QC Woman shares her story of prostitution - CBS4 - WHBF Quad Cities, IL-IA News Weather Sports

QC Woman shares her story of prostitution on the streets of Davenport

By: Christine Souders

csouders@cbs4qc.com

Prostitution, is known as the oldest profession in the world, and prostitutes are still working the streets, right here in the Quad Cities.     

A 30-year-old woman would only share  her experience as a prostitute, if her identity was kept hidden, and call her by the name 'Sarah.'

Sarah confessed to selling sex on the streets of Downtown Davenport for three months, until she was busted by an undercover cop, "You can never take a shower hot enough to wipe off the filth that you feel from what you do."

Never did Sarah imagine wiping away her 'clean slate' of serving in the Army Reserves, a promising nursing career, and responsibilities as a mother, for drugs and alcohol.

After losing her kids to a life of constant partying, Sarah hit rock bottom, "I got a whole new freedom that I never had before, and I couldn't deal with the pain.  That was my excuse, so I turned to harder drugs, like cocaine and crack, and anything I could get my hands on."

Desperate to fill that void, and desperate for money to buy drugs, Sarah turned to prostitution.

Sarah said she would make anywhere from $50 to $300 dollars each time.

"People that would circle around the blocks over and over again, and then you'd catch eye contact, then they usually hit their brakes a certain way, and you catch on who's looking."

Sarah said she'd see as many as ten men in a day's work.

A path of destruction she soon found herself trapped in, "As much as I wanted to stop, I didn't know how.  I didn't feel there was any way out for me."

But her brush with the law changed all that, "That last day I was out there, I sat in the alley and cried, and prayed, and I was arrested that night."

Sarah said spending nearly three months in jail was what she needed to set her back on the straight and narrow, and she hopes coming clean, will help those women still on the streets.

"I don't know how many prostitutes can stand out there and smile, and pretend what they're doing doesn't affect their inner being, their soul, because every person you're with, they take a piece of you."

Now almost a month clean and sober, Sarah said she is more focused than ever on becoming the mother she always envisioned being.

Sarah is currently staying in a rehabilitation home, and gets regular visits with her kids.