catch us next week for another i decision of "what would you do." like us on facebook and follow us on tonight on "20/20." cat and mouse. they're the cats, pretty girls behind the bar, luring you out of your clothes and your cash. and he's the mouse. >> i got a call from amex telling you you spent $43,000. >> that is when i knew. >> go inside the cops as they infiltrate. >> service with a shakedown. matching a kid from a school bus. a kidnappers reign of terror and it is all caught on tapes you have never heard before. >> what's going on? the bus driver is dead. hang in there, baby. just get down. >> tonight, step by step.

how authorities played mind game was a madman. >> we thought ethan was going to die. >> and beat him in his own in a hidden bunker. and the latest on the tornadoes in oklahoma. target oklahoma. tornadoes strike again. here's david muir. >> good evening as we come on the air for the west coast for the live edition of "20/20." we are following the tornadoes that struck in oklahoma one week after the devastating in moore that killed so many. let's go to the pictures of the images. you can see the dark funnel cloud. the oklahoma medical examiner's office reporting at least five people dead and 89 injured treated at local hospitals. that number is expected to rise as we move through the evening and into the morning hours. among the dead, a mother and her

baby believed to have been on the roadway. in fact, we are hearing so many stories of drivers trapped on the interstates at rush hour and trying to get home and trapped in the unspeakable conditions. i want to go to ginger zee. she is near moore, oklahoma. ginger, you said this would come and quickly and boy did it. >> reporter: it did. you know, i was looking west when i was doing "world news" and i could see it popping up. the thunderstorms quickly became tornadoes. they were tornadoes one after another after another. five reported. i thought at least three tight circulations. i'm in front of the community college that was hit hard. the building is a complete loss. there was one going on and all of the people got to the

basement. there is a day care attached here and all of the kids had gone home. we have good stories among the mess. it is a mess here in el reno to the east as the storms tracked along i-40 and traffic backed up. we were in the traffic for a time. david, i thought we need to get south. we need to get away from the big blob of storms. this is not a typical formation. we did get all the way south and came back around. streams of emergency vehicles. by the time we got here and the smell of gas -- i just got a waft of it -- a fresh situation in el reno. >> you mentioned the national weather service up to five possible tornadoes. they will be up at daybreak to get the numbers. we had the radar up a moment ago. ginger, i want our viewers to know where the danger is headed.

>> reporter: this is all moved to the south and east. i can already feel the cool air which oklahomans have not fel for the last couple of days. air has been ripe for the perfect fuel for the fire. it has moved off to the south and east. still tonight, severe weather stretching for parts of the mid country. from texas up to western pennsylvania with a slight risk of severe weather meaning we have damaging wind and hail and isolated tornadoes. >> from texas to western pennsylvania. extraordinary coverage, ginger. as you see the images coming in from the storm chasers, also the portrait of drivers trapped on the interstate at rush hour. i wanted to take us to betsy randolph from the oklahoma highway patrol who described the scene a short time ago to us. >> has a bunch of stuff and

stuff we sent in. >> we will try to bring betsy to you shortly. she was describing the scene of highways and interstates jam backed. it seems it was rush hour, but so many drivers were trying to get home and trying to escape the storms knowing they were coming in. we can go to betsy now. let's listen. >> has a bunch of stuff. >> we're having trouble getting betsy on the line. we will move forward. we have remarkable stories of survival. beverly was on the roadways at the time. beverly, can you hear me? >> i sure can. thank you. >> thank you for being with us. i know your daughter and your son were both in the minivan with you at the time? >> that's correct. >> describe for me, if you would, the sheer impact of the storm.

