Stolen property from hotel room
 

You can't imagine what a hectic weekend I have had! I was in a wedding in Birmingham, where everything was based out of the Sheraton hotel, a large hotel downtown. In addition to all the chaotic wedding mishaps -- bride got sick, we were terribly late to the church, groomsman passed out at the altar, cell phone went off during vows -- my husband's truck broke down (he did not attend the wedding with me) as he was travelling to my mother-in-law's home to pick up our son, whom she'd been babysitting. He was picking him up early because he was sick. So far, not such a great weekend...but it got even worse!

Because my son was sick, I decided to return home early, planning to leave Birmingham Saturday night after the reception instead of staying overnight and leaving Sunday. During the day Saturday, I realized that two of the bridesmaids wree planning to stay in the hospitality suite that night, where the wedding party had been congregating each night into the wee hours, and where there was only a murphy bed. I offered to let them stay in my hotel room that night since the room was already paid for and I was leaving early.

We moved their belongings up to my room mid-day Saturday. Housekeeping came and went during the day, which we noticed as we made a couple of trips back to the room to get things we had forgotten. We were in a room with a balcony that overlooked an atrium, where you could see every door in the huge hotel on every floor (and they could see you if the curtains were open). It was the room farthest from both the elevator and service elevator, and though it was near a stairwell, it was on the highest floor (17) of the hotel.

That night, when I returned to the room to change clothes and hit the road, I quickly changed and gathered up my belongings and left...didn't even wait for a bellman, just grabbed my stuff and shot out of there. I was the only one with a key, so I took the key (carting my stuff with me) back to the reception and handed it off to the new occupants of the room.

Forty five minutes later I was almost home. They called me on my cell: their luggage was gone from the room! Their purses and shoes were still on the floor by the bed, but their bags were GONE. Thinking back, I am not sure if their bags were there or not when I came in to change.

I am 100% certain I checked the door when I left to make sure it was closed. The key printout/scan that the hotel performed even shows that I used the key twice in a row, because I let the door shut, then realized my toothbrush was still in the bathroom, ran back in to get it, and left. At that last point, I remember stopping to make sure (this time) that I had not left anything else, surveying my belongings, then shutting the door. All the other times that the door scan shows the key was used are times we can account for. No one was in the hall way; in fact the room was so far down the hall that no one was ever around at all really.

The hotel filed an incident report and we plan to file a police report today. The bags never showed up. I am an extremely logical, common sense type, but I am totally freaked out by this theft and I can't shake the feeling that the bags just vanished in thin air! (Obviously not, but I am so disturbed by this...)

Here is the clincher: the hotel security tapes show no one coming in or out with those bags. The bags were bright red crocodile, fairly large (larger than my small rolling suitcase). They were not even packed--stuff was coming all out of them since we'd just dumped them on the floor and continued to get ready for the wedding. Someone would have had to pack everything in them and lug BOTH of them (red, remember!) down 17 stories to the street.

My husband is convinced that it's an inside job and someone in the hotel knows how to work around the card reader in the door.

My questions for you: Has anything like this ever happened to you, and if so, what did you do about it? Also, do you know anything about those card readers and how they work?

yikes bamakelly, I always have a fear I will come back and my stuff be gone, I am topping so hopefully someone will have some helpful input...(I am from AL myself) :-)

What a bizarre story. Why would a thief leave the purses, but take the clothes??? Was the luggage itself expensive? The whole thing sounds like it came out of one of those two-minute mystery books!

Are they sure they didn't leave their luggage elsewhere? A room mix-up or something? Or a prank by a couple of the fellows in the wedding party?

Nothing but an "inside" job makes sense, but still, why leave the purses behind? I'm sure the key record thing can be "fixed," but I will be interested in reading a plausible explanation if someone has worked in security or the hotel industry.

Sorry your friends wedding turned into such chaos. Hopefully the honeymoon will be more peaceful! Hope your son is feeling better, BK.

Oh Bama, what a mess!

I hope that somehow the suitcases turn up.

And I hope your little fellow is well now.

Byrd


Byrd

How horrible. First, I hope everyone who was sick is doing better.

