AUGUSTA – A lingerie shop has stopped using live models to draw attention and customers after one of its models received harassing phone calls, the store’s owner said.

Spellbound drew protests – as well as window shoppers – when it began using live models who dressed in lingerie and posed in the storefront windows shortly after the shop opened on Water Street last fall.

Store owner Felicia Stockford decided last week to end the practice of using live models after one of them got calls on her cell phone that Stockford described as violent and graphic.

“I don’t think it’s safe anymore having them do that,” Stockford said. “It would be irresponsible for me to continue.”

There was a mixed reaction from the public and neighboring businesses after Stockford, a former Cony High School teacher, hired the models in an effort to establish the store’s name.

Some suggested that the women brought life and beauty to the street, while others said using scantily clad women in storefront windows was morally reprehensible. A group calling itself Christians Lovingly Advocating Decency protested in front of the store on Valentine’s Day weekend.

That weekend the front tires of a parked car owned by Nikki Hunt, one of the store’s models, were slashed.

The 21-year-old Hunt said she’s received at least two violent, sexual threats since then on her cell phone. Police were notified, she said.

Even though she won’t be modeling in Spellbound’s windows any more, Hunt said the experience has inspired her to pursue a performance career.

“For me, it’s taken such a creative turn in my life,” she said. “I just see the creativity in it.”

For now, the models still appear on Spellbound’s Web site. Stockford in the meantime said she may move the store south to Portland or Massachusetts, if she is able to sell the space.

“I would like to go out of the Augusta location and relocate to some place more profitable,” she said. “But if I couldn’t find somebody to buy it, then I would probably stay.”