling of several rooms in the massage parlor and police believe their activities may have been transmitted onto the Internet, Jefferson Park District Cmdr. Ralph Price told the Sun-Times. Price traced the camera wires to a central computer.
“It’s gone beyond just prostitution,” Price said. “What you think may be private could be all over the place.”
As a result of discovering the videotaping operation, the Cook County authorities are ramping up the charges against the club’s owners for alleged unlawful videotaping. Price believes the seriousness of the latest charges will close VIP.
“Finally, we can shut this guy down,” Price said. “This could be the nail in the coffin.”
While the women at the parlor who were arrested for prostitution told police they made money from sex acts, they also shared in the profits from the Internet broadcasts of their sessions with unsuspecting Johns.
Chicago police executed a search warrant at VIP’s Dec. 21, and seized the central computer’s hard drive, which will be analyzed.