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What is a Lot Lizard?
Lot lizard' is a colloquial term used in reference to a trashy, prostitute that frequents parking lots and rest area at nights. They mostly advertise themselves using CB radios or walk truck to truck.
Where do you find a Lot Lizard?
What do Truckers think about Lot Lizards?
My wife came out with me on the road for a 2 week trip. We were in Knoxville, TN, when she got her first glimpse of a lot lizard. I really was shocked at her response, she said that all her worries were relieved. She knew for sure after seeing what they looked like, that there was no way I would ever touch one. I had always told her that I would never even consider having sex with a lot lizard at no charge, much less pay for it. Now, I know that there are drivers that go down that road, I have seen it. But, for every driver that asks one of these girls into his truck, there are 50 others that refuse.
Says Jason
I just don't want any of those nasty things messing with me, while I'm sitting back and relaxing.
Says Anonymous
Didn't make it 5 feet from my truck when I started getting hustled by the morning LLcrew. One who was in a short skirt, hadn't showered in a while and had a nice festering sore on her lower lip who wanted to make a "few bucks". I politely declined her "services" and continued on my way. About 50 yards after that, I came across another who clearly smokes meth who looked like she built her own dental crown by gluing aluminum foil over two of her teeth (not that the rest looked much better) who would do ANYTHING to sit in my air conditioned truck.
Says Pack Rat
Yuck. I'd rather stick it in a meat grinder.
Says Joseph
Never been with a LL, Never will, just plain nasty
Says Anonymous
You see the girls going from truck to truck," says Steven Maldonado, 48, a St. Louis-based trucker who prefers to park at rest areas to avoid the hassle of truck stop prostitutes. "I've had them knock on my door every 20 minutes when I'm trying to sleep for the night." When police or security hired by truck stop operators clamp down, the pimps simply move down the interstate.
So what drives Truckers to choose this outlet?
Who are Lot Lizards and What brought them to this place?
As one sex worker put it: “We sell our bodies, they sell their time—how different are those really?" Both truck drivers and sex workers were doing a job that wore them down emotionally, but the money was good enough to keep them working. Power dynamics varied from one person to the next. In some cases, it seemed like truck drivers were taking advantage of sex workers, in others like sex workers were taking advantage of truck drivers, and, in a rare few, it seemed there was mutual respect.
Deep down inside, almost all of the sex workers harbored doubts about their lifestyle. There were three approaches to dealing with those feelings. Most of the sex workers rationalized their doubts away. They often said: “It’s the oldest profession in the world,” “I’m not hurting anyone,” or “we’re doing a service for the truck drivers.” Other sex workers relied on a constant supply of drugs to medicate their doubts away. When they ran out and were forced to confront their choices in the bright light of sobriety, they would go on a rampage.
Many used a combination of the two approaches. A rare handful were honest with themselves. They expressed a sincere desire to change but felt trapped by the easy money. Unfortunately, support is not as widespread as it could be. Aside from the occasional truck stop chapel, the sex workers were left out in the cold.
Jennifer, an ex-addict and single mother who recently quit prostitution, struggles to maintain her sobriety. She buys a house but can't find a job. With time and money running out, she weighs the economics of earning minimum wage at a McJob versus hustling on the lot again.
What would your mom call you?
Whatever she felt like. It depended on where we were and if she wanted me to be a boy or a girl.
So how'd this whole lifestyle begin?
(Silence)
You and your mom live near a truck stop or what?
No, we were living out of the car a lot and we'd just drive around and sometimes we'd go to lots, you know, truck stops - just to make money. That's what a lot lizard does. It lends itself well for a transient lifestyle.
How does a trucker know where to go? Or do you guys go to them?
The way it works is the prostitutes solicit over the CB. So you'll be on the CB and you'll hear, "Hey honey, Big-titty McGraw here, take it to channel 52," and the trucker'll go over to that channel if he wants to hook up with her. Or him.
What made you finally decide on becoming a lot lizard?