I'm not sure I followed the whole story, but the only thing I can equate to this was many years ago when my apt. in NYC was burgled. The "thief" took all of my really valuable things and put them in my very expensive luggage. It was in a doorman building and after making a police report and speaking at length to the police (and being told it was unlikely my stuff would be recovered) I started doing some investigating of my own and became convinced it was an inside job done by the superintendent of the building!
I believe to this day I was right. The superintendent was miraculously "transferred".

They MUST make a police report right away. You MUST post this incident on tripadvisor for that hotel. They may be able to recoup some money if they have homeowners insurance. This further convinces me it's not worth having nice luggage. I honestly think it's just an invitation to get stolen. Was there a garage in the hotel? Do they also have surveillance cameras in the service elevator???

How sweet of y'all to wish my son well! It was our first ear infection (he is 1); he is much better now that the meds have kicked in.

The story really is so bizarre. The prank idea is a reasonable first thought, but almost everyone attending this wedding was from out of town; very few people knew each other at all, and certainly not well enough to play jokes like that. Besides, after all the hotel security became involved (and a police report in the works) you'd think they'd have shown up by now. Also, because my relationship to the bride was through work, I really knew no one there at all, so no one really knew which room was mine, etc. We were spread out all over a huge hotel, they did not room us together. I guess the other two girls could have told guests where they were staying, but it just doesn't seem like cocktail conversation, especially given the fact that we were so focused on the wedding itself.

Also, no chance of a room mixup. We'd all returned to the room earlier in the day to retrieve a watch, a hairdryer, etc, from that very luggage. The hotel staff checked every vacant but dirty room right away, and later checked each room as they cleaned. No luggage to be found anywhere.

The only reason I can think of why they took the luggage and left the purses is because we all had our wallets with us--the ourses just had basic items like lipstick, etc in them. The luggage was very pretty -- not terribly expensive but certainly fashionable and desirable. So maybe it was for the luggage, but even then, they had to pack clothes and smaller makeup bags into the bigger red bag before taking it--why not just dump it out and take the empty luggage itself? The only thing of real value that was stolen (besides favorite jeans, etc) was a strand of pearls. You'd think a thief would have left the dirty pajamas behind!

I am still so puzzled; I can hardly think of anything else!

I know some Fodorites have experience in the hotel industry and I am dying to know how those card reader things work. Are they tamper-proof? This just HAS to be an inside job.....right?

Thanks for "listening" and your well wishes.

The locks that use key cards are secure. When they are "read", they give some sort of a computerized printout which show all keys ever used during a specific period, including maids or engineering keys. If your room was cleaned, that maid's key will be on the record as well.

My husband is a hotel GM and we lived in until this last move 3 weeks ago. We had an issue once where we thought someone had been in our casita...a TV was unplugged and moved as if someone was in the midst of taking it, but was interrupted. We had the locks read and it showed only our cards used for entry. Well....lo and behold, we noticed a couple of days later that we had a problem with one of the doors not closing properly. As this occurred on one of the days when landscaping was being taken care of and this door was in the landscaping area, we think it was probably one of that crew who came in through the not-quite-closed-door and I interrupted them when I returned home. There were 5 doors into and out of our casita and we think I came in one when I returned home and they left via another. My point is, once our locks were "read" showing only our keys having been used, my husband was absolutely certain no staff was involved. I know he's got more info on the technology, and they are a great and secure system.

Now I don't know if this is true of all hotels, but ours also checks employees packages as they leave the building. All packages have to be inspected (how demoralizing would that be!) and there are security cameras on those entrances/exits as well. If I was giving something to housekeeping...a gift for instance...it would also have to be accompanied by a note to the effect that I'd given it.

It seems incredible that big red suitcases could exit without a trace under any circumstance. I can think of a couple of scenarios where someone could get them from the room, but they still would have to get them out of the hotel. One scenario is what I described above...the door didn't close properly and that's possible in the rushing about with a wedding...that someone didn't close it well. Another is that someone got in while the maid was in the room cleaning, but that doesn't seem as likely seeing as they had to be repacked. Who would risk taking that amount of time?

