--Burlington County Times
BURLINGTON CITY, NJ — Police say an adult novelty store on Route 130 is a meeting place for men who gather to have sex in private video viewing rooms.
At a City Council meeting Tuesday, Lt. Dave Ekelburg showed photographs of the viewing rooms at Love Shack, where the floors were littered with condoms. The photographs were taken by officers during a recent undercover investigation.
Despite pleading from the lawyer for Love Shack, the City Council unanimously voted to revoke the automatic amusement device license from the store. The license permits Love Shack to offer coin-operated private viewing booths.
Ekelburg said the city can revoke a license if a business fails to maintain “good and safe conduct on the premises.”
The move does not put Love Shack out of business, Ekelburg said. It just prohibits the store from operating video rooms.
Hal Haveson, a lawyer representing the business, said it was unfair to revoke the license on the basis of observations by police on one day.
He said the council should have notified Love Shack management, and given the business time to make changes.
Ekelburg said the store is divided into two sections separated by a beaded curtain.
In one section, the store sells magazines, films and novelty items. The other section has a row of 10 viewing booths where customers go to watch videos. The booths all have doors that can be locked, and only one person is supposed to enter at a time.
During the undercover investigation Nov. 29, Ekelburg said individuals solicited police officers to have sex and performed lewd acts in view of the officers.
Haveson said the business owner and property owner were not aware of the sexual activities at Love Shack. When they were notified by police, he said, the business owner voluntarily removed the doors from all video booths.
Haveson said the owner planned to install cameras in the hallway, and would instruct the manager to conduct frequent sweeps of the building.
Haveson said this is the first time Love Shack has been in trouble with the law.
As a result of the undercover investigation, five customers were arrested separately on lewdness charges. In addition, store owner Michael Savage of Yardley, Pa., and store manager Danny Phillips of Cinnaminson were charged with maintaining a nuisance, inappropriate operation of a sexually oriented business and various health-code violations, police said.
Frank Koretsky, owner of the building, was also charged with maintaining a nuisance.
Officers seized $3,148 in cash from the store suspected to have been generated as a result of the illegal operations.
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