Story Published:
Sep 25, 2009 at 5:48 PM PST
Story Updated:
Sep 25, 2009 at 6:05 PM PST
EVERETT, Wash. -- According to a woman named Jess, Grab-N-Go Bikini Hut Espresso is a steamy business that sells coffee with a little extra on the side.
Jess, who did not want to be identified by her last name, used to work at the coffee stand some of whose baristas are now facing prostitution charges.
"The customer would ask, 'I'll pay you to lick the whipped cream off the girl's breast.' It happened to me. It happened to me while I was working there the girl was like, 'Let's do it.' I was like, 'No, there's no way,'" she said.
Jess says her co-worker asked her twice to take off her top and engage in "the whipped cream show," which, according to police, involves the baristas licking whipped cream off of each other for money.
"You're making money, but something that really bugged me was how the guys looked at you, what they would say, to how they'd want to take your picture," she said. "That's when I was like, 'To me, this is like working in a strip club. I don't like this."'
She says she was lured by the big tips some of the baristas earned, which often reached hundreds of dollars in one shift. But in hindsight, she says she should have left on her first day, when she was told to ditch the bikini.
"I showed up in my bathing suit. He (the owner) came in and said, 'You need to put on pasties or you can't work here.'" she said.
On top of being asked to bare her top, Jess said she never got paid for the three days she worked at the stand.
Owner Bill Wheeler insist Jess is just a disgruntled employee who is fanning the flames of the falsities reported by the police.
"We're a (sic) espresso stand. We sell coffee, nothing more, period," he said.
On Wednesday five baristas of the stand were charged with prostitution following a two-month undercover investigation. The women are scheduled to be arraigned in two weeks.