PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico -- Andrew Luster just couldn't help himself.

He couldn't stop riding waves, couldn't put down the bottle and certainly couldn't extinguish his uncontrollable urge to score with the ladies.

With an ego larger than his bankbook, Max Factor's great-grandson wasn't about to change his playboy ways after he fled Ventura County in the middle of his rape trial in January, ending up south of the border.

Just two days before an American bounty hunter captured him in a predawn takedown at a downtown taco stand last week, Luster had spent a particularly telling night at two strip clubs in this coastal resort city.

At the first, a seedy spot called Hysteria in a run-down, industrial section across the street from a tire shop, he acted so broke he couldn't buy his own beer, various people who saw him said. He stayed for two hours, between midnight and 2 a.m., letting customers buy him drinks.

About 4 a.m., he headed to Baywatch, a topless bar on the city's main drag with familiar blue neon, where he met Cori, one of the hottest and most expensive hookers in town, said Juan Urrutia, a club bouncer. Initially, though, he played it cool and nursed a Pacifico beer.

"He came in mellow, put his feet up on the counter and just relaxed," Urrutia said.

Then he watched Cori, a short woman with a model's face, a skinny waist and plenty up top, dance on stage. Smitten, he bought a $35, 15-minute lap dance with her.

They went to a small side room with a sofa, and Luster became "aggressive," Cori said in an interview this week. He touched her breasts, which was fair play, but then tried to run his fingers between her legs, which, for that price, is off limits, she said.

"He just kept trying to touch me and was coming on to me really strong," she said. "You could smell the alcohol on him."

He also kept trying to persuade her to come back to his motel room, where he said he had a Jacuzzi -- a lie. When time ran out, Luster wanted more.

He approached the manager, a man named Octavio, who declined to give his last name, and started to bargain.

He offered $100 for two hours with Cori, $80 short of the sticker price. "He was really cheap, trying to bring the price down," Cori said.

Because of how he acted, Octavio said, Cori wouldn't have gone home with him no matter how much he paid, even though Luster said he needed only 15 minutes.

Money an issue

The night provides a snapshot of Luster's possible financial situation after more than five months on the run. He clearly was watching his wallet, wanting to spend money only on absolute necessities, which, for him, apparently meant Cori.

Luster lived off a trust fund stemming from the Max Factor family fortune.

Those who knew him during the years he lived in his Mussel Shoals beach house said he never held a job. He spent his time surfing and partying, often in the bars in Santa Barbara. He was convicted in abstentia by a Ventura County jury of 86 criminal counts stemming from the rapes of three women he had picked up at those bars and taken to his home. He had drugged the women and then videotaped two of the rapes of the unconscious women.

Luster was sentenced to 124 years in prison, a term he began serving last week.

In a 13-page journal found in his Puerto Vallarta motel room and viewed by the Ventura County Star, money clearly was an issue for Luster. He wrote down a "strategy to recoup my $" and noted some kind of business deal he was counting on and an office where he might have worked.

Luster was looking for advice from friends on dealing with "M. Dean" in his business deal: "He seems to be stalling and making excuses (at) every turn to not finish deal. I think he's trying to steal $. ... Much opportunity for buss. has been lost already and much more will be."

Later in the journal, Luster appeared to be testing dialogue for a conversation about the business deal. He wrote, "How exactly do you think I'm supposed to survive and make a living without the money that this requires?"

He wanted to do a great deal of work on his car "when money is obtained." That included stronger shocks, louder alarm, front-end alignment, pinstriping and window tinting. He also wanted "more horsepower" in the car, which was believed to be a Volkswagen Jetta.

Mexico travels unknown

It is unknown exactly how long Luster was in Puerto Vallarta or exactly where else he went. The journal makes references to at least one other Mexican surf spot, and to places that could be in and around Guadalajara.

In this popular tourist town teeming with Americans, witnesses saw Luster at least in April. And they said he wasn't trying to hide.

"I saw that (SOB) about two months ago," said April Johnson, 37, an American who moved to the nearby town of Bucerias 20 years ago.

She was leaving her soccer practice near downtown Puerto Vallarta when she couldn't help but notice this big, loud, guy hitting on a woman while walking down the sidewalk.

"There was this energy coming off him," she said. "He was trying to put the moves on her or something. He wasn't laying low, that's for sure."

In hindsight, Johnson said, she vaguely recognized him from news reports of his flight a few months earlier. Then, when she heard he was captured here, she knew it was the man she had seen.

Around the same time, Luster, 39, was frequenting another strip club called Candy's Girls. On the second floor above a paint store, this one was less obvious and sat on the main highway near the city's marina.

He paid a visit there and stayed for four or five hours, bouncer Jesus Zuniga said. After chilling out in the corner and keeping to himself, he bought a lap dance with one of the strippers for $43.

Maybe a month later, Luster was seen in Punta de Mita, a quaint surfing and fishing village where the warm, clear-blue water is straight out of a postcard, a place remote enough not to attract too many tourists.

He ate at El Mojarro, "your seaside seafood spot," and sat at a table where the harmless waves lapped to within a few feet.

Waiter Manuel Reyes served him three times and remembers him as outgoing, always trying to bring in customers for the eatery.

Chasing the waves

His first meal there was breakfast, where he sipped orange juice and ate pineapple and asked about good surfing spots, Reyes said. He spoke Spanish with a gringo accent.

"He came and asked about boats that went out to the water and when the big waves came in," he said.

After surfing, he would come to the restaurant to enjoy a dinner of fish fillets stuffed with shrimp and octopus and would drink expensive tequila and leave a 20 percent tip, Reyes said. He also boogie boarded with two American women.

"They weren't ugly, they weren't pretty; they were just Americans," Reyes said of the women.

He always seemed happy, and the waiter said he never had a clue who he was or what he had done.

"I'm happy they caught him because he should be punished," he said. "But I feel bad for him because here, he was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy."

It is difficult to determine where Luster surfed, but clearly he caught some waves somewhere. He had two surfboards in his motel room when he was caught, and surfing always had been one of his passions when he lived in Mussel Shoals.

None of the big-time riders in the surfing village of Sayulita recognized a picture of him. In his journal, he referenced Rio Nexpa, a popular destination a few hours south of here. He also noted that he wanted to get new board bags and was looking for "used cheaper" ones.

During that night two days before it all ended for Luster, one of those who bought him a beer was a guy named Miguel, a bartender at a marina tavern who did not want to give his last name.

He spent about 15 minutes at Hysteria chatting with Luster, who said his name was David and that he worked in the neighboring state of Nayarit. Authorities have since learned that Luster was using the name David Carrera -- "a la Carrera" translates from Spanish as "on the run."

Miguel bought him a $3 beer, thinking nothing of it. When he found out later who he was, he was floored, knowing he missed a chance to turn in a notorious serial rapist and collect a handsome reward.

"You think you know somebody and you don't imagine what people are like," Miguel said. "Then you find out and you think, 'What did I do?' "

He continued: "If I would've known, I would have (beat) him up."