If they were real croc, that's where the money was, not the purses most likely, although it seems a thief would just grab those as well. Very weird!

barmakelly, we were writing at the same time. I want to say too I'm glad your son is better. Ear infections and the accompanying pain is something...I still recall our daughter's first one and that was about 33 years ago! :)

Please do let us know what you learn, and I'll ask my husband more about the locks when he gets home tonight. I just know that after ours were read, he was dead certain staff had not come in. (Landscaping crew by the way is an outside contractor...they come onto the property in trucks and leave the same way and some are sort of grim looking, I'm sorry to say!)

OO--Thanks for the info abot the card readers. The reader only showed housekeeping came in once, when we saw them, but if the door was somehow left open I guess it's possible it wouldn't show other entrance/exits. The door slammed so hard each time it would surprise me though.

Mclaurie--as usual, great advice from you. The hotel staff and security were both extremely accommodating. I had not thought of writing it up on Tripadvisor, but I think I should--after I give it a little more time so I can write an accurate report. We are in the process of the police report. With two of the three of us from out of town, we should all be able to make our statements in Birmingham by the end of the week. The other girls were thinking a hotel incident report was enough; I am insisting on a police report. Not sure about the location of the surveillance cameras; I just know they could see most of the hallway outside our room. Past that I am not sure. Security is very visible at this particular hotel, but you never know how seriously they really take things or if they are really paying attention.

Thanks for the info. Any more advice is appreciated!

This misfortune should be a wakeup call to others to make certain the door is latched. Don't slam it, just firmly pull it shut, then push to verify it's latched.

It's not uncommon for some dishonest employees, and probably as often some crooked guests, to do something like jamming objects into the door jam slot (I can't remember the correct name for the "hole" that the doorlatch goes into).

Hotel operators struggle a LOT to prevent things like this from happening - it does little good to accuse the hotel operator, who is as much a victim as the guest. Yet hotel operators do help bring some of crime upon themselves, as most operators do NOT like to call police, as they feel the local news stories will give them a black eye. Similarly, they often decline to press charges against guests or employees.

The good thing is that this trend has started to reverse. Owners are beginning to WANT to be known as willing to play hard-ball with those who would defraud them and/or their guests. I hope the items are recovered.

The plot thickens!!

We filed a police report and the detective is really on the ball. I am actually pleasantly surprsied that he is giving this much attention to the case. Anyway, he has been reviewing security tapes for the last 2 days and he located the luggage on tape! Two people, a man and a woman, were spotted on the escalator carrying the luggage! They walked in plain sight, right in front of the survellaince camera, right in front of the security desk, all around the hotel lobby, and down a very long hallway, through a crosswalk, and into the parking deck. With two huge red bags. Like they belonged to them. Down 17 floors. Out the door.


Judging from the time on the tape, it appears that they either followed me up to the room when I went in to change and leave, or they were (gasp) already in the room when I came in. We suspect the balcony may have been their point of entry!! The balcony did not open to the outside; rather it opened to an atrium within the hotel. It was extremely close to the adjoining room balconies.

Lesson learned: Lock the balcony door even on the 17th floor.
And file a police report if you ever have anything stolen in a hotel room.

The detective is continuing to review tapes and will check out the parking garage next, in addition to the camera which sweep the atrium.

Oh bamakelly, I am so glad you got the PD to pay attention to this. And how scary to think they could have been in the room when you were there.

A "heads up" to all of us about not being relaxed with rooms on the higher floors. In fact I left the window opened a bit at my hotel in Charleston last week. That was stupid as below the window was a rooftop. I will never do that again.

Thanks for letting us know about this. And I am sure sorry about all the problems you had. Bet you are glad to be home.

Wow, good lessons all the way around. And how frightening that they may have been in the room. I'm surprised you didn't "catch" them when you went back in for your toothbrush. But thank goodness you didn't! Your guardian angel was surely with you. Thanks for keeping us up to date on the mystery.

Wow, this is a fascinating story!

Fascinating, and a good lesson for the rest of us, I agree! So did these thieves crawl from another balcony onto yours?? Is there that much money to be made from suitcases and their contents?? Fascinating!

The balconies are big concrete structures, and they are very very close together (like inches...). You can see inside the rooms around you if you are on a balcony. The detective's theory is they may have been on a neighboring balcony and just stepped on over. The bags were right by the balcony window on the floor. They are running checks on the guests in neighboring rooms.

