Wreck Bar Mermaid Sues Broward Sheriff’s Office for Invasion of Privacy

Finding herself vilified on TikTok by a self-styled witch and spotting a Broward County sheriff’s lieutenant literally climbing her wall, Whitney Fair was at her wits’ end.

She had no idea being a mermaid could be so stressful.

The trouble had nothing to do with the actual mermaid shows she performs at the historic Wreck Bar on Fort Lauderdale Beach. The 41-year-old Fair enjoys swimming in what’s billed as America’s only underwater burlesque show.

She likes to hear the audience when she swims past the pool’s portholes in her costume fishtail. The fact that she can’t see the bar patrons through the glass relieves some of the pressure of performing on often-packed Friday and Saturday nights.

The part-time job at the iconic ocean liner-shaped B Ocean Resort, formerly known as the Yankee Clipper, also provides her and the other so-called Aquaticats a regular social outlet.

“I’m a bit of a homebody and an introvert,” confesses Fair, who also works as a voice actress and yoga instructor. “So this job has allowed me a consistent way of dressing up and being around people once a weekend.””

It was from the social side, however, that her misery came, specifically in the form of a fellow Aquaticat named Mia Mellies. “Mermaid Mia,” as she called herself, joined the cast in 2015, two years prior to Fair, and had ascended to a leadership role in the group. The two had a falling-out and ultimately Mia was fired in August 2018.

Mellies’ departure began what Fair describes as a three-year nightmare of harassment and conflict that now is on its way to a federal courtroom.

It began with online attacks from Mia and her husband Jeff and became worse when the couple moved in next door to Fair’s home in Fort Lauderdale. More than once, her security camera captured video of Jeff Mellies on her property, including a clip that shows him climbing up a ladder on the side of her house and tampering with said camera. Another clip shows the couple accosting her at the foot of her driveway, where Mia Mellies later can be heard screaming, “I hope you fucking die.””

Fair says the scariest part of it all is that Jeff has the power of the badge: He’s a lieutenant with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

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