August 18, 2026 – Kewaskum, WI – A new village ordinance requiring licenses for massage therapists is now on the books in Kewaskum, following a police investigation that led to the removal of Sun Spa Massage from Fond du Lac Avenue.
Police Chief Tom Bishop said the investigation began after residents started reporting concerns about the business, which had been operating in Kewaskum for less than a year.
“About last winter we started getting a couple of people going, ‘Hey, something’s not right over there,’” Bishop said.
Police began keeping an eye on the business.
“We had some reports of people parking on the road behind the facility,” Bishop said. “We had reports of them being open much later at night than you would normally expect. Things of that nature, just people that seemed to think something odd was going on.”
Rather than conduct the investigation alone, Kewaskum police partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, which has investigators who specialize in businesses operating in the massage industry.
Two DWD investigators eventually came to Kewaskum and accompanied Bishop inside Sun Spa Massage.
“We were able to see evidence of activity that lined up with what we had been afraid was happening there, which was inappropriate sexual behavior kind of masking itself as a massage therapy place,” Bishop said.
Bishop said investigators found items, including condoms, that he described as inconsistent with a legitimate massage therapy business.
“I would say, yes, they were engaged in prostitution,” Bishop said.
The investigation also revealed another problem. The people working at Sun Spa Massage were not properly licensed by the state of Wisconsin.
That was significant, according to Bishop, because until the village adopted its new ordinance, Kewaskum did not have its own licensing requirement for massage therapists.
Under the new ordinance, which passed unanimously, massage businesses must obtain a village license. That gives the village a way to verify that therapists have the appropriate state licenses and allows village officials to conduct inspections.
Bishop said the DWD investigators also explained how operators of these businesses can identify communities where they may be able to operate with fewer local restrictions.
“They will go online and they will check the municipal ordinances to see if they have a restrictive ordinance in place for licensing and things of that nature,” Bishop said.
Kewaskum did not have such an ordinance.
“Not having that license made us a vulnerable target for them to come into our community,” Bishop said.
Bishop said the new ordinance is intended to close that loophole.
“It will legitimize the ones that are here that are doing it right, that are following the rules and laws and being professional,” he said. “It will at least allow our community to know that the people that are here are professionals doing it the right way.”
The investigation presented police with a difficult decision.
Bishop said no one was caught in the act of prostitution, and police discussed whether to obtain a search warrant and pursue a more extensive criminal investigation.
Ultimately, Bishop said, police were concerned that arresting the women working at the business could further victimize people who may themselves have been victims of human trafficking.
“What’s sad about the situation is that, unfortunately, we’d have to arrest the females, who in this case are victims of another crime,” Bishop said. “We didn’t want to basically re-victimize victims by arresting them.”
Bishop said all of the women were adults and no minors were involved.
Police instead focused on removing the business from Kewaskum.
Bishop worked with the property’s landlord, who cooperated with the village and promptly removed Sun Spa Massage from the building. Bishop said he warned the property owner that the landlord could face responsibility for ordinance violations if the business remained.
The business was removed from the village on or about July 7, according to Bishop.
“Our best move for the village was to at least get them out of the community,” he said.
Bishop said law enforcement also offered assistance to the women and tried to get them to leave the situation and accept help, but they declined.
The chief acknowledged the discovery was unsettling for a small community like Kewaskum.
“I would say I was slightly… I don’t want to say shocked, but surprised maybe,” Bishop said. “It’s a small town, and I guess I didn’t necessarily expect that type of facility to enter our community.”
For Bishop, however, the investigation was also a reminder that businesses involved in illegal activity can appear in any community.
“This is the world I live in. Law enforcement, these places pop up, they come and go,” he said. “But it kind of hits you right between the eyes a little bit when it’s like, hey, it’s in your town now. You’ve got to figure out how to take care of the problem.”
Bishop said he wished the situation had come to his attention sooner, but said police acted quickly once concerns were reported.
The new licensing ordinance is intended to make it more difficult for another business operating outside state and local requirements to establish itself in Kewaskum.
It also requires massage therapists to report to the village if someone solicits sexual activity, giving officials another avenue to identify and address illegal activity associated with a massage business.
Bishop said the goal is straightforward: legitimate massage businesses should have nothing to fear from the new requirements.
“This is just another way for us to protect our community from this kind of business,” he said.
