Strip Club Owner Says Afghan Soldiers Have Been Great For Advertising

"They acted like they've never been in a place like this before."

WASHINGTON — The owner of a Cape Cod strip club patronized by three visiting Afghan soldiers before they tried to run away to Canada says the men were perfectly normal, though "they acted like they've never been in a place like this before."

The three Afghan National Army soldiers, who were visiting the U.S. for training at Joint Base Cape Cod, visited Zachary's Pub in Mashpee, Massachusetts, the Friday before they attempted to flee to Canada. They were stopped by border agents before they could cross the Canadian border. Identified as Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, and Captain Noorullah Aminyar, they are currently being detained in a facility in Buffalo, according to the Boston Globe.

Richard Halpern, the owner of Zachary's, said the men were in a group of eight — seven who used passports as identification, one who used an American military I.D.

"I believe it was one American and seven other people," Halpern said. "One person who could speak English pretty well, and the others were all foreigners."

"We get military all the time" because of the proximity to the base, Halpern said. "We get people who can't speak English all the time. It's not anywhere out of the ordinary — they're just typical people."

Zachary's, or "Zach's" as it is known locally, boasts "all-nude exotic entertainment," pool, and Keno.

"They were just normal people coming in here," Halpern said. "And they acted like everybody else. From what I understand from some of the entertainers, they acted like they've never been in a place like this before. They didn't exactly know the rules and what's going on."

Halpern said that the men requested to touch the dancers, something that is a no-no at many strip clubs, but were rebuffed.

"They asked questions if that's possible, but they were told you can't do that in the state because it's against the law in Massachusetts," Halpern said.

Nobody thought much of the Afghan soldiers at the time, since they visited the club before they disappeared and made national news. But on Saturday "we got a call real late from the base to say they're missing, three people didn't show up," Halpern said.

And on Monday, when the news spread that the men had run away from a field trip to the Cape Cod Mall in the neighboring town of Hyannis on Saturday, Halpern started getting calls from his staff telling him they had spotted the Afghans.

"My employees late Monday morning all called me and said those people were in here on Friday night," he said. "Then it went viral from there."

A side benefit of the incident for Halpern is that the club is now enjoying more publicity than it ever has before.

"Yeah, we had news media here taking pictures," he said. "Channels 4, 5, Fox and 7. Channel 7 is doing a live feed at 10 o'clock. Five did a live feed at 6 o'clock. They did a big story on Fox."

"To get TV advertising and not take any money out of the advertising budget is always good," Halpern said.

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