City closes Far North Side massage parlor for engaging in prostitution - The Columbus Dispatch

[massage]

Mark Ferenchik The Columbus Dispatch @MarkFerenchik
Columbus officials boarded up a Far North Side massage parlor Friday for running a house of prostitution.

A complaint filed in Franklin County Environmental Court outlined the details of the case against East Wind Massage, 6815 Flags Center Drive, in a shopping plaza near Cleveland Avenue and Schrock Road north of Interstate 270.

In June 2017, Columbus police received a tip from a local business manager indicating that a woman who worked there was tending a small outdoor garden wearing fish-net stockings, a short skirt and no underwear. The business manager walked inside and saw a woman at the front desk wearing only a red bra.

Columbus police then reviewed a website where reviews of sexually oriented massage parlors are posted and discovered 13 postings that referenced the availability of sex in exchange for money at East Wind Massage.

Police went to another website where they discovered advertisements containing suggestive photos of young Asian girls.

On March 23 and again on Thursday, an undercover Franklin County sheriff's detective visited the massage parlor and a worker touched his genitals during the massage.

The complaint also names Flags Columbus Partners LP; Far Eastern Health Spa LLC; William Cope of Grove City, the president of Far Eastern Health Spa; and Lihua Qiao, a massage parlor operator and massage provider. Cope was not present at the business when officials closed it.

A regular patron at the nearby Jimmy's Buckeye Lounge, Perry Van Sickle, said he thought it was weird when a massage parlor set up shop about a year ago in what he called "this quiet little place." He said he talked to customers who told him it was a legitimate business.

Andrew Wadkins, who owns a nearby accounting office, said he had no suspicions other than cars coming in at strange times. "You hate to hear about these things," he said.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

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