2 Held on Suspicion of Threatening the Bodyguard for Exotic Dancers

Two men were arrested Monday on suspicion of robbery after they demanded a refund from two exotic dancers and threatened the dancers’ bodyguard at gunpoint, police said.

Paul Moniz and James Hinton, both 30 and from Huntington Beach, also were being held on suspicion of making terrorist threats and false imprisonment, Police Lt. Jim Cutshaw said.

The men were being held at the city jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each.

The arrests occurred after two dancers and their bodyguard went to an apartment in the 16000 block of Roosevelt Lane at 3 a.m. to perform a striptease routine for several men, Cutshaw said.

Police said the men demanded their $200 payment back when the dancers refused to have sex, and that the suspects then threatened the bodyguard at gunpoint.

“He told them, ‘We’re a dance service and we don’t do sex,’ ” Lt. Dan Johnson said, “and they got mad. They grabbed him by the throat and pointed a gun at him.”

The bodyguard returned the money, left with the two dancers and called police, Cutshaw said.

Officers later arrested Moniz and Hinton. A .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun believed to have been used to threaten the bodyguard was recovered, police said.