If you've already had sex, sex is not a big thing, you know. I knew the value of money and sex is just something you can trade to get money. It's not something where you're like, "Oh my god, I can't believe I'm going to be doing this sort of stuff."
I bet you've seen some scary shit.
I guess the scariest thing that happened to me was having a truck driver say, "You know what, I'm taking you with me." He said, "You're mine now," locked the doors and pulled on out the lot. I took off at the next stop but it was close.
Lisa was a 15-year-old sophomore at a Wichita, Kans., high school when a friend asked her if she wanted to meet Bobby Prince Jr., a handsome star of the school's football and track teams. "He was the most popular guy in school," says Lisa. She agreed to go on a day trip with him to Oklahoma City—and soon found herself in a car with his father, Bobby Prince Sr. "He said, 'I'm a pimp, and you're my 'ho and you're going to make me money,'" remembers Lisa, now 18. "My heart just sank. I didn't know what to think. I couldn't even cry." Lisa spent the next four months working as a truck stop prostitute. When people ask her why she didn't just jump out of the car or run away, "I try to explain to them that it's not that easy. The guys have so much control over your mind. They scare you. They say things like, 'If you leave, I'll kill you and your family.'"
SUMMER, 13, WAS FOR SALE FOR $40. A BUBBLY, PONY TAILED GIRL FROM OKLAHOMA CITY, FOND OF VOLLEYBALL AND SPONGEBOB SquarePants, she found herself far from home and stranded at a truck stop along Texas's Interstate 40 on a chilly January night three years ago. In jeans and T-shirt, she walked to a strip of tarmac where several 18-wheelers were parked—an area known as "Party Row"—and waited for a trucker to flash his headlights. When one did, Summer pulled herself into the cab of his rig and, as the trucker casually watched a small TV, turned her first trick. "I was scared," she says, now 15, recalling the first of hundreds of forced encounters with truckers two or three times her age. "I didn't know how to get out of it. So I thought, 'Just do it, and don't cause problems.'" Summer (not her real name) has decided to tell her story to shine light on a shameful crime—the sex trafficking of minors in the U.S. Investigators say there are likely hundreds of underage girls like Summer who have been lured to work as prostitutes in truck stops in Oklahoma, Washington, California and other states. "This isn't something that's happening on a distant shore, it's happening right in our communities," says Robert McCampbell, a former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. "A family pulling into one of these truck stops wouldn't know this is going on. The truth is it's happening everywhere."
The Facts
- Lot Lizards are prostitutes and as such there comes the risks and the consequences of using their services - diseases, etc.
- Many lot lizards are drug users.
- Many Lot Lizards are under age and are the products of child trafficking. There has been an effort to rescue all the children involved in Human Trafficking within the United States, but while many have been rescued, there are so many that no one even knows about.
- Some Lot Lizards have chosen this as a career, because they earn good money, while some are forced into it by choice for that same reason.
- There is a market of lonely truck drivers who need this outlet.
- Most truck drivers dislike lot lizards and some are sickened by the idea of them.
In Conclusion
I guess what it comes down to is knowledge, awareness and communication:
If you are a trucker who uses lot lizards:
Be wary of the age of the lot lizard you are working with. If she shows any signs of being under age, don't take the risk and quietly report to the authorities. If it seems like she is doing it against his or her will, just don't. It could get you in trouble later on.
If you are a trucker who doesn't like lot lizards:
Try and be understanding. A lot of these women aren't in this position by choice, try and be helpful. I heard of a christian driver that reaches out to these women offering them counseling and prayer and I have great respect for that. Alternatively, you could offer them money and food with nor return in service. If not, politely say, "No Thank You," or get a "NO LOT LIZARDS" sticker for your window.
If you are the wife of a trucker:
Most truckers that are married refuse to use lot lizards and most are afraid of the diseases they might possibly carry. It takes a very lonely person to want to use one.
If you are a lot lizard:
Not that any would read this, but you never know. There are always avenues and people that will help if they understand.
Safe Driving!