VENTURA — Clients of a Ralston Avenue health club were surprised to learn this week that the business has shut down because its owner, a former Ventura County sheriff's deputy, has been unable to pay the rent while in jail.
Customers who turned up at the nondescript office building that has housed Gold's Gym since 1992 found its doors locked and a sign indicating the landlord had evicted tenant Darryl Dunn for failure to pay $4,507 in rent since Dec. 1. The gym closed suddenly at noon Monday.
A frustrated Douglas Spoon, 39, a salesman at a nearby printing company, said this was the third time he had a membership at a fitness club in the county that had closed down. Spoon said he paid $225 on April 15 for a yearlong Gold's Gym membership.
Dunn, who has been in jail since January, continued working at his gym on a jail work-release program and continued signing up new members.
"It's kind of like buyer beware," Spoon said, standing outside the darkened club. "He was an ex-sheriff. It's across the street from the Police Department. I thought I would be safe with this one."
Ray Cobos, who plunked down $200 for a yearlong membership at the club last week, was also incensed that members received no warning of the closure.
"There was no way he didn't know about the probability of this closing," he said as he stood outside the shuttered gym earlier this week.
Paul Grymkowski president of franchising with the Venice-based chain that has 500 locations worldwide, said Wednesday the company has a handshake agreement with the building owner to reopen the club as soon as possible. The company will not refund membership fees, but will honor them when the gym reopens, he said. In the meantime, the fewer than 500 members may use the Gold's Gym in Santa Barbara.
Grymkowski said that the corporation has severed its ties with Dunn.
Dunn, decorated in 1995 for meritorious police service, is serving 180 days in jail after admitting stealing a $3,500 laptop computer from the Sheriff's Department and collecting $4,600 by submitting false overtime claims. Prosecutors said Dunn charged for some of the time he spent working at the gym.
The owner of the building that houses the gym filed a lawsuit against Dunn earlier this month seeking more than $25,000 in back rent and unpaid maintenance fees as well as $202 a day in damages. Dunn said he was unaware of the legal action.
