Las Vegas "Stripper-Mobile" Too Hot for Sin City? County Government Thinks So
LAS VEGAS(CBS/AP) "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."
More Photos at The Las Vegas Sun
That's what they say. But a marketing director of a local strip club is finding out that some things – like live strippers on the back of a truck - are too much, even for Sin City and to avoid a looming legal battle with the county, he is taking his hot wheels off the road.
But public outrage over the truck grew as pictures and videos of the truck surfaced on the Internet and a county commissioner in Las Vegas vowed to shut it down.
Now the Las Vegas strip club has agreed to stop the advertising promotion on their lawyer's advice, and have parked the truck.
"We're going to respect the opinion of the folks that are against it," Beard told The Associated Press. "We're going to be good citizens and take it off the street."
"The girls are wearing more than the girls at the swimming pool wear," Beard said this week. "Even though they're not stripping and taking their clothes off I think people are offended because of the idea that they do."
The tactic worked, with business booming since the truck started going out, Beard said. "We even have cars and limos follow us to the club," Beard said this week.
The dancers were allowed to perform in the truck because it was classified as a vehicle for hire, which let the dancers ride in the back without seat belts, Beard said.
Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said he got calls from citizens who hated it and others who liked it, but he considered the truck a safety problem.
"It's clearly a distraction," Sisolak told the AP. "Somebody's going to turn their head to look at some girl flipping upside-down and spinning on a pole, and take their eyes off the road and could swerve and pop up the sidewalk and plow into a bunch of tourists that are walking along."
Sisolak said he plans to try to close a loophole in local laws regulating mobile billboards.
Regulations prohibit advertising vehicles that use animation or flashing lights, and Sisolak said he would try to prevent live entertainers from being used too.
Meanwhile, he's happy the club owners decided to park the truck.
"Could they have won in court? That would have been a long, costly, time-exhaustive battle," Sisolak said. "They clearly got a lot of publicity as it stands, which I'm sure made them happy."
More Photos at The Las Vegas Sun