SANTA MARIA, Calif.- First on the streets, now on the web. Police say women are taking prostitution to whole new level to lure in their men.
If you've been on websites like Craigslist or Backpage.com, you may have come across half-naked woman like, Jazzy or Miss Eva, who call themselves local escorts.
"We just received some information that there's been some online connections made to prostitution in the city. We're just beginning to look into that," said Lieutenant Kim Graham, Santa Maria Police Department.
Lieutenant Kim Graham says this trend is growing in Santa Maria. This comes less than a month after the department conducted two prostitution stings in the area, arresting more than 20 people for soliciting sex.
"The problem is that often they rotate around between a lot of the motels in town, so we really rely on the help of the public to know when and where it's occurring," said Graham.
Noel Herrera, who works at a nearby hotel, says prostitutes continue to ask him if they can a rent a room.
"There is a lot of prostitutes walking up and down the street, which we don't rent to them because they are bad for business," said Noel Herrera, an employee at Laura Lodge.
Herrera says even though he turns them away, he's still losing money.
"You get nice people come in and they see that and they turn around and drive right back out and you can't blame them for that," explained Herrera.
The Santa Maria Police Department plans on conducting more prostitution stings. Officers say many of these prostitutes aren't actually from the city, many are coming over from the Valley and Bakersfield area.
