Tag: Hotel Crime
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How A £1 Million Emerald Ring Went 'Missing' At the Four Seasons Hong Kong
Where: 8 Finance Street, Hong Kong
Though it goes completely against the sense of security that hotels want you to feel, jewelry and fancy hotel suites are a prime target for thieves. Especially jewelry inside a fancy hotel suite.
So we're not entirely sure what crossed the mind of Swiss jeweler Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele when she absentmindedly left her £1 million emerald ring in a bathroom at Four Seasons Hong Kong last week. According to the Daily Mail, Gruosi-Scheufele left the ring, which was bought by her parents in 1963, in the bathroom at the hotel's fourth-floor ballroom during an event. A busy, busy event, with lots of people rushing in and out of the bathroom. By the time she raced back to the bathroom (six minutes later), the ring was nowhere to be found. Quick work!
Celebrity Scoop / Hotel Crime / VIva Vegas / Mike Tyson / → All Tags
Possibly The Stupidest Hotel Thief Ever Tries To Burgle Mike Tyson
If we could be handing out more HotelChatter awards this week, this story would be a slam dunk in the "stupidest hotel thief ever" category (which shouldn't be confused with most inventive thief, or luckiest thief).
An unnamed intruder broke into a room at The Cosmopolitan shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve—probably assuming its inhabitants would be out partying. Which they weren't. Nor, he soon found out, were they just any old hotel guests. Fast asleep in bed, with his family around him, was heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who woke to strange "rustling sounds" and the glare of the intruder's flashlight, TMZ reports.
Incredibly, the thief got away with his ear face intact. On second thought, maybe that "luckiest thief" title should go to him after all.
Germany Hotels / Hotel Animals / Hotel News / Hotel Crime / → All Tags
Snakes at a German Hotel (Ew, Ew, Ew)
Rather than drummers drumming, pipers piping, and golden rings, a group of Chinese visitors to Cologne, Germany had a more unseemly batch of presents for their hotel: police confiscated "100 snakes, 70 tortoises and 20 neon-colored frogs" from the three tourists, reports English-language news source The Local. And, no, a partridge in a pear tree was not included in their arc of travel companions.
Hotel Crime / Hotel Security / Manhattan Hotels / Royal Hotels / → All Tags
And This is Why You Should Always Make Sure the Hotel Door Closes Behind You
Good news, the perp has been caught!
Last week, after checking in and checking out our hotel room (video, photos, you know the usual thing a hotel guest does right?) we noticed that our room door was a little cumbersome in that it didn't immediately close all the way. We actually had to give it a little extra push to make it shut.
The bad thing is, we didn't notice this for like two hours. The good thing is we were still in the room. Unfortunately, a Dubai royal staying at The Plaza wasn't so lucky.
Apparently, [name redacted], 25, who booked the entire 12th floor for her friends and family forgot to close the doors to her suite (room 1230 and 1232) entirely, making it possible for thieves to come in and swipe more than $230,000 in jewelry and designer handbags. The NY Post reports:
: The locking mechanism on the door never engaged. So the intruder or intruders simply strolled inside and swiped a treasure trove of goodies, including three Chanel and Prada handbags containing a $100,000 Rolex watch and other luxury timepieces by Philip Stein and TechnoMarine, the sources said. Also snagged were assorted Cartier jewelry, an iPad and a pricey Nokia International smartphone.
Hotel Tragedies / Hotel Crime / Mexico City Hotels / Hilton Hotels / Airport Hotels / → All Tags
Flight Attendants Change Hotels After Death at Mexico City Hilton
This is just the kind of awful news you don't want to wake up to on any morning let alone a Halloween Monday morning--a US Airways flight attendant was found dead in his hotel room at the Mexico City Airport Hilton.
The AP reports that Phoenix-based crew member Nick Aaronson, 33, was found early Saturday morning naked in his hotel bed with his hands tied behind his back. His body showed signs of a beating and the Daily Mail reported his luggage was scattered throughout the room. Mexico City police are investigating the incident, which they are treating as a homicide and there have been reports that Aaronson's mother said an arrest has already been made.
Meanwhile, AFA 66 flight attendants' union put a statement on their website saying they did not believe a security breach had happened yet they have moved their crews to another hotel for layovers until the matter is resolved.
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How To Score A Free Hotel Room From A TV Producer
Tired of booking overpriced rooms in crowded cities? Want to an escape for the whole family? Here's one way to ensure a comped hotel stay.
Hollywood Reporter pointed out last week that the Seattle-based family of Amanda Knox, the American exchange student held in Italian custody for four years for the murder of her roommate, was doing a great job of getting free hotel stays from a number of American TV producers. All of whom, of course, were hungry for their own exclusive interview with Knox. But nonetheless. A free hotel room in Perugia? Sounds pretty good to us. If only there was a way to avoid the whole incarcerated-family-member snag. Other than that, that's a real winning scheme.