The time frame works better for that, and we know the balcony door was unlocked. Also the curtains were wide open. Looking back, I realize how dumb that was.

The bags only held a couple of valuable things--a strand of pearls and a camera. The bags themselves looked expensive (they were actually featured on the Oprah show) but in fact they were "faux" and only worth about $75 each.

The amazing thing is what we found on the camera: they actually DID pack the bags back up and zip them neatly closed (they were spewing out their contents when we'd left them). They did NOT know the hotel very well: they came up and down an escalator that took them the wrong direction, had to turn around and come back. They were a couple, each a different race -- not a big thing to me, but in a Southern city like Bham I hate to say it does turn heads sometimes. They also wandered all around with those big red bags before leaving the hotel. They were dressed very shabby for a four-star hotel. They were just SO conspicuous that they were inconspicuous I guess!

Also, I did not realize this but there were two additional bags that were stolen as well. They were smaller but heavier and just contained toiletries and shoes. They stole those too. Each person had two bags, a red one and the other smaller bag. This may be why they left purses and shoes behind: they only had hands to carry what they had.

This whole scenario just really blows my mind. I guess I would just think a thief would want to steal from a room closer to the elevator, closer to the street, and skip the escalators and main hallways. I'd also think they'd want to keep away from the lobby and front desk. And the highest floor of the hotel. Major lesson learned for me!

Do you mind telling me if the dectective was from the Birmingham Police Dept. or was it privately funded or hotel association? I am really impressed, as I know in Chicago that property crimes do not get this level of introspection.

Thanks also for conveying the real message this contains. My one son allows his 8 and 10 year olds to trek together in and out of the hotel room in the water sport/park resorts and I think it is an absolute never. I'm going to show this to him. Thanks!

This is all such an amazing and frightening story. But since those cameras and recording devices on the locks are so good, it seems now it should be easy for them to check the entrances to and from the rooms next door and then compare the hallway shots at those times to see if in fact they see the same people as the ones with your bags.
I'd love to hear an ending to this story like "two thieves in Omaha arrested for theft in Birmingham hotel."

Wow!! What a story! Scary. I wonder too if they were already in there when you went back. Gosh. What a GOOD lesson for all of us. I've never been particularly concerned about locking sliders to balconies either, and I should know better as we've been broken into that way. Wild horses couldn't get me to climb over a balcony ledge, no matter how close to each other.

Not to hijack your thread, but this story might serve as a lesson too. We were living in a hotel my DH was running (not Tampa), and had a suite on the top floor with a nice patio off our bedroom with lounge chairs, grill, table and chairs, fountain etc. It was actually part of the roof of the building as the 7th floor was smaller than the 6th...so there was roof space all around the 7th. A portion had pavers and was used for our patio, then if you went around to the other side of the building, same roof, there was a sun deck for guests, and at least one other room with a balcony on that side. All these had a chest high walls separating them from the roof.

One spring evening we went to bed and left the slider to the patio open but screen door closed, never dreaming anyone could get to us...or believing they would try. I was in my normal sleep position, on tummy, face down, but wasn't quite asleep yet when I heard a noise. I rolled over onto my back, looked toward the foot of our bed, the direction of the noise, and there was a person standing in the now open screen door. DH was already blissfully asleep. I sat up..don't know what I said, but said something and the person didn't move! That <i>really</i> scared me so I called my husband's name (screamed his name is probably more like it, LOL), he sat up too and THEN the person turned and ran, put his hands on the wall like you would that old gym horse we used to have to vault in HS, and vaulted over it. We called security right away of course, but he wasn't caught.