you were telling us the winds were blowing your van? >> that's correct. we waited too late to leave. we joined the mass exodus from oklahoma city and norman and moore that were headed south from the storm and we had already waited too late because of the amount of traffic. we could not outrun it. the winds hit and it hit anywhere from 60-to-80-mile-an-hour winds. we were traveling into that and pushed us into another lane. >> and viewers are looking at a tractor-trailer that was knocked over on the side with the sheer impact of the winds. i know you raced for cover at a nearby gas station? >> we went to a nearby gas station and convenience store. we knew we had to get off the roads quickly. we knew there were at least 100 other stranded motorists that took refuge in the store. we went into the back room in

the cooler. >> were yyou are in the freezer in the gas station. >> for a short time, yes. we came out and in the back room most of the time. >> we are so glad you and your . one question, you said you were trying to escape the storm. a lot of folks wondering why there were so many people on the interstates. i know it was rush hour, but i'm curious, a week later after the storm in moore, do you think many people were trying to escape this in. >> you hit the nail on the head. i think this came so fresh on the heels of that. even us diehard core okies that have been through this before. everyone is paranoid because of the terrific damage and loss of life. this is so fresh 10 or 11 days later. everybody just panicked and caused the mass exodus. you can go north or south or do

underground. >> beverly, we are glad you and your son and daughter are okay. i wanted to bring in mike with abc news. he is also an okie. he is from oklahoma city. he was in his basement with his family. he has emerged. mike, i understand you are trapped on i-40? >> i was trapped up until five minutes ago. the exact area where ta lot of the casualties occurred. as i drove by, there were five large semi trailer trucks rolled over on their side. there were several structures along the road. debris all along i-40 wrapped up along fence lines. it was -- it was a scene to see with those trucks clumped together and tossed on their side. >> driving past tractor-trailers tossed like toys. there is storm chaser video that

shows the debris and the pieces of cars just flying into the windshields of other cars on the interstate. it is extraordinary, mike, i was standing with you a week ago in moore, oklahoma. you are a veteran of the tornadoes. you are from oklahoma. have you seen this striking twice within two weeks? >> no. i was talking with friends. we are growing weary of this. one of my friends in norman says i feel like i'm a moving target. it just keeps coming and coming and coming. the years growing up in oklahoma and the three years i have been back in oklahoma, i haven't seen anything quite like this where it just keeps coming. people here are weary. >> we watch the trees slam into the windshield. it is hard for you to see the video we are playing for viewers. it is a striking image and what it was like for drivers to drive

through it in the storm. you went to the basement. >> i went to the basement because we saw the tornado tracking toward downtown oklahoma city and that is where i live. it was about two miles away and took a turn to the south and moved south of oklahoma city. what was impossible to see is the tornado itself. it was wrapped in rain. i drove through south oklahoma city about an hour and a half ago and there was light damage. there was some damage. >> we are glad you and your family are all okay. we will continue to follow this throughout the evening. the tornadoes touching down in oklahoma again just a week after the devastating tornado in moore. our team on the ground there and at abcnews.com. elizabeth and i will be back with more "20/20" after this. st. we've never cooked ike this before. [ malcer ] introducing bster's seaside mix & match. combine any 2 of 7 exciting choices on one plate for just $12.99! like new cheddar bay shrimp & lobster pot pie, and new parmesan crunch shrimp.

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was snatched off to bus to be used as a pawn to the kidnapper could get the government's attention. >> we were there as the boy was pulled from the bunker and off the bus and pierre thomas with the tapes. an abc news exclusive. how they got in the mind of a madman. what was the cat and who was the mouse? >> reporter: it's 3:31 p.m. on a winter day in the tiny town of midland city, alabama, population 2,300. kids are coming home from school. a bus is taking the same dirt road it always does, past cotton fields and mobile homes. but today, unbeknownst to anyone on board, they are being stalked. suddenly, a man carrying a gun stops the bus loaded with children and makes an unthinkable demand. >> i need two boys, 6 to 8-years-old. >> reporter: but this is not just any man. this is jimmy lee dykes, a man

with a simmering grudge, with a list of grievances against the u.s. government. >> no. >> 6 to 8 years old. i mean it. right now! right now! >> reporter: in this exclusive audio, recorded by the bus security system, you hear the 65-year-old dykes threatening to kidnap two of the 21 children on that bus. >> two kids, 6 to 8 years-old, do it! make a move or i'll shoot you. >> reporter: for almost five minutes, bus driver chuck poland resists a man that up until now, he thought was his friend. >> can't do it. >> do it! >> sorry. >> you have to shoot me. >> do it! do it! i'm going to kill you. >> it's my responsibility to keep these kids on the bus. i can't turn them over to somebody else. >> reporter: unrelenting, dykes turns his attention to the children, now paralyzed with fear. >> come here, kid. the two in the back sitting. you the girl and that boy right there.

