L.A.Tan tanning salon sued; women say they discovered peepholes

[Editor-in-Chief]

Orland Park tanning salon sued; women say they discovered peepholes

2 women allege invasion of privacy, emotional distress

By Steve Schmadeke
sschmadeke@tribune.com
Tribune staff reporter
December 20, 2007


Two south suburban women in their 20s were lying naked on tanning beds at an Orland Park salon last year when one of them discovered a peephole in her room, a lawsuit alleged Wednesday.

The two women, who filed the lawsuit anonymously in Cook County Circuit Court, sued L.A. Tan Enterprises Inc. and the owner of the franchise at 15633 S. 94th Ave., alleging invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

An employee at L.A. Tan's corporate offices in Lincolnwood hinted the peepholes could have been made by competitors or another customer.

The women's attorney, Steven Dicker, said the woman who discovered the pen-size hole in the wall hurriedly dressed and ran to her friend's room, where they found another peephole. The two left the salon without reporting the peepholes to the employee on duty, but the father of one woman called police later that night, he said.

"The girls go in there and get undressed to get a nice tan and then this," Dicker said of the April 2006 incident. "You could look in the next room and see a naked lady. My clients had a complete and total expectation of privacy, which was violated. They were crying, extremely upset."

Later that day, police found peepholes about 2 feet off the floor in six tanning rooms, Orland Park Police Cmdr. Chuck Doll said. Some of the holes had white paper stuffed into them, according to a police report written up at the time.

"It appeared to the officer to be an effort to hide the fact that the holes existed," said Doll, who couldn't recall a similar complaint in the suburb.

The women did not see any indications that someone was spying on them that day, and Doll said there wasn't enough evidence to make an arrest. Police confirmed that the six holes were patched up by the following day.

An attorney for L.A. Tan, which has about 140 franchises in six states, about half in Illinois, said he was unaware of the lawsuit and declined to comment. Jay Patel, identified in court papers and a police report as the business owner, did not return a call.

But Jean O'Connor, an L.A. Tan corporate trainer acting as a spokeswoman, said the company believes the holes were made either by another customer or by someone trying to damage the salon's reputation.

"We've never received a complaint like this," O'Connor, who works at the corporate offices in Lincolnwood, said in a telephone interview. "We just believe that someone did this to give the company a bad name. We're a very large chain, and there's a lot of competition."

She said all the employees at the Orland Park site are women and that only women worked there in April 2006. After inquiries from a reporter about the lawsuit, O'Connor said she e-mailed all her employees instructing them to regularly check the walls inside their salons every day "in case customers damage the walls."

It doesn't matter if employees were women, Dicker said, adding that the chain should have made sure their clients' privacy was protected.

"They're certainly under an obligation to regularly inspect the rooms to ensure the privacy of their customers," he said.





Source

[Jim Fisher]

Shaking my head.. I hope the judge throws this out before it gets any deeper. Whats to say that the girls didn't make the holes themselves. The lawyer saying that the salon is under obligation to inspect the rooms for holes.. If the hole was covered up by paper then how can they see them.. Unreal how this industry has become to the lawyers and consumers.
What do we do get a fumagater , a spy detector, a rug cleaner after each client and then have them walk through a metal detector as they go into their room all the time holding their bottle of cheap Wal Mart brand indoor tanning lotion

[dcjjp1]

If you are stupid enough to tan in a place with holes in the walls stuffed with paper, then you deserve to get peeped on.

[mgj]

These store are near me they are decent locations, I also hope they throw this out. If the did not have 140 locations the would never have brought a suit. they are diggin for gold.

[FIT]

The girls made holes in six rooms? Who stuffed them with paper? Privacy is no joke. Who's to say one of those female employees didn't have a male friend?