Flash forward, same hotel, a couple of years later. Lesson learned, we always locked that door! DS was home from college for the summer. His bedroom was at the opposite end of the suite from ours. I was up and out early this particular day and he was in his room doing something on the computer. He heard a noise from our bedroom, but we have two cats who could get rowdy and he thought it was them. Then he heard more noise and went to see what they were up to, and found a man standing in our bedroom looking at a big display cabinet full of antiques we had in there. DS asks what he's doing and the man tells him he was working on the roof. DS then saw that the slider to our patio had been lifted off it's track. It was still locked, but once lifted, the guy, who was slim, could squeeze through the opening. At that point...I almost hate to relay what DS did next (remember...young and foolhardy) DS turned, went into the kitchen and came back with a knife :( at which point the guy ran, again jumping over the balcony wall and DS in pursuit. Fortunately he'd stopped long enough to call security giving the cat burglar a good head start. He wasn't caught...not then anyway, but he was caught a couple months later, doing the same thing at another hotel down the way from us. In this case I believe it was an exterior balcony and they have one way glass in their balconies, so although guests can see out, anyone on the balcony cannot see in. He was on the balcony trying to break into the room and the guest was IN the room watching him try. Security was called and he was caught. Police had dusted our door for fingerprints and it was the same person. DS's last day of summer break was spent in court testifying against the boy..he was a boy, late teens, nicely dressed, and his parents accompanied him to court. He was given probation only, probably for the best providing he got some help that might turn him around.

Needless to say...we replaced the slider with a door that swung open, and could be securely locked. If you are in a room with a slider, make <i>sure</i> it's locked and if there are pins as well, <i>put the pins in place too</i>! These hotels were both nice hotels in a beautiful historic district--albeit one which could have problems because the perimeter of the historic district has some really bad areas on 3 sides. This sort of thing rarely happens, but it's always a possibility!

Your thieves were pretty dumb bamakelly! Imagine walking around the hotel with big red bags, so easily noticed and identified! Geez Louise!

JJ5: I am also amazed at the actual attention they are giving this. We filed the police report, never thinking they would actually follow up on it so closely, but hoping it would help the girls file for property insurance replacement costs. (Few individual items were valuable, but added together it will be an expensive replacement.) The detective on the case is from the B'ham PD. The Sheraton filed an incident report but quickly lost interest until the PD got involved. Now the security personnel at the Sheraton is working very cooperatively with the detective from the PD. Amazing for sure. Makes you think there is more to the story that we don't know. (?)

Patrick, now that they have a clear picture and a time frame, they plan to view tapes from the parking garage and get a car associated with them. If they get that, they should be able to get identification fairly easily. The Sheraton also takes video at the registration desk so they should be able to find shots of them there as well, if they in fact were staying next door.

Their main goal does not seem to be figuring out &quot;how&quot; but &quot;who&quot;, so I imagine the parking garage tapes will take precedence over the hotel tapes.

I'll keep you posted. Especially if there is a funny headline like the one you suggested!

What I find most distrubing about this story is that the thieves don't sound like guest or employees. It's frightening to think that just about anyone could be wondering the hallways. I've never been asked to show a room key to get access to the hotel elevators. I wonder if a hotel employee tipped the thieves off to the &quot;Oprah&quot; luggage. Boy will they be surprise to find out the bags were imitation! Bamakelly, I am very glad you are safe. I will be much more attentive. Thank you for sharing your story. Keep us posted.

OO--I got goose bumps reading your story. I just hope those people were not on the balcony while I was there. The whole thing creeps me out.

I agree, you couldn't pay me to swing over to another balcony, but I do have to say these balconies were extremely close and well supported. I didn't look really good, but I'd say they were only a couple inches apart in one spot (they separated more towards the edge). I remember thinking how easy it would be to sit on one balcony side, swing legs over to the other, and hop down, kind of like I used to hop on the kitchen counter and talk to my mom when she was cooking. They were so close together it would be easier to get stuck than fall. Still not something I'd personally endorse trying, but as you mentioned, these guys weren't rocket scientists either (or were they? They DID get away with the stuff!!).

One way that thieves can get into hotel rooms is to enter while it's being cleaned-pretending it's their room and asking the cleaning person to please come back later. Don't you think this would be pretty easy to do?

Wow... this is really scary. I'm thinking back to when I was traveling on business in Scottsdale and my balcony faced a little pond with a fountain. The sound of the water was so soothing that I left the balcony door open (screen closed of course to keep out the desert critters) a few inches each night when I went to bed. NEVER will I do that again! I never even gave it a second thought since I was staying at a 5 star resort.

