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 Linda Thomas
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Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

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Bikini Barista
The cliche about police officers loving donuts began when they visited bakeries for coffee and donuts since they were often the only neighborhood shops open. But in the Puget Sound region, local cops from Everett to Kent seem to be spending a lot of time undercover at barista stands. (MyNorthwest file photo)

For cops, bikini barista stands might be the new donut shops

February 28, 2013 @ 7:04 pm (Updated: 8:36 am - 3/1/13 )

The cliche about police officers loving donuts began when they visited bakeries for coffee and donuts. Those neighborhood shops were often the only businesses open early in the morning.

Local cops from Everett to Kent seem to be spending far more time at bikini barista stands than in donut shops.

Kent police say two baristas were arrested for committing lewd acts in the presence of undercover police officers.

The police investigation into Twin Peaks Espresso started several months ago, in late 2012 after several people complained that the women would expose themselves for excess cash or commit lewd acts.

Officers arrested a 23-year-old woman and a 19-year-old girl after discovering, through their undercover research involving drive ups and site surveillance, that woman would flash their private parts if customers paid excessive tips of up to $25.

This bust of bust exposure follows a case a couple weeks ago at the Grab-N-Go espresso stands at two locations in Everett.

Again, people complained about indecent exposure so what else could officers do? They had to spend two months investigating the alleged violation of city adult-entertainment codes.

Undercover work by officers led to the arrests of three baristas who at times didn't even serve coffee.

Does that sound familiar?

Everett Police have been there before. In 2009, another two-month undercover investigation led to five arrests at one of the same Grab-N-Go stands.

As much as the Seattle-area has a rich coffee history, it has a more recent history of undercover police investigations of bikini barista stands.

These cases generally seem to take a full two months to investigate.

A couple of years ago, the Edmonds Police Department orchestrated a nine-month undercover investigation resulting in the arrest of the Java Juggs Espresso owner and three employees.

At the time, Edmonds PD Sgt. Don Anderson defended the undercover officers.

"This wasn't their only ongoing investigation or their only priority," he said, "but enough complaints came in from the community that it was obvious we had an obligation to investigate."

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (60)


  • Add A Comment

  • Cash wrote...
    Really Linda?
    February 28, 2013 6:58 pm
    Do you spend all of your time working on just one story at a time? Maybe you know what the filing standards are for criminal and civil violations to successfully prove an on-going pattern of criminal activity. It sometimes can take some time and I am guessing this was the least of their worries and worked it as time allowed over the real priorities. Most of these are conducted at the direction of the city and far from what a team of detectives care about. You make it sound like a bunch of cops are getting paid to pick up chicks and have nothing better to do...
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  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    Time is money
    February 28, 2013 7:22 pm
    Cash, it's fair of you to question my time, since I'm wondering about the amount of time officers spend investigating what are generally misdemeanor crimes. Most of my time is spent writing/anchoring the morning news on KIRO Radio and producing radio features.
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  • Cash wrote...
    Please don't get me wrong Linda...
    March 1, 2013 6:46 am
    My question is this; have you checked into what it takes to have the necessary documentation to shut places like this down? It takes a lot and I can tell you this, the cops are not interested in working these kinds of details, the city's where these businesses pop up want them shut down and the Detectives are forced to work it. I for one don't know anything about how to anchor the morning news or run a radio station but I do know how to run on-going criminal investigations. I do know the filing standards it takes to successfully shut down and not just make a quick arrest for a misdemeanor violation but to show the elements of an on-going criminal enterprise.

    I don't work for these agencies you are specifically talking about but I do have experience with being assigned details because of an agenda of the council wanting something shut down. Most of the time it is a civil action based on these violations that successfully gets them stopped and it is not the minor criminal violations but those are necessary to jump start the civil actions. Sheesh I could sterotype those in the radio business but that would not be productive to the conversation and make me look silly.

