Masked man in a semi rams the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel during business hours
A 40-year-old Reno man is accused of driving a semi-truck into the famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel in Nevada early Thursday morning.
“It sounded like a bomb went off in here. Everything was shaking,” ranch employee Jenny Jade told KOLO in Reno.
She was sleeping just a few feet away from where authorities say Brian Brandt backed an 18-wheeler into the front door about 4 a.m.
He was said to be wearing a bullet-proof vest and a mask.
No one was injured – rather remarkable considering that some news reports suggested there were 30 female prostitutes and 10 customers in the building at the time.
It’s not clear why Brandt, identified as a former employee of a Reno trucking company, allegedly attacked the building. But owner Dennis Hof shared his theory with the TV station.
“My guess is that it would be worldwide news,” he told KOLO. “He thought if he drove his truck into a brothel full of 35 hot girls it would be worldwide news.”
Moonlite Bunny Ranch was the focus of a 2005 HBO docu-series, “Cathouse: The Series,” that explored the lives of its employees and their clients.
In a tweet, Hof joked that higher forces might have been at work, referencing the headline-grabbing incident in 2015 when Lamar Odom, a former NBA player and, at the time, husband of reality TV star Khloe Kardashian, was found unconscious in one of Hof’s legal brothels.
Will the Kardashian curse plague me forever! @TMZ pic.twitter.com/MSpSzITj6R
— Dennis Hof (@DennisHof) May 25, 2017
KRNV in Reno reported that when an employee of Central Transport arrived at its facility in Sparks, Nev., early Thursday morning he noticed several windows shattered and a door kicked in. A truck and trailer were missing, too.
Bill Chapman, director of corporate safety for the company, told KRNV the company fired Brandt in February.
Brandt has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, destruction of property and possession of stolen property.