Wow, Suzanne! Though that didn't happen in this case (cleaning crew actually cleaned much earlier in the day), that seems like an easy way to get into a room that isn't yours. Makes me think about my recent trip to Miami. At the Eden Roc, on the first night guests fill out a housekeeping request for what time they'd like the room cleaned each day. They hang these on the door by 10pm. I guess if someone wanted to know what time you'd be out of your room and housekeeping would come, they could just check the card hanger, come back at that time the next day, and follow the plan you just described. SCARY!

Oh bamakelly, I'm glad you didn't come face to face, cause I think there is more to it than just the luggage and burglary. They have a history. Or there is some pattern that they are trying to connect them with. Kudos to the Detective!

Do you know that Connie Francis (one of the biggest selling female vocalists of all time) was raped during one of her early tours by a man who came in through her hotel suite patio doors that she had cracked for some &quot;fresh&quot; air? She had severe mental problems for most of her life over that incident.

When I was in my teens I walked into a burglary and they ran out the basement door, when they heard my footsteps upstairs. So much was taken that my parents never did finish the list- including her engagement diamond wristwatch and lots of WWII uniforms and coins that my Dad had. But it was more than one and neighbors saw them, so we were just happy that they didn't stay and confront me.

I do think the cities especially, are actually safer than they were 25 to 40 years ago. When you are a victim of violent crime, especially when it is a total stranger attack, it is very hard to get over. In Chicago, they do not do much investigation for property crimes. Unless the property shows up in a raid, in some later arrest or lockdown of a location, you just never have a clue where it ends up. With a murder, violent assault, rape etc. they give it 24-48 hours of very strong detective investigation and inquiry, and if that doesn't lead to a solid- it just about always gets put on the back burner for something more recent. Cold cases are resolved infrequently.

Going to school when I was 17 at U.of I. Chicago, I was waiting for a bus and was physically attacked by two boys/men about 16 yrs. old on Halsted, near the school. My clothes were in shreds (I still have a scar on my chest), but one wasn't walking when the other one pulled him away. I was really lucky that they were not grown men, didn't have a knife or gun, and were definitely not pros. They thought I was Cuban- and the fact that I wouldn't answer in Spanish seemed to mystify them. I understood enough to know what they thought and that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had hair to the bottom of my back and it was such a negative (grabbed me by it) that I cut my hair short and never let it grow long again. It never leaves you, how it felt to be &quot;picked&quot;. But I do know that I notice people proximity and density much more than other women I know do. And I know what works (sometimes)to get anyone or even two off of you. Being outdoors helped me immensely-I doubt if they could have pushed me into an alcove or alley- I would have gotten away as lucky as I did.

JJ5: Your story is so frightening. I can't imagine how scary that must have been, and I can totally understand why you'd still have trauma (and short hair!) over it years later. I think you are right about the thieves being a part of a bigger scheme; just seems weird that the detective is so interested otherwise. B'ham is not a huge city, but there are bigger things going on than a couple of stolen suitcases. There was a report from the weekend that in another part of the city two men were trying to burglarize another hotel--gunshots were fired from that one and the thieves got away. Maybe the two robberies are connected?

I feel very lucky that I was not in that room one second longer and that I did not actually see the thieves.

I am glad you got to one of those perpetrators good enough to make him regret it!

Hello all, I just read a few hours ago that 10,000 fugitives have just been rounded up by law enforcement throughout the US today. Hundreds of them are violent criminals. See www.sfgate.com. I magine it in on cnn.com also.

Bamakelly, your thread came at a real good time IMO to remind all of us not to get too relaxed just because we are in a beautiful hotel or resort. In fact I would imagine the nicer and more expensive the lodgings is where criminals would expect to get the &quot;cream of the crop&quot; in loot.

I remember insurance companies saying that the best way to avoid problems as much as humanly possible is to &quot;think like a crimanal&quot;. Not something we want to do while enjoying our trip but it sure is good advice.

And JJ5, what a horrifying experience you had! I just recently read that women are safer with short hair versus long hair.

Good grief, what a world!

Safe travels to everyone.

What a good warning not to get too comfortable or complacent, but to stay aware.