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Closings at the Delano, The Dutch at W South Beach and a Stupid Thief at The Fontainebleau
As the high season gets closer in Miami Beach, there's been a hurricane (too soon?) of activities happening around the hottest hotels.
For starters, The Delano is apparently closing both their Blue Door Fish and Lenny Kravitz's Florida Room, even though both are fairly new to the property.
Miami New Times reports that Blue Door Fish will close sometime after Art Basel and will reopen as something called, Bianca. Brian Massie, a chef from the nightlife and resto outfit in Las Vegas, The Light Group, will take over the cuisine.
There's no word on what's replacing The Florida Room just that it will close at the end of December but reopen sometime before New Year's as whatever new club it's going to be.
Hotel Art / Hotel Crime / Los Angeles Hotels / Ritz Carlton Hotels / Police Hotels / Marriott Hotels / Hotel Fires / → All Tags
Help The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey Get Their Rembrandt Back!
If any of you have special access to surveillance tapes at the Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey, we would sure love to take a look (no, we're not snooping for candid Britney footage).
On Saturday, a $250,000 Rembrandt etching known as "The Judgment" disappeared from an exhibit in the hotel lobby. So how exactly does a 350-year-old lithograph just vanish? Well, that's kinda what police are trying to figure out. In the words of the LA County Sheriff's Department:
"When the curator that was attending to the art exhibit turned back to the exhibit, he noticed immediately that this individual drawing...was gone."
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What is Alex Trebek is a Badass for Chasing Down a Hotel Burglar?
We've written a bunch about staying safe in hotel rooms lately but even well-known nerds celebrities need to learn how to protect themselves when staying in hotels.
"Jeopardy's" legendary host Alex Trebek revealed yesterday that his hotel room in San Francisco had been broken into and that he ruptured his Achilles tendon as he chased the robber down.
Trebek revealed the traumatic incident (in Jeopardy-speak) right before he hosted the National Geographic Geography Bee at Google Headquarters in Mountain View.
What is, it happened at 2:30 a.m., chasing a burglar down the hallway of my San Francisco hotel when my Achilles tendon ruptured and I then fell on carpet, bruising the other leg in process. Surgery on Friday," Trebek said, according to Patch.com.
San Francisco police have confirmed the incident and the subsequent arrest of Lucinda Moyers, 56, who was booked on charges of burglary and receiving stolen property, namely the victims' purses and wallets. TMZ is also reporting that the suspect lifted a bracelet that Trebek's mother gave him.
Hotel Crime / Dominique Strauss-Kahn / Hotel Housekeepers / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Sofitel Housekeeper Speaks Out About DSK Assault
New details of the alleged sexual assault of a hotel houskeeper by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn have come out--this time from the housekeeper herself.
Nafissatou Diallo recently sat down for an interview with both Newsweek magazine and ABC News revealing not only her name but also her face. Her story is graphic and at times painful to read, especially when she says doctors found a partial ligament tear in her left shoulder weeks after the incident, weeks after DSK allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him.
DSK's defense team is still insisting that any sexual contact, however rough it may have been, was consensual (there is undeniable DNA evidence that a sexual interaction occurred.) But even if Diallo's story of the sexual attack is true, some of her statements still don't match up.
Hotel Housekeeping / Housekeepers / Dominique Strauss-Kahn / Hotel News / Hotel Crime / → All Tags
The DSK Maid May Have Ruined It For Housekeepers Everywhere
Update 7/5/11, 8:51pm: The housekeeper as now sued the NY Post for libel for printing stories that she was a prostitute.
In a stunning turn of events late last week, it was revealed that the housekeeper at the Sofitel New York who was allegedly assaulted by IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was not such an innocent victim after all.
The NY Post is claiming that investigators discovered that she had been turning tricks at the hotel with other guests, which lends more credence to DSK's defense that the sex was consensual. She even reportedly resumed her "special trade" at a Brooklyn hotel where the Manhattan District Attorney's office had housed her while the investigation into DSK was carried out.
But not only does the housekeeper seem to have a unsavory past entertaining men for money, she's also a documented liar from her application for asylum from her native Guinea where she claimed she was gang-raped by soldiers to the number of children she has and most crucially for the DSK case, she lied about what she did immediately after the attack. (Initially, she said she called a supervisor. But later, she confessed to cleaning another suite first.)
Now, with charges against DSK expected to be dropped this week--since the case is "not sustainable"--housekeepers everywhere have officially been cheated.
Celebrity Hotels / Hotel Crime / Francis Ford Coppola / Buenos Aires Hotels / → All Tags
Francis Ford Coppola Could Use a 'Godfather' in Buenos Aires
Director/vintner/hotelier Francis Ford Coppoloa is having a tough go with his Jardin Escondido in Buenos Aires. The small boutique hotel got robbed the other night, for the second time. From the Washington Post:
Police say the robbers made off with money and valuables, but more details were unavailable about how or when the robbery occurred. The official news agency Telam quoted a hotel employee as saying nobody was hurt in the incident.
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