WARNING: This story and video contains sexual content that may not be suitable for young readers.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Business owners in a small cluster of shops near Southeast 122nd Avenue and Southeast Division Street say an adult business is doing more than just pushing the edges of Oregon’s liberal adult entertainment laws.

KATU News looked into allegations of lewd behavior at Secret Rendezvous, a lingerie modeling business, after one business owner shared security video of what has been going on outside the establishment.

But despite the activities, Portland Police said they are unable to intervene since they cannot say for sure that any laws have been broken.

The models who work in the shop wear outfits that are common to strip clubs and other adult entertainment venues.

During the day, some of the lingerie models would hold signs, advertising their business, in the driveway that leads to the nearby business park. Meanwhile, traffic rolls by on Southeast Division Street.

At the same time, patrons of the other businesses in the small cluster of shops, often with children in tow, would get an eyeful as they made their way to their parked vehicles.

One business owner said, "We're just tired of it. We just don't know what else we're going to do. Our customers are having a fit about pulling up with their children and seeing this stuff."

That's why Secret Rendezvous’ next-door neighbor, Kitty Condos owner Lisa Kelly, installed security cameras and began recording what was happening outside the business.

"The lingerie is one thing, but then they do little sexual acts of grinding on each other, touching each others breasts, exposing themselves, even with men they do that," Kelly said.

Kelly said she lost dozens of customers who simply do not want to be confronted with what they see as indecent behavior.

Another business owner, Amy Nguyen, said that after weeks of public displays and propositions outside her hair salon, her chairs are now usually empty. "Right now, nobody come here. Very slow,” Nguyen told KATU News.

Meanwhile, across the parking lot at a veterinary clinic, the owner said he had to put up a metal fence with the help of the Portland Development Commission and taxpayer dollars to keep Secret Rendezvous models from meeting with clients outside his business.
    
"We had customers complaining that they were being solicited out here on the street, as they were going into our business,” Michael Andrew of Town & Country Animal Clinic told KATU News.

Secret Rendezvous’ owner Ben Cunningham has several other shops all going by the same name: “Pussycats."

The locations are spread around Portland, Salem, Bend and in Beaverton where another business neighbor says he has witnessed similar displays.

Ben Taylor of Safelite Auto Glass said "it's a nuisance, you know? You get people coming in and they've got kids. You know? People don't want to see that."

KATU News went looking for the 31-year-old owner Ben Cunningham at his former home but it's empty and there's a For Sale after a foreclosure.

At a Salem "Pussycats" location, KATU News was told to leave the business when we asked if we could speak to Cunningham.

But a woman who said she cleans and maintains Cunningham’s businesses talked to KATU News and also discovered something unexpected about her role in Cunningham’s organization.

Jackie Waite said she did not know she was listed as a registered agent for Cunningham’s firm.

"I shouldn't be,” Waite said when shown a copy of the legal documents. “I didn't fill anything out. I'm nothing but somebody they consider a house mom."

Waite says she never gave Cunningham permission to list her as the registered agent for Pussycats with the secretary state's office. "This is incredible,” Waite said after viewing the documents.

However, Waite added that she thought no laws are being broken at the stores - as far as she knows.

 “When I converse with the girls there, there is absolutely no inappropriate behavior going on there, inside or outside,” she told KATU News. “It's not something I would tolerate."
    
After the interview with Jackie Waite, KATU News was able to reach Ben Cunningham by phone.

He said he hadn't owned Secret Rendezvous" for the last two weeks, even though his models, who he refers to as "independent contractors," insist Cunningham is still the owner.

And Cunningham says none of his models ever broke the law.

So KATU News took the security camera footage provided by Lisa Kelly to the Portland Police to know if what was captured on video is really illegal and if there is anything police can do to stop it.

Of special note was some of the night-time video where it appears the women are taking their performances outside, at times touching the customers.

But Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mary Wheat said detectives had already viewed the video and they can't find any actions that would have broken the law.

"When looking at the tape, you can't really determine what is going on, and to make an arrest we have to have what we call ‘probable cause,’ and that's not in that video," Wheat said.

Wheat also said there is no clear indication any money changed hands to warrant prostitution charges and that the quality of the video is so poor you can't definitively say indecency laws have been violated.
    
Then, Secret Rendezvous neighbors caught a break last week when the business abruptly closed and the property was vacated.

"When the police came, and the landlord was on him nothing happened, and the minute you guys [KATU News] came, I mean within what, a week, the locks are changed and they're gone,” a relieved Lisa Kelly said. “So I don't what you guys did, but something worked."

After the location closed, Ben Cunningham told KATU News by phone that he had no idea his models were still working at Secret Rendezvous later than Oct. 13.
    
But his former neighbors said they saw his employees delivering towels and picking up nightly cash bags right up until the day the models finally moved out.

Operators of two other lingerie modeling stores also told KATU News that they are losing business to Cunningham’s businesses - not because their customers are upset about public displays, but because they say their customers say they “get a lot more for their money” at Cunningham’s Pussycats locations.