Caught with their pants down? Police raid controversial Gdansk strip club

For many years major Polish cities have had a major problem with numerous allegations being made about the conduct of some city centre strip clubs. Here at In Your Pocket we have received many emails from readers in which they claim that they have been overcharged, their cards have been scanned on multiple occasions or that they have been drugged and robbed. Despite many of these allegations being made official and the police being involved, it has never been proven that any of the clubs mentioned have done anything untoward. Yet the allegations have kept coming.

In what must be seen as a major change of approach by the authorities, the Obsession club in the heart of the Gdansk old town was raided at around 2am on the morning of Saturday July 1, 2017 in what appears to be an attempt to gather evidence and catch the perpetrators in the act, as it were.

The local news website, Trojmiasto.pl, reported that several policeman entered the club on Dlugi Targ and detained 22 people. The police appear to have been accompanied by forensic scientists who took samples of drinks and also it appears asked for urine samples from customers in the club as they sought proof that customers had unwittingly been given psychoactive drugs. These types of drugs affect the mental capacity and consciousness of the person that ingests them and can affect their behaviour and memory among other things.

Aleksandra Siewart from the City Police Command in Gdansk reported ‘This is the largest operation so far in Pomerania aimed at fraud in night clubs’.

The operaton began after 1am and involved nearly 80 people, including police officers, experts from the criminal laboratory of the local police department, officers from the tax authorities and chemical experts. Those detained were mainly the staff of the club including the club’s manager while blood and urine samples of customers were taken. Trojmiasto.pl reported that this was necessary as the traces of the drugs allegedly used can disappear from the body quickly and are undetectable within a few hours. Forensic experts also seized a number of substances found on the site. Trojmiasto reported that initial tests have revealed that psychoactive substances were discovered in the drinks tested.

The police response comes after many years of allegations made by customers of Obsession and other clubs, notably the now defunct Cocomo chain, that they had been robbed of anything from a few hundred up to several hundred thousand zloty.

The police investigation has progressed in recent months with dozens of investigations been taken over from various police forces by a new team of investigators. They have interviewed dozens of people, analysed hours of CCTV footage and compared the statements given by people who have reported crimes.

Trojmiasto reported the while Obsession has only operated since September 2015 it was previously the home of one of the Cocomo chain. Many allegations were made against Cocomo, including one in Poznan where the victim alleged to have been defrauded of a million zloty (around €235,000 Euros) but it was never proven that any of the clubs had committed a crime. The Cocomo chain suddenly announced that they were ending operations in September 2014 and shortly afterwards a network of clubs with different names opened up in many of the same locations with the clubs operated by a company called KR3 based in Hrubieszow.

It remains to be seen if any criminal charges will be brought following the July 1 raid, but previous experience suggests that this will not be the end of city centre strip clubs in Poland nor the end of allegations of fraud. Call us cynics, but expect to continue to be harassed by young women urging you to go to a strip club, whenever you take an evening walk through the centre of many Polish cities. We hope that we’re wrong and that the police finally find proof that the many, many accusations were not baseless.

14 comments Add yours
  1. Good to read this. These establishments are a blight upon otherwise beautiful cities like Gdansk, Kraków, Poznan and Warsaw.

  2. Last Saturday, I was for sure drugged and robbed 30.000 zł from my credit cards in this very club! Unfortunately, I didn’t know about its bad reputation 🙁 Normally, I can say “no” to e.g. buying 30 roses for 1000 zł, but not this time. I’m devastated, and have of cause reported it to the police. But as you write, probably, they can do nothing.

  3. I was scammed for 1000 dollars last night.. i can remember everything.. i’m not sure if i was drugged or just drunk after i paid for the private show i got thrown out of the club and pepper sprayed for no reason… seems like the guards did it for the fun..

  4. Hi DT,

    I’d like to refute your accusation that we used to recommend Obsession or any of these strip clubs. In fact we have walked the very thin line of warning readers to be cautious while not allowing that warning to be misconstrued as an attempt to damage their business. We have long written about how the constant harassment of men on the cities’ main pedestrian thoroughfares by representatives of strip clubs is a blight on the cities’ reputations. As for the suggestion that we recommended Obsession because they advertised. That is completely incorrect on both counts. If you are familiar with Gdansk In Your Pocket you will know that we have never published advertising for Obsession, due to the fact that we would never have accepted advertising from them.

  5. I recently visited the wild orchid club with a friend . I know nothing of clubs in poland and thought they were much like uk clubs. I am now 1.2 thousand pounds worse off and have little to no recoclection of what happend that evening. I will speak to uk police and fraud teams as it seems i wont have much joy here in poland.. certainly put a dampener on what has otherwise been a great holiday.

  6. Regardless of being raided this place is still fleecing people. Went in there with a few mates, was sold “unlimited drinks” for 50 Zlotys, had a few shots of vodka (we weren’t drunk before we went in) and the next thing I am out in an alleyway, not really sure where I am, or what had happened. I had two receipts in my wallet (my cash card was also not where I usually put it) They had tried to get 999 z and then 499 z and luckily both were rejected. I had about 200 zloty taken out of my wallet, so got away lightly as my mates cards worked and they lost 1500 zlotys. I would steer well clear of this place, I can’t believe they are still getting away with this.

  7. I was wild orchard last night and they ran my card for way more money then agreed upon

  8. We were visiting very beautiful city Gdansk last week and we came to Obsession club on Tuesday evening. Girls in the street invited us to take free shots for 49 zlots. The girls in the club were pushing us to drink Jeger shots. We took 3 shots and after that we didn’t remember nothing. In morning we found that about 5000 Euros were stolen from credit cards. We talked with bank but they cannot do nothing because PIN code was entered. I think girls saw our PIN codes and entered 9 times. Next morning we came to talk with the club, they said to write e-mail to the company headquarters to check video cameras. After that we got quick reply that they checked microphones and cameras: everything is all right and that we agreed to pay 800 Euros for the flowers 4 times, we bought champaigne for 400 Euros 4 times and private dance for 200 Eur and we entered PIN codes our selves. Next morning on the Google we found that a lot of people has been frauded in this club using drugs in free shots! Be careful and do not go there!

  9. I was a victim of this club on Friday 30th November 2018. I was drugged and robbed of £1100 in 1hr. there were thousands of ££ of declined transactions within minutes of each other. lucky they declined as mu limit was not set high.

    I have created a Facebook page to warn as many people as possible. please like and share to raise as much awareness as possible and not let other have to go through this pain. https://www.facebook.com/Obsessionclubgdansk/

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