Do massage therapy and happy endings go hand and hand? That’s what one Montreal officer believes as he told a new massage therapist after she tried to fiile a complaint.
20-year-old Claudia Cavaliere was just a few months out of massage therapy school when she had an incident that will change her forever.
While recently working at a St-Charles Boulevard spa, Cavaliere had to massage a middle-aged man. She was in the middle of massaging one of his legs when she realized that he was grinding his crotch against the table.
As Cavaliere then told the CBC, the man then turned over and started masturbating in front of her. He said nothing before he completed himself and then asked for a tissue.
"I didn't know what to do. I just froze," she said.
"I couldn't speak. I was hyperventilating. I was crying. I was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, panicking," she later added.
After that, she quickly got a coworker who helped Cavaliere kick the man out of room and out of the building.
This encounter deeply shocked and upset Cavaliere, so she naturally went to the police to report it. After getting to the Montreal police’s Kirkland detachment to file a complaint, she soon realized that she would have more issues there.
Not only did the customer give a fake phone number, name, and not use the spa’s parking lot, but the police officer tasked with talking to Cavaliere tried to persuade her not to file a complaint.
As the CBC reports,
“He was like, 'Well, you know, you have to get ready to appear in court. Do you really want to do that?'" she said.
"Of course I want to do this. My safety is at risk, and other massage therapists' safety is at risk, and other women's safety is at risk.… Nobody is safe if people are walking in the streets thinking it's OK to have this kind of behaviour in a public space."
It was then that Cavaliere decided to pull out her phone to record the conversation with the officer.
The officer also tells Cavaliere the incident isn't considered a sexual offense and, because the client did not demand she do anything or touch her, any conviction wouldn't result in "a harsh punishment," but a $500 fine.
He tells her that her spa, which also offers services such as manicures and waxing, is on a stretch of road where "there's a lot of happy endings."
"There's a lot of weirdos out there," the officer tells her. "I'm saying, be prepared to have weirdos. You will have weirdos. That's the nature of the business. Unfortunately, that's what happens. I just don't want you to get emotional because you have weirdos out there."
After the eight minute “conversation,” Cavaliere left with the unfilled file in her hand and a lot of doubt in her mind.
"There was a part of me that said, 'No, I shouldn't go back. What's the point of going back? They're never going to catch this guy. I should just try to forget it.'"
Thankfully, Cavaliere then contacted her business who turned her around and told her to report the file despite that one cop. When she got there, she was greeted by a more welcoming officer.
"All he had to say was, 'This is not your fault,'" she said. "He took the time to ask me questions."
"In my head, I'm thinking, 'This is an amazing cop.' But then again, he's not an amazing cop — he's a cop who is doing his job, who clearly knows what he's doing. He clearly knows how to help people and not leave people feeling unsafe."
Sadly, it took a terrible encounter with a selfish customer and a selfish police officer for the spa to wake up about how they handle such incidents.
The spa that employs Cavaliere is now requesting Photo ID as an effort to protect its staff and have documents to tie badly behaving customers in the future.
h/t: The CBC