come here. >> reporter: dykes turns his attention to a little boy named ethan, just 5 years old. ethan has autism and always wants to sit right behind his favorite driver. poland pleads "not ethan" and tries to save the boy, even with a gun staring him in the face. in the back of the bus 15-year-old tre' watts pushes back his fear and calls 911. >> tell me what the guy with the gun is doing again? >> he's asking for kids. >> he's asking for kids? >> yes, ma'am. >> he's aiming the gun at the bus driver? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: when driver chuck poland heroically refuses to hand over ethan and the other children, dykes shoots him five times in full view of the horrified kids. >> oh, my gosh. what's going on? >> the bus driver's dead. >> the bus driver is down? hang in there, baby. hang on. get down, get down. what's he doing now honey? >> he took a kid! he took a kid! >> is the bus driver still on the bus? >> yes, he's dead. >> just had a bus driver shot.

possibly deceased. >> reporter: dykes leaves a note behind in the bus and drags ethan to a nearby underground bunker, one he's been building in his backyard for months. and he wants a hostage for one reason and one reason only, to help him deliver a warped anti-government message. and he's prepared. the bunker is constructed to hold a hostage, and fortified to withstand an assault by police. >> suspect has removed a child from the bus. >> reporter: and with that grim reality begins a frightening siege that will span six days. news of a little boy underground with a mad man has the country riveted. >> school bus hostage. >> a stand off is under way. 5-year-old boy held hostage in an underground bunker. >> reporter: but along with the nation's media, also arriving, the best and the brightest profilers, hostage negotiators and tactical units from the fbi, assembling in this church down the street from the bunker to study the tapes you just heard,

to learn everything they could about dykes so they could talk him out of that bunker. and to plan a daring, last-ditch rescue they hoped they would never have to try. for the first time, they are speaking exclusively to abc news, giving a minute-by-minute account of those harrowing days and the cat and mouse moves they made as they tried to negotiate with a deranged kidnapper who's already proven he's willing to kill. >> for a good while upfront, we didn't know what we were dealing with. unclear. >> reporter: molly amman, a behavioral scientist from the fbi, is one of the team members. >> we had the note that he left on the bus. we had a video of the assault on the school bus and not much more. and as the hours passed, very slowly information sort of trickled in. and through all of that, the offender stayed perfectly on mission. and that told me a lot right there. it scared me. >> reporter: it also scares special agent stephen richardson, the on-scene commander.

>> we thought ethan was going to die. >> reporter: dykes makes his first demand. he calls 911 and instructs police to find a slender pvc pipe sticking out of the ground. it's a breathing tube that is keeping dykes and his tiny captive alive. but it's also a line of communication. talking through that pipe, the hostage team, which includes top negotiator sean van slyke, tries to soothe dykes. >> we always say, "we can't control the subject's behavior or attitude, but we can control our own and project that calm demeanor. >> our communication with mr. dykes continues. we are engaged with him around the clock. >> reporter: but who is this man, and what does he plan to do? by day two, the team has learned sykes is a decorated veteran of the u.s. navy who served in vietnam. he's gradually become a recluse, living in this trailer, estranged from his family. in that letter he left on the bus, dykes makes it known he's intent on doing two things.

making the world aware of his anti-government grievances, and then killing himself. >> mr. dykes just remained committed to his plan, his plan that this was gonna end only in his death. >> reporter: the team, by now talking to dykes via cell phone, has developed a strategy that involves ethan. >> you were able to get food down to ethan. >> we tried to establish that point that he was responsible for ethan's safety and crafting a media message for thanking him. >> reporter: the cat-and-mouse game kicks in high gear. investigators have a limited view of what is happening inside the bunker. they know when ethan is sleeping. they know dykes has a large supply of water and food. and he has a tv and is watching the media. police say ethan remains calm in

the bunker playing with coloring books and toy cars to keep him occupied. by day three, still no breakthrough. the community beginning a non-stop prayer vigil. >> god will intervene. >> reporter: in the command center, the team is hopeful. >> it was encouraging that the dialogue remained open. we were allowing him to vent toward us instead of ethan. in this situation, we were able to gather tactical intelligence. >> reporter: like details about the bunker where dykes ha has ethan. these are bunkers seen here for the first time ever. it has ventilation and electricity and bunk beds. more chillingly, the team discovers the bunker is rigged with explosives. the pipe that they were talking