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  • RonJ wrote...
    Cheeseandrice
    March 1, 2013 10:16 am
    They're breasts. Can we move along now!
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  • The Dude Abides wrote...
    RonJ
    March 1, 2013 10:51 am
    If you don't have anything productive to add to the conversation, then keep your yap shut, please.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • iceworker08 wrote...
    Dude Abides
    March 6, 2013 9:18 am
    Try following your own advice. So what if a woman flashed her breasts for money. There are better things for the police to focus on. Like gang crimes, Drug crimes, theft, rape, murder. no one is being injured by these women so why is so much taxpayer money going into it. If the city wants them gone then all the city needs to do is not renew their business license.
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  • longwayhome wrote...
    Go away cash
    February 28, 2013 7:44 pm
    You're lucky she responds to criticism in a positive way, I would have told you to go fly a kite.
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  • Cash wrote...
    Feel free to tell me anything you want
    March 1, 2013 6:49 am
    There is nothing you can say that will hurt my feelings. I think it is positive to have a conversation and I was not being super critical from a negative angry standpoint; just curious if there was more to this than just trying to make the local police look badly again.
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  • TwistedFang wrote...
    Some of the Cops do a pretty good job at making cops look bad!
    March 1, 2013 8:41 am
    Sorry Cash, but while I do thank you and everyone else that serves the Police and the Military to protect us from people that want to do us harm, there are a lot of Policemen (and Policewomen) that do a pretty good job at making local police look bad!
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  • roomtemp wrote...
    A couple of questions...
    February 28, 2013 8:05 pm
    Where is the victim in this 'crime'?

    What's worse... Some woman flashing her java jugs for 20 bucks, or the Everett cop I caught looking at porn on his laptop in the middle of the grocery store parking lot?

    He must have got an emergency call just as he noticed me. He sure took off in a hurry... bwaaaahahaha

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  • hpygolkyone wrote...
    Hmmmmm?............
    March 1, 2013 4:08 am
    The victim in this 'crime' would appear to be the taxpayer.

    I always scratch my head when I read about these 2 month investigations into these coffee shop 'dangling of the girly bits', or spending thousands of dollars on lap dances on the the taxpayers dime to discover if dancers are keeping the proper distance.

    Men have been begging and/or paying to see, and women have been obliging to show their knockers ad infinitum. I would normally end this with the....."nothing to see her folks move along"......

    But obviously there is A LOT to see!............SIGH.........

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  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    Posted from a listener's email:
    March 1, 2013 5:41 am
    Linda, please don't use my name or the name of my business because I fear retaliation. I am an Everett business owner who had my shop broken into last fall and there is still no resolution to the crime. I provided surveillance video and have had very little satisfaction toward resolving the investigation from Everett PD. Maybe they should spend less time investigating barista flashers and more time looking for burglars or robbers.
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  • Cash wrote...
    Interesting as well.
    March 1, 2013 7:14 am
    All of you guys trash the cops all the time for because of a few bad ones and when you are a victim suddely you demand your case be #1 and justice. Guess what there are a million cameras that catch criminals all the time around here but unless the person(s) can be identified how to expect them to be arrested? Also start looking at how the courts in the State of Washington, specifically King County Superior Court, handle these types of cases.

    It is impossible to file charges on for things like possession of a stolen vehicle or stolen property, trafficking stolen property anymore because they have given the suspect the out of saying, "I did not know it was stolen" and they don't have to explain how they came to being in possession of it and bam case dismissed. There are a ton of cases of Theft/Burglaries/Frauds that could be easily charged in 49 other states but not here due to these absurd filing standards. The court here goes as far out of their way to protect these suspects and I would start looking into them and stop blaming the cops who make tons of arrests that end up being dismissed on first appearance. Seriously go downtown and sit through the morning in-custody calender and listen to exactly what happens for burglary, theft, and auto theft suspects...

