Showgirl Impersonators Arrested After $20 Photo Tip Turns Into a High-Heel Beatdown on the Strip

LAS VEGAS — It started as the most Vegas transaction imaginable: two tourists from North Carolina, three women in feathered showgirl costumes outside Planet Hollywood, and a $20 tip for some souvenir photos. It ended with one of those tourists bloodied in the forehead, a white high-heeled boot used as a weapon, and two arrests — over, at most, $180.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department identified the two arrested women as Jennifer Ortiz and Magdellena Romero, and the incident unfolded on Sept. 30, according to an arrest report reviewed by FOX 5 in Las Vegas. The details of that report read like a cautionary tale about the Strip's most famous unofficial industry: the costume-clad photo hawkers who work the sidewalks for tips.

Here's how it allegedly went down. The two North Carolina visitors agreed to pose for pictures with three women dressed in showgirl costumes in exchange for a tip. They paid $20. Then they started walking away. That's when Ortiz allegedly followed them and demanded between $60 and $180 for the photos — retroactively repricing the souvenir.

When the tourists didn't pay up, police say Ortiz struck one of the visitors repeatedly — and then removed her white high-heeled boot and hit the visitor in the forehead with it, leaving a cut nearly two inches long. Investigators told FOX 5 that surveillance footage showed the victim was struck more than 22 times.

Separate video of the brawl, obtained by TMZ, shows the chaotic scene playing out in broad daylight. In it, two of the showgirls are fighting with a man and a woman — one of the performers pulls the woman's hair and repeatedly punches her in the face and body. As the camera turns, the man is shirtless, blood on his face, his shirt wrapped around his left hand. He shouts, "Hey! Get off her," then strikes one of the showgirls and pushes another to the ground as he tries to break up the attack.

According to the arrest report, the second tourist told police she tried to intervene and was tackled by Romero, who pulled her hair and punched her in the face and head with a closed fist. A third woman with the group did not strike anyone and, police said, tried to break up the fight — one of the tourists later told officers she did not want charges pursued against the third woman.

Both tourists were treated at the scene but declined to go to the hospital, according to FOX 5's reporting. They later provided written statements to police and told officers they wanted to press battery charges.

The fight was only half the story in the arrest report. A separate complaint detailed what the report described as a second scheme at the same location: a man told investigators he agreed to pay $60 for photos by tapping his debit card on Ortiz's phone — and later discovered he had been charged $218. When he confronted the women about the charge, they allegedly gave him a fake phone number to resolve the dispute.

Ortiz was charged with battery and with obtaining money under false pretenses involving less than $1,200, according to FOX News. Romero was charged with battery. Both were booked into the Clark County Detention Center, and both are scheduled to return to court Dec. 3.

And Ortiz, police say, is no stranger to this kind of scene. FOX 5 reported that she was already under a court order to stay out of trouble following a similar confrontation at the Fremont Street Experience back in March — which makes a second alleged Strip incident, months later, a problem of her own making. Downtown Vegas has been celebrating its own institutions lately, from the Slots Hall of Fame induction at the Plaza to a busy calendar of Fremont East events; an encore brawl is not the kind of downtown encore anyone ordered.

For their part, the two women told investigators a different story. Ortiz told police one of the tourists became aggressive and struck her first. Romero claimed she only stepped in when she saw her friend getting attacked.

Strip photo hawkers — the costumed showgirls, superheroes, and cartoon characters who cluster around the busiest corners — are as much a part of the Las Vegas sidewalk economy as the souvenir shops, and most transactions end with a photo, a tip, and a wave goodbye. The ones that go sideways usually involve exactly this: a fuzzy, disputed price, a tip that becomes a "fee," and a tourist who doesn't know the going rate because there isn't one. The street-side photo market is unregulated in the ways that matter, and $20-to-$180 is a range, not a price list.

The December court date will sort out the charges. Until then, the takeaway for visitors is the oldest Vegas lesson there is, applied to the sidewalk: agree on the price before the flash goes off — and keep your receipts. It's the same Strip where tourists now plan entire weekends around giant productions like John Mayer's Sphere residency — but the cheapest ticket on the boulevard is still the one with no fixed price.