to dykes, it has a bomb in it. >> he has the ability to build a device to kill himself and the boy and kill us as first responders. >> reporter: sheriff wally olson shows us how close his officers were to death. >> they have to get up to the pipe and talk in the pipe. they were on top of the pipe. he could have detonated the bomb anytime. >> reporter: more sobering was thing method in which dykes was intent on delivering his message. >> he got the final message out to the world and then committed suicide in the reporter's presence. >> that will never happen. we are not in the business of endangering more lives. >> reporter: day five. everything is beginning to come to a head. when we come back, the first time ever the team persuaded

dykes. >> for the first time, you >> the best we would hope for was a murder/suicide. >> reporter: and the worst fear? >> he said if anything happens to me, i told ethan to pull the trigger. >> reporter: stay with us. i am an american success story. i'm a teacher. i'm a firefighter. i'm a carpenter. i'm an accountant. a mechanical engineer. and i shop at walmart. truth is, over sixty percent of america shops at walmart every month. i find what i need, at a great price. and the money i save goes to important things. braces for my daughter. a little something for my son's college fund. when people look at me, i hope they see someone building a better life. vo: living better: that's the real walmart. little things anyone can do.

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>> reporter: it's day six of the hostage standoff. 12 feet underground in midland city, alabama, a madman is holding hostage a 5-year-old boy with autism named ethan. the bunker they're in is wired with explosives. above ground, a nation's attention has been captured by the events in this small close-knit community. >> we do begin this evening with that standoff playing out in the small town in alabama. >> reporter: which on this day is taking a moment to mourn its own. bus driver charles poland is laid to rest. a hero to his community, but to his wife so much more. >> he was my best friend, my sweetheart. he loved those kids. >> reporter: but down in the bunker, dykes is growing more

and more belligerent as he begins to suspect the negotiators won't give him what he wants. in these recordings exclusively obtained by abc news, he begins to rant at negotiators. >> end of this [ bleep ] day there's going to be a determination as to just exactly what the hell is going to take place. you just go ahead and send some mother [ bleep ] down that funnel over there to their death. >> reporter: the 65-year-old decorated vet is angry at the government and disdainful of the police. >> you're scared. you know [ bleep ] well i'm smarter than most of you [ bleep ] people. you know [ bleep ] well i have the knowledge. i have the experience. i have the ability, and i have the balls to show just how [ bleep ] corrupt this system is. >> reporter: his rants have little logic, but he wants his story told, a story that he believes will spark anarchy. >> you know [ bleep ] well what i'd say when i go public. going to create chaos. it's going to create riots. people are gonna be standing up to this mother [ bleep ] dictatorial, incompetent,

self-righteous, bunch of sorry [ bleep ] in government. and if that sorry son of a [ bleep ] above you doesn't respond by 5:30 this afternoon, then by god i will not be talking to you no [ bleep ] more. >> reporter: as they begin day six, the nation holds its breath. still no rescue, and the danger to ethan is increasing with every second. law enforcement's secret eye into the bunker reveals a dangerous man on the brink. >> he was handling the weapons and the bomb inside the bunker on a more frequent basis. we knew that jim dykes had begun to rehearse. he had begun to prepare. >> reporter: and dykes has a diabolical plan for ethan. >> jim dykes relayed to the negotiators if anything happens to me, i have told ethan to pull the trigger. that meant he had told ethan to detonate the ied, the second ied that was inside the bunker. >> i think anyone who was aware

of that was wondering, "is this it? right now, this moment, is this it?" >> reporter: but police have a plan of their own. they've been practicing a rescue in this mock bunker nearby, and they're preparing for the worst. why? ethan is becoming attached to dykes. >> ethan is perhaps attaching in a genuinely affectionate way to the offender, which is a problem because we don't want him to run in the wrong direction if there is an assault. >> reporter: the final decision of what to do would involve a gut-check moment with the fbi director. ron hosko, who heads the fbi's criminal division back in washington, has been consulting with officers on the scene and regularly briefing fbi director mueller and attorney general eric holder. >> time appeared to be running out. the commander was on the line and the situation was not a happy one. >> behavioral analysis folks told us the best you can hope for is a murder-suicide.

