Surfers Paradise strip club a surprising winner as locals pour in during bomb hoax

A Gold Coast venue has pulled surprisingly big crowds after being one of the few businesses left trading in Surfers Paradise during an alleged bomb threat.

AS a number of Surfers Paradise businesses were forced to close early during Saturday night’s bomb threat hoax, one local venue was doing a roaring trade just around the corner.

Patrons left twiddling their thumbs on the street poured into Toybox Showgirls strip club as surrounding venues were forced to close, boosting the night’s trade by around 20 per cent.

Club manager Jimmy Seoud said it was a busy night for the club as locals short on options looked for somewhere to wait out the evacuation order.

“We did very well last night, I’m not complaining,” he told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“They evacuated the Island, the hotels and the backpackers and people were all sitting on the street across the road.”

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Jimmy 'Vegas' Seoud from strip club Toybox Showgirls in Surfers Paradise said Saturday was extremely busy despite a bomb threat in the area.

“Within the radius of where they blocked the roads off we were the only club that was still open,” he said.

“We’re a licensed venue, I guess if you’re going to leave the rooftop bar where else are you going to go because you can’t go the other way. They probably walked past our place and decided well let’s go in for a drink here.”

The venue was miraculously spared closing as many around them were forced to shut up early for the night, with the crowds pumping until 3am.

Toybox Showgirls still attracted big crowds on Saturday after being one of the few venues allowed to stay open.

Mr Seoud said staff were told to move their cars from behind the club, but were given approval to keep operating.

“Every restaurant and bar was shut down by 9 o’clock at night, and we weren’t, if we were told to shut down I would have done the same, but we weren’t asked to, I don’t know what the reason was.”

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“We had a few staff go home if they were feeling unsafe, but about 80 per cent stayed and I was feeling comfortable once the police said to us that we were safe and we didn’t have to evacuate.”

Mr Seoud said police told him some information about what they were searching for in Surfers Paradise.

“All they said was they were searching the carpark for a supposedly a bomb in one of the cars, and it was related to something that happened in Brisbane, they told us the guy’s car was parked at the Bruce Bishop (car park),” he said.