Hotel Workers Get Trained To Spot Sex Trafficking As Stock Show Comes To Denver

DENVER (CBS4) - Investigators are looking to hotel workers to help them bust sex traffickers. On Monday front desk workers from hotels all over Denver were trained in how to spot sex trafficking.

Law enforcement says when large events come to a city like the National Western Stock Show currently underway in Denver, local and out-of-state sex traffickers will flock to the area because they know there is money to be made. Hotel workers of all degrees are often the front line people who come in contact with the johns, the traffickers and the victims.

"I'm sure people are surprised that it happens right in front of them, but I was trafficked at the nicest casinos on the strip," said a woman who CBS4 is only calling "Amber."

Amber has a powerful and painful story about how she was coerced into sex trafficking. She was an 18-year-old runaway in Las Vegas when someone approached her at a bus stop.

"I was trafficked for 4 1/2 months, was kidnapped and taken from a bus stop," Amber said. "I jumped in the wrong car, and from there he groomed me and made me think that they were going to take care of me."

Amber had a $1,700 a night quota, and if she didn't make the money she said she would be beaten. Her last beating almost killed her. She was hours from death when she arrived at a hospital.

But Amber was in Denver to tell her story and educate people working in hotels -- front desk, concierges, bellmen -- about how to spot sex trafficking. Undercover Homeland Security officers say it happens in all cities and those front line employees can make a big difference with reporting the crimes and helping the girls and men trapped in the lifestyle.

"We would rather go out and investigate a thousand leads that turn out to be nothing than miss one of those victims that are suffering," an undercover Homeland Security officer told CBS4's Jennifer Brice. "It's hidden in plain sight, but it's right under our noses a lot of times and people aren't seeing it because we aren't trained to look for it."

"I feel like if I spread my story, that the girls coming next won't have to deal with so much," Amber said.

Some red flags to look for with sex trafficking are if you see someone without their own identifying documents, if there isn't a power balance between two people checking into a hotel and young women, and men who don't speak for themselves in a situation. Another important red flag is when someone will only request one key to a room.

LINK: Homeland Security's Blue Campaign To End Human Trafficking