>> reporter: the decision is made to take on dykes, armed with guns and bombs, head on, on his turf in a tight space. neil tew of the state police remembers speaking to one of the fbi tactical team members the night before the assault. >> it was very clear to me that he was willing to sacrifice his life if it meant saving ethan's. >> reporter: it's now the moment of truth. >> i was feeling so many things. i was scared. knowing what was waiting for them down there, it's chilling. >> i'll tell you, in the command post when the authorities were granted to execute the plan, there was silence. >> reporter: the bunker is finally breached! and with that, dykes begins to make good on his threats, detonating the bomb in the pvc pipe. smoke begins pouring out of the bunker entrance only three feet in diameter. the five-member tactical team

descends into darkness. >> they immediately received gunfire from mr. dykes. >> reporter: there was an ied inside the bunker as well? >> yes, sir. he was in the process of trying to detonate it. >> reporter: so we're talking about seconds literally meant everything? >> absolutely. >> reporter: it is all over in two minutes. then, silence. >> it seemed like an eternity. quiet, quiet. think we were all praying. i vividly remember looking at kevin and saying, "you got to tell me the child is okay." the next radio traffic we heard was the child crying. as a parent, that's a thumbs up. that is a thumbs up. if he's crying, he's breathing. >> reporter: dykes is shot and killed in the confrontation. ethan and the agents were okay, remarkably sustaining no major injuries. do you guys believe in miracles?

>> i believe it was by the grace of god. >> reporter: but with all the joy and relief, the thoughts of the team that helped save the life of one child, turned to the man who gave his life to save them all, charles poland. how proud are you of him? >> very proud. very proud. if i had him now, probably would not let him go for a good long time. >> reporter: real love that a man lay down his life for his friends. >> next n this bar, the girls have you drinking up for drinks you didn't have. >> i drank a heineken. it couldn't be this much money.

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if your weekend plans include heading out a drink, be careful who is serving. behind that smile, a possible scam. and miami police are targeting bottle girls, who charge if you have too many drinks. we are about to find out the new meaning of last call. here is matt gutman. >> reporter: welcome to the miami club scene. leave your troubles outside. here, life is beautiful. in fact, everyone is beautiful. you'll also find a special type of creature here, so called bar girls, b girls, hard at work in

hot spots around the country. they're trained to spot men with fancy shoes, expensive watches, and fat wallets. they charm and disarm and seduce men into spending big bucks for bottle after bottle of booze. sometimes it's aggressive, sometimes it's downright criminal. just ask john bolaris, a tv weatherman and a familiar face to many viewers in new york and philadelphia. a single guy on vacation in miami, bolaris was having a drink at a south beach bar when he was approached by two women who sounded russian. >> they were kinda comin' around -- you know, "wanna do a shot with us?" i said, "no thank you. i don't do shots." >> reporter: but he says these girls just wouldn't take "nyet" for an answer. >> they played around with me a little bit, rubbing my shoulders. they said, "come on, do a shot." they opened up my mouth, i did a shot. >> reporter: it is clear that they're flirting with you? >> yeah, they were flirting, you know. i think that's what goes on in

miami. there's a lot of flirting. >> reporter: after a few drinks, they're all in a taxi heading to another bar. bolaris says they ask if he minds stopping off to see a painting a friend is selling for charity. he agrees. that's when things get weird and the weatherman's memory gets foggy. >> only thing i truly remember from that place is someone holding my body up, and i was signing something two or three times. >> reporter: are you drunk, or are you drugged? >> i believe i was drugged. i do remember a flash of walking into a cab with an art painting that they had. >> reporter: you bought a painting? >> i guess so. don't remember much except waking up in my hotel room. >> reporter: where you clothed? >> yeah. i was clothed with a red wine stain on my shirt. and i said, "oh, one of those night in miami." >> reporter: it was a scene straight out of "the hangover." there was evidence of a wild night, but no recollection of it. >> why can't we remember a [ bleep ] thing from last night. >> because we obviously had a great [ bleep ] time.

