TAMPA, Fla. — A 40-foot motor home was converted into a strip club on wheels, offering alcohol and lap dances to football fans outside the stadium before kickoff of Sunday’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, police said.
Six women performed lap dances inside the motor home, charging $20 to $40 depending on whether they danced topless or totally nude, police said Tuesday. The vehicle, adorned with a sign for strip club Deja Vu, was parked across the street from Raymond James Stadium.
Patrons paid a $20 cover charge and were served alcohol, said Tampa police Sgt. Bill Todd. Officers also caught a male patron smoking marijuana in the back of the vehicle.
“We determined this was the fourth game this season where they had done this,” Todd said. “I don’t understand what justification they think they had, bringing this to a family environment like a Bucs game.” Police charged all six dancers with being nude where alcohol is served, and with being nude in a commercial establishment, misdemeanor violations of city ordinances. Two of the strippers who police said engaged in a sex as part of the show each were charged with a misdemeanor count each of performing an unnatural and lascivious act.
Three men connected to the club were charged with selling alcohol without a license and conspiring to violate beverage laws. One of them owned the motor home and was also charged with renting space for lewdness. All are misdemeanors.
Undercover officers raided the bus after seeing people hand out fliers advertising the party onboard, Todd said.
An attorney for the club, Luke Lirot, said he doesn’t think the alleged city ordinance violations will stand up in court.
“The fact that this doesn’t take place at a specific business location would render those charges inapplicable,” Lirot said, likening the bus to a tailgate party where people share beverages.
He said Deja Vu managers parked the “party bus” across from the stadium to advertise their club’s permanent location.
Lirot said the business should not be punished for promoting exotic dance, which he called a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. As long as partygoers exercise discretion and do not violate state statutes, “what goes on in the bus should stay on the bus,” he said.