Two massage parlors were shut down and three people are facing charges during an undercover sting in Oildale Tuesday night.
Wednesday the Kern County Sheriff and Kern County Public Health director announced the bust during a press conference. They say the busts occurred at Bonnie's Massage at 3704 North Chester Avenue and Oriental Foot Massage at 1619 North Chester Avenue.
23 ABC talked with neighbors who live behind Bonnie's Massage. One of them is Brooke Culbertson.
“It disgusts me. It’s right in my backyard, yeah. It disgusts me,” said Culbertson.
Culbertson says she is also a former masseuse. And after Tuesday night's undercover sting, she said she’s relieved for her old profession and her daughter.
“Don’t do that, don’t give us a bad name. We don’t need prostitution around here. I certainly don’t want my child around that,” said Culbertson.
At Wednesday morning's press conference, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood and the Kern County Public Health Services Department announced they’ve teamed up to crack down on sexual misconduct at massage parlors in Kern County.
Kern Public Health director, Matt Constantine, said, “These are the first two who we’ve taken formal action on.”
Sheriff Youngblood added, “But not the last.”
Undercover detectives arrested 57-year-old Kezhen Zhao and 53-year-old Jiahong Zhang at Oriental Foot Massage as well as 44-year-old Maohua Jiang at Bonnie’s Massage. All three were cited and released.
During the press conference, Constantine said, for a massage parlor to operate properly their business needs a business permit and a newly added public health permit. Constantine said it’s a 90-day process where they do a background and zoning check.
“We ensure every masseuse is certified as a masseuse and they walk through that process. So everyone is at a different stage, but to operate they needed to have submitted that and started going through the process,” said Constantine.
Wednesday 23 ABC went to both locations, knocked on their doors and called them, but didn't get a response.
Christopher Vaughn owners Norris Barber Shop in Oildale. He was at Wednesday's press conference and has this message for other massage parlors that want to operate illegally.
“I’m not going away, this is my home. You need to straighten up, you need to fly right. I’ve got a sheriff in there willing to enforce the law. So let’s look properly,” said Vaughn.
As of Wednesday evening the District Attorney's Office had not charge any of the three women.
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