>> reporter: did you ever think that at any point you haddon anything with the girls? >> no. not if you're fully clothed. >> reporter: pretty good goo indication, yeah. >> yeah. >> reporter: then, surprisingly, he says the girls call him again. >> "oh we're so sorry. we accidently took your sunglasses. and did you like the painting? >> reporter: so at this point, you have no idea that anything went wrong? >> no. you would think they're the sweetest girls from next door -- sophisticated, articulate, made you feel at ease. fun. just at ease. >> reporter: the girls next door? >> yeah, they were nice. >> reporter: so nice, bolaris signs on for the sequel, "hangover 2." he amazingly agrees to meet the girls again, this time zipping through the art deco avenues of south beach, he says, just to return the art. but soon, they all pull up to an unmarked storefront, and once again, the mind is a blur. >> they waved me to come back in from the taxi. i said, "no."

they said, "come in, come in." i told the taxi to wait. next thing i remember after that, waking me up. >> reporter: again? >> yes. wakin' me up. >> reporter: and these nights end like this? in a snap they are over. >> over. >> reporter: bolaris says he was completely in the dark until american express called, concerned about some charges. you got a call from amex, basically telling you that you'd spent $43,000. >> right. uh-huh. that's when i knew. >> reporter: receipts from that night show charges on the card were coming fast and furious, as quickly as every eight or nine minutes. >> $1,100 tip. $800. $1,200. $1,600. $1,800. $4,000. $3,000. you know, with tips. >> reporter: that included $2,500 for the painting. but amex has no mercy. they tell bolaris that one bar manager, stan pavlenko, he has proof the charges were legit. >> i said, stan? who is stan? oh, the owner, the proprietor of the well end restaurant. >> reporter: stan's proof -- a

photo of bolaris at the bar. but bolaris is convinced he was drugged and the girls ripped him off. and though his tale may seem hard to believe, he sticks to his guns. okay. a lot of people would understand getting duped the first time, but a second time? >> i was never duped. i was a victim of a crime. well orchestrated, they were professionals. >> reporter: a game of cat and mouse is about to begin as bolaris turns to the fbi for help. the agency says bolaris had, indeed, been targeted by an eastern european crime ring, running several suspicious private miami clubs, and now the feds are setting traps to sting the scammers. the fbi sets up surveillance cameras as alleged ring members greeted the sexy young women they'd brought in illegally from eastern europe, the source of so many scams in the u.s., says former fbi agent and abc news consultant brad garrett. >> the number one priority in organized crime to investigate is russian and eurasian organized crime. >> reporter: but the fbi wanted to go deeper, so they decided to infiltrate the club with an

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>> reporter: this may seem like a bad boy caught on surveillance video doing bad things, but according to the fbi, the woman is not just a naughty, she is a crook. she and these so-called bottle girls worked in cahoots with clubs run by an alleged eastern european crime ring. their job? the fbi says -- to lure men away from swanky south beach

hotspots, and take them to their clubs, and then take their money. >> hi, can i go inside? >> i.d.? >> reporter: so the cat and mouse game kicks into high gear. the bouncer and this woman pretend to be strangers, so the suckers won't suspect they're actually working together. it's the bouncer's job to make sure they pay and stay. you were sort a reverse bouncer, trying to keep the patrons in instead of out. >> correct. >> reporter: but luis king wasn't working for the b-girls, he was working for the g-men. >> i believe that they thought i was a bad police officer, a corrupt police officer. >> reporter: he does such a good job, the ringleaders make the veteran miami beach detective a partner. but his real job was to figure out how this multimillion-dollar scam worked. so, bottles of champagne, broken noses, emptied wallets. what's the most shocking thing that you saw?