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  • Cbrew wrote...
    Cash...
    March 1, 2013 7:37 am
    I'm reading post after post of yours here and i'm beginning to think you expect the Public to flip the switch and actually believe it takes 2 months to catch these women who are taking money to show their b00bs... All i'm saying is you can't expect the public to support police in this matter when A. the crime is sort of small compared to what else is going on out there, I mean, indecent exposure to a horny commuter? B. People live in the real world, 2 Months is an extraordinary amount of time to get something done in the real world... In most of our minds, you figure it is as easy as mounting a camera in the car or stationing an undercover cop somewhere with a line of site to take pics and then driving up undercover and recording the exchange of money for flashing... In our minds there's no reason it would take you more than a couple / few days to get that done.
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  • Cash wrote...
    Cbrew
    March 1, 2013 8:16 am
    All I am saying is just because a detective opened an investigation on January 1st and closed it on March 1st does not mean they spent that entire time on that one case each day of the week. To do controlled buys on these types of vice investigation you have to have a well documented track record of on-going activity; cops do what is required by the Prosecutor and court filing standards to successfully complete that mission. I am not saying it is right or I agree this is a vaild use of time; I personally could not care less about these places and they can operate however they want; when you are forced to do an investigation because of the city/county want something stopped you have to do it. Sheesh I agree this kind of investigation is stupid and a full and complete waste of time but I am sure the departments that were mentioned are not doing it just for their own kicks as it sounds from the story and subsequent comments.
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  • Oly80 wrote...
    Cbrew...
    March 1, 2013 11:10 am
    i totally agree with you.

    well said.

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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Shouldn't take too much of an investigation to...
    February 28, 2013 9:17 pm
    "uncover" this crime wave. Darn little cover to start with.

    Just one of the perks of the job. The cops get paid $100,000 plus per year to keep an eye on babes with bo*bs. Something most guys would do for free, or actually pay up to do.

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  • iceworker08 wrote...
    $110k plus?
    March 6, 2013 9:26 am
    Where did you get that figure? Most officers I know make around 70k and thats if they get a lot of overtime.
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  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    $25.00 for a peak?
    March 1, 2013 5:26 am
    Why when you can peak for free on the internet? Just google "booobs"
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  • JMGilday wrote...
    I'm shopping for a car
    March 1, 2013 10:32 am
    and just googled 'Hummer'

    You will not BELIEVE what came back in response...

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  • Regularjoe44 wrote...
    Time well spent?
    March 1, 2013 5:38 am
    I really must be coming down with something... First I agreed with a Dave Ross article a week ago...and now I find myself seeing some point to Linda's. With all the crap going on, all the back logged investigations of serious crimes....this is how we choose to spend our PD dollar? I gotta set up a dr appt. :)
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  • MainEvent wrote...
    I'm
    March 1, 2013 5:46 am
    sure these "cops" love the idea of getting paid to watch these strippers breeze off their bits. I would be ashamed if i was a police officer anymore, it used to be such a looked up to and thanked profession. Now its just a bunch of frat boy drop outs and meat heads.....
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  • mnpat wrote...
    What's new?
    March 1, 2013 6:46 am
    Guy's wanting to see females naked....naw, Women complaining about guys wanting to see women naked....naw, women getting funds for sexual favor....naw, Police putting these investigations on the front burner....naw. Guys spending time wanting to see naked women is pretty much the same as the women that spend a lot of time looking at things they can buy.
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  • doublej wrote...
    In Spokane
    March 1, 2013 6:51 am
    a few months ago, there was a story where the cops busted a prostitution ring in a massage parlor. When the details were released, one of the ones I remember was that investigator #9 made 29 visits in a 3 month period. Heck of a job if you can get it I guess.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    But when the Spokane cop visited the same hooker 29 times over 3 months....
    March 1, 2013 7:05 am
    he didn't enjoy it. I'm sure it says so in his report, and that he would testify to same in court. Absolutely no purpose, except to collect evidence (and release something else).
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  • soo purletiv wrote...
    Hmmm...
    March 1, 2013 6:56 am
    Twin Peaks, Grab-N-Go, and Java Juggs.

    I sense a pattern here, but just can't put my hands on it quite yet.

    Methinks me will have to continue my investigation. Hands on, of course...

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