Twitter post accuses Santa Cruz County bakery of human trafficking
DAVENPORT — Employees at Whale City Bakery Bar & Grill are receiving threatening phone calls after a woman posted on social media that she and a friend were lured into human trafficking.
The author of the tweet, “voodoo mama juju” or @jennxv, warned women not to go to Whale City Bakery, 490 Highway 1, after a woman eating suggested Voodoo Mama Juju and a friend use the restaurant’s outdoor bathroom and came in contact with a “strange dude” who entered and exited an adjacent door Saturday night.
“Attention to all ladies. If you guys go to Santa Cruz, please do not go to this restaurant called Whale City. if you guys need to use the bathroom do not buddy up with a girl!! Please bring a guy friend with you because my friend and I experienced something–”
Voodoo Mama Juju and her friend left the restaurant in fear after the experience, suspecting it was an act of human trafficking. Voodoo Mama Juju did not report the incident to the police. Her tweet has been retweeted 16,800 times and has gotten 19,500 likes.
Whale City Bakery tweeted Monday that it is an “unsubstantiated claim.”
“It has come to our attention that a recent tweet has made some dangerous accusations against our business and our family,” the restaurant tweeted. “Please know that this is an unsubstantiated claim, made by someone who refuses to report said story to the police.”
Whale City Bakery said in a tweet that it has contacted the police, the mayor and administrators of Twitter and Yelp and intend to take legal action. It also tweeted that it opened its bathroom outside of the building to ease lines inside the restaurant.
“I don’t know where it came from,” Whale City Bakery’s shift supervisor Jose Magaña said of the Twitter post. “I don’t know why it went out.”
Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Sgt. Dee Baldwin confirmed Thursday that they have yet to be contacted by the people alleging the experience at the restaurant and was surprised to see the allegations posted on social media.
“That’s the challenge of social media, still to this point we haven’t been contacted by the person involved,” Baldwin said. “We can’t investigate the complaint.”
He said that the words used in the Twitter post referring to human trafficking is a “big allegation,” those words alone are “extremely powerful.”
As for the experience shared on Twitter, Baldwin said law enforcement isn’t seeing an immediate connection to human trafficking.
“We can’t articulate a crime based on what we see,” he said and reiterated they haven’t been able to reach the people making the allegations given that the person isn’t using a real name and is not receiving direct messages.
He reminded the public that if there is a concern for safety, it should be reported to 911. A non-emergency call for service can be made by calling 831-471-1121.
Baldwin added that the Sheriff’s Office wants to be available to the public, including the use of social media. But as of 5 p.m. Thursday, there has been no contact by the parties involved.
Whale City Bakery hasn’t seen a decline of clientele, as customers are from out of town or local people who know the owners, Magana said.
But it is “troublesome to come to work” and staff doesn’t feel safe because people are calling the restaurant, targeting and attacking the business, he said. People have called saying the restaurant “better stop doing what you’re doing” and some people will “come with friends to take care of us,” according to Magaña.
No employee is specifically being targeted.
The door inside the outside bathroom is always locked to customers, Magaña said. It leads inside the bakery.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/02/whale-city-bakery-receives-threats-following-threat-of-human-trafficking/
Hopefully anons will dig and vet this out.