>> i recall an individual that two of the girls brought in. within five or ten minutes after he was in the club, he was already passed out. one of the girls starts slapping him. >> reporter: wailing at him? >> wailing at him with both hands, and he's not waking up. they get a champagne bucket full of ice water and ice, and they throw it on top of him. >> reporter: but some customers were able to stay lucid, like this guy. >> you know, they were just so aggressive with the alcohol. >> reporter: brett daniels is a single guy, who believe it or not, is a professional magician travelling the world with his act. but here in miami, he says, he was the one who fell for the illusion. >> i'm a magician. i'm very familiar with cons and swindles, and they got me. >> reporter: unlike john bolaris and the estimated 400 other cons, brett's memory is as vivid as it is painful. b-girls brought him to a club, and promised the shots were on them, but he soon became suspicious they were drinking water, and when he reached for one of their glasses to check? >> boom, she knocked it over --

pretty good sleight of hand. >> reporter: brett wasn't imagining things. it's the women's job to order as much alcohol as possible without getting drunk themselves. watch this woman caught by fbi cameras tossing out her drink just after her customer steps away. >> whether it's right or wrong, it happens all the time. >> reporter: jonathan davidoff, an attorney for one of the girls, has no sympathy for the men. >> i think it's a great marketing plan, to be honest with you, to send attractive women to go meet guys and bring them back to a club. i see nothing illegal about that. >> reporter: really? check the magician's bar bill. >> i drank a heineken, and the -- the vodka was on them. it shouldn't be this much money. >> reporter: that much money, totaled more than $1,300 dollars. >> don't you think that's the most expensive wine in the world right there? >> i think we have expensive

taste. >> reporter: this man isn't a customer. it's another fbi agent in cahoots with king. after ordering bottles of wine and champagne, he found that the bar did its best to hide their sky-high prices. >> you don't ask me about the price. >> what does that say right there? >> $7,500. >> there's no champagne in the world that's worth $7,000. >> reporter: what kind of wine was it, or champagne? >> you could probably buy it in publix for $100. >> reporter: yet the scam investigators caught on tape goes way beyond overpriced booze. remember bolaris, who got stuck with that painting? in other cases, the fbi says customer signatures were forged and they were billed hundreds or thousands of dollars for alcohol they never even ordered. >> i told you i wanted water. >> reporter: this customer is another fbi undercover agent. >> then tell him i'm not paying the bill. >> well, you better pay the bill because you drank it and you ordered it from me. >> reporter: our magician says he found that out when he was ushered into a back alley by men

with russian accents and the club bouncer. >> he says, "pay the bill or you're going right to jail." and i'm thinking i'm in a back alley. it's late. i'm here by myself. i'm under the implied threat of perhaps being beaten up, perhaps going -- definitely going to jail. >> reporter: so he paid his bill. >> and i signed it, but i signed it with a gun to my head. not literally, but very close. >> reporter: one bar manager was caught on audiotape tutoring a bottle girl on how to plump up her bar bills with the promise of sex. >> the only answer is yes, but later. yes, but later, a little bit later, later, later, later, later, later. >> was there ever actually sex involved? or was always the implication that sex might be forthcoming? >> there was never any sex inside the club. it was always implied by the girls. >> reporter: after a 13-month investigation, the bureau felt it had enough proof to make a case. so the undercover agent pretended to celebrate his promotion.

>> well, we wanted to get everybody together. one big round up. i told 'em that i wanted to throw a big promotion party. >> reporter: as the staff gathered, agents swooped in for the arrests, including jonathan davidoff's client. >> for what my client did, what she's guilty criminally was coming into this country illegally. >> reporter: but his client and several other girls also pleaded guilty to fraud in court. the girls and the undercover work of luis king -- integral to the case against what the government called the puppeteers. one of them, stan pavlenko, the same "stan" involved with those outrageous charges on john bolaris' amex. last year, "20/20" caught up with him. >> shut it off and delete -- shut it off. shut it down. >> reporter: jurors found the men guilty, handing out sentences as hefty as those bar tabs. as for the victims, brett daniels' bank refused to refund him a dime, and only after suing did our weatherman finally get his $43,000 back from american

express. but it ruined him. >> i got hit hard because they took advantage of me, i think -- more than anyone. i feel stupid about that. i regret that i let my guard down so much. >> reporter: his only true satisfaction -- testifying in court, turning the tables on the con men. >> i'm not a cop, i'm not a fireman, i'm not a soldier. was victim of a crime and i fought back. i didn't really do anything, but do what anyone should do if they were a victim of a crime. >> reporter: for once, the mouse ♪

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>> that's your program tonight. thanks for watching. see you this weekend for "world news." >> i'm elizabeth vargas. have a great weekend.

>> a bay area man is recovering from a home