Picture this: You’re a stressed-out, down-on-your-luck New Yorker—with a knife. Times are hard, so you decide burglary is on your to-do list, and of all establishments, you decide to stick up a spa. After your heinous crime-spree, isn’t it only natural to drive your getaway car directly to the SPA and get a therapeutic, celebratory treatment?

After a stressful heist, aren’t you mad you robbed the spa?

There are no pedicures in the pokey!

You don’t have to imagine anymore. Sadly, a version of this unbelievable atrocity has occurred in The Big Apple.

According to NBC news, two men in their twenties stole register cash from three spas at knife-point. The first spa targeted was one of our very own Spa Week spas, Green Phoenix Spa in Midtown. If you mess with Green Phoenix, you mess with us! Don’t make us go all shiatsu on you. Last Monday the robbers hit the Bodywork Foot and Back Spa on Washington Place, and then Shu Xin Services salon on Canal Street on Wednesday. During the  robberies, “The men forced the robbery victim into the bathroom before taking the cash,” says NBC.

Very concerned, we reached out to Green Phoenix to make sure they were okay. We spoke with one of the technicians David, who explained that the experience, though scary, has not affected business: “They came on a Sunday at the end of the day. Sundays are always slow. They just took the money and left. No one got hurt. Everything is okay.” Their positive outlook is truly inspiring.

Help support Green Phoenix! Take advantage of their incredible Spa Deal for March 2011:
60 Min Hot Stone and Deep Tissue Combination Massage. Special: $50; Originally: $75
Call them at 212.221.1330 to book.

Anyone with information about the spa robberies is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577 tips. Individuals can also submit tips online or text tips to 274637, then enter TIP577.

A world of spas, right in your hand!

Spa Week is excited to announce the arrival our FREE iPhone & Android Apps.

Features:
- GPS function automatically locates the spas closest to you and offers easy directions
- Enjoy our “Deals of the Week” available only through the Spa Week App
- Search, view photos, and browse treatments
- Order and send gift cards
- Easily locate spas that accept the gift card
- See a great deal? “Share with a Friend” via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter

DOWNLOAD NOW!

To celebrate, we’re giving away 10 iPhones! Yes, TEN. Get your #spasonthego with Spa Week’s new app – Click below and see how to enter.

Celebrity Suspect: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Case: After 20+ years in the business, the star of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Seinfeld received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Well, what she thought was her star because upon further examination it was discovered that the actress’ name was misspelled. The typo was noticed just a few hours before it would be revealed to the world. Julia joked about the whole thing and thought it would be cool to leave the gaffe as is. “The misspelling was so perfectly apt, a great metaphor for show business,” Louis-Dreyfus told the AP. “Right when you think you’ve made it, you get knocked down. It’s an ideal metaphor for how this business works.”

Spa Treatment Sentencing: For being a such good sport and understanding that mistakes happen, we think she deserves a spa treatment.  Sentenced to a 50- Min Stress-Relieving Foot Reflexology session with Pedicure… get those famous feet ready for their big walk!

Image Courtesy of Extratv.com

This weekend in Southern California, things were rockin’ and rollin’…literally. An earthquake (7.2 on the Richter scale!) hit Baja California and was felt all the way up to Santa Barbara and Las Vegas, including the LA area – which led, as you might expect, to a profusion of agitated celebrity check-ins on Twitter.

While it may not have been “the big one”, it was nonetheless a big one – this was the strongest earthquake to hit SoCal in 18 years, since the 1992 Landers quake, which clocked in at 7.3.

Older parts of Los Angeles suffered building damage and a parking structure collapsed on the Mexican side of the border. Here’s hoping for a more stationary week for the Golden State! Which brings us to our travel recommendation: if you’re terrified of earthquakes but really want to visit Southern California, the next few months might be a great time to book a ticket – what are the odds of two big ones in a row? (We don’t really want to know the answer to that.)

Here’s what caught our attention this week:

Flip around in flops for four days and you could be carrying 18,100 forms of bacteria on them.

JetBlue offers ‘all-you-can-fly’ pass for $599–this makes us wish we had somewhere to go.

As if you needed another reason to skip diet soda all together.

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the “Mirdle,” a girdle for men. Yes, you heard that correctly.

Blue M&M’s and other junk foods that could save your life.

Ruby Gettinger of The Style Network’s reality series based on her journey to shed 400 lbs loses 100lbs and is still going strong.