Women to Sue NYPD, Allege Racial Profiling in Remsen Street Parlor

By on March 12, 2015 7:29 am in crime

The Daily News reports that three women who planned on having a spa day at Massage Envy instead wound up in a holding cell after a Massage Envy employee accused them of using a stolen credit card.

The cops were called after a staffer at the massage parlor believed that the CitiBank credit card being used by Kimmell McIntosh, 35, actually belonged to another customer.

The last four digits on the credit card used to book the massage were nearly identical to those on the card of a different client, a police source said.

Unaware of the mixup, the police asked McIntosh and her friends to show their IDs and pressed them to admit the card was filched, the women said.

The women, who are African-American, are suing Massage Envy and the NYPD, alleging they were racially profiled. According to the Daily News, “A rep for Massage Envy said the Arizona-based company was ‘working with the franchisee to gather more information and review the incident.'”

Photo: Courtesy Google Maps.

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  • Mini_Cooper

    How can a private company be guilty of racial profiling? How can the police, having been called to the scene, be guilty of racial profiling? Ridiculous.

  • ShinyNewHandle

    What no-one is asking: Why do people even use credit cards for this sort of thing? Especially when around the block from about ten ATMs?

    The credit card companies charge the merchants for service, which means prices are higher for everyone.

  • done with massage envy

    Massage envy requires a credit card for reservations.

  • HenryAndHicks

    “The last four digits on the credit card … were nearly identical to those on the card of a different client.”

    Nearly identical? In other words, maybe three digits on this credit card were the same as those on another client’s card. And for that, some idiot calls the cops, and the women are put in a holding cell. Nobody bothered to double-check the credit card numbers? I wonder why.

  • Jorale-man

    I don’t know if “profiling” is the right word or discrimination but it sounds like they could have a case.

    Unrelated: I never understood what the name of this place was about. Whose envy are we talking about? The customers’ friends who haven’t been? The masseuses?

  • DIBS

    LOL, Henry. Just a stupid employee

  • :D

    The reason no one is asking this question is because it is entirely irrelevant to the article and discussion at hand.

  • Sally

    LOL wut?