If you live near Boston, and you're into S/M, you might have heard about this. Since February, spanking and bondage enthusiasts for miles around have been meeting and whipping each other in a private dungeon in the small mill town of Attleboro, Mass. But last week the group suffered a setback. Local officials were extremely displeased to discover the club was across the street from the police station.
Attleboro is a sleepy community, with diners, Veterans of Foreign Wars dances and not much else. Thus, when police investigated a possible theft of music equipment at the Foster Building, an old brick warehouse divided into rental spaces, they were astonished to stumble upon an S/M party in progress.
According to the Boston Globe, two detectives ascended a flight of stairs on a hunt for stolen instruments and came upon a woman collecting the club's $25 admission fee. The dumbfounded officers then wandered through several rooms, gawking at approximately 50 adults in various stages of bondage -- some completely nude.
Confiscated in the raid were various S/M toys, including whips, chains, paddles and a spiked leather glove. A woman -- a vice president at an Internet cosmetics company -- was charged with assault and battery because she was spanking another woman with a spatula. A man was charged with assaulting one of the officers, exhibiting or lending articles for self-abuse, keeping a house of ill fame for lewdness, operating without a "Doing Business As" certificate and eight counts of carrying a dangerous weapon.
He was also charged with acting as an "accessory to assault and battery before the fact," because he allegedly commanded the Internet executive to flog the consenting bottom.
The news quickly spread through the small town: sex freaks, across the street from the police station! Citizens discussed the event endlessly. Some were glad the dungeon was busted, because it obviously would have attracted other things, "like prostitution and selling drugs." Others were puzzled by the town's reaction.
"I myself don't get spanked or spank. I'm not into it. It's not my thing," said a musician who rents space in the building. "But I don't think we should stop other people from doing it."
Another man, who attends an alcoholic recovery program in the same building, took the situation for what it was. "When I found out, I was like, 'Why wasn't I invited?'"
The two arrested individuals were released on bail, and a pretrial hearing is scheduled for next week in Attleboro District Court.
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