&quot;I am also amazed at the actual attention they are giving this.&quot; - Reminds me of an experience of mine.
After years of living in a large metro area, I bought a mountain getaway. One weekend I discovered my neighbors place had been broken in to. I called my neighbors in midtown and the police. Much to my surprise, the local police and the detective took HOURS on site - taking fingerprints, etc. The break-in had been days prior - in fact I think I they were in my place when I walked in on Thursday. I noticed the window open at my neighbors with chairs pulled to the window (full of snow) on Sunday.

Long story short - they found the guy responsible for the rash of break-ins in the community.

Funny story - the guy had decorated his double-wide's living room as an exact replica of my neighbors living room.

Sad story - All of their antiques and collectibles were returned...with the exception of an antique rug. That was taken by another &quot;victim&quot; of the break-ins. They were allowed to pull their missing items from the mother lode - and helped themselves to an extra rug.

Sad/funny story - the other neighbor on the lane was GREATLY offended when she discovered they broke her door in and went inside...but didn't find anything they wanted to take! :-)

After this break-in and an accident in this small community, I would much rather have an emergency up there than in the &quot;big city&quot;. No just calling the PD to file a report for insurance purposes up there! What a nice change.

What an eye-opener this thread is!! First of all I am so sorry for all of you who have been victimized. JJ5, I have heard before that women with long hair are more likely to be targets. This is especially true if it's worn in a pony tail because it's easier to grab hold of. Before reading this thread, I would have never thought twice about leaving open a balcony door if I were above the 3rd floor. But never again. Thanks for these stories, we can all learn from each other.

Mine wasn't in a ponytail, just long and abundant. It's very hard to move, regardless of the muscle, height, or upper body weight thing, when you have such a handy &quot;handle&quot;. And thank God for a pink flowered trench coat that I will never forget (giagantic mums on it no less)because it was the only thing left that, although ripped, did cover me up. Gotta love that 1965 trenchie.

In my city or village or suburb, if you get burglarized and there's no violent crime, the investigation lasts about 60 minutes. Once in the city (U.of I- ironically the same area 30 plus years later) they stole the spare tire and holder off my old van while I was picking a kid up from hockey- and the police didn't even want to come to make a report. You need to go TO THEM. Where I live now, they come to you if you need to report anything stolen, which I never have- but where they really spend any time in investigation is violent crime. In Chicago they have had about 600 murders a year (but going down), so you can see that missing luggage is far down the list unless it is connected to a perp on a violent crime. One of the suburban police forces east of me made me so mad about 5 years ago that I quit dispatching /volunteering at the Crisis Center. After a rape they wouldn't come to drive the girl home, partly because it was an ex-boyfriend. She was all bruised and swollen and sat in the parlor there just staring at a wall for about 2-1/2 days without talking until I drove her to her mom's house. There isn't enough empathy to go around when they see so much violent death. I guess they considered her lucky. Right out in the middle of the street too. It's life changing because it leaves a feeling of powerlessness.

But once you get over it, you know who you are. But you don't tend to overlook the details, like these hotel doors and placements inside the doors. Lots of bathrooms are close to the entrance with doors adjoining. I don't like that. I prefer an alcove/hall length so you aren't standing right in front of the bathroom as soon as you walk in. Too good of a spot to wait and surprise you.

Hi again, JJ5.

Actually the way I read it I didn't think your hair was in a pony tail, I just wanted to let other women know that pony tails are attractive to bad guys for this reason.

My God, what you have been through!! I wish I could erase this for you, but for what it's worth, I admire the heck out of the strength and wisdom you have gained. You are very good to use these qualities to help other vicitms.

No, I wouldn't erase it if I could. Woke me up to a lot of things and at just the right age. The 60's and 70's were brutal in some parts of Chicago, especially South side/near SW side. And I get furious just hearing the phrase &quot;white flight&quot;. My parents didn't and I lived through numerous consequences. On of my degrees is in Economics/Sociology and numerous books are now being writen about this issue.
Categorizations have made this &quot;think&quot; kind of like blaming the bird and asking it not to fly away while it is being plucked alive by the cat.

Starrsville--your story made me laugh: even though it really isn't funny, it kind of IS!

JJ5--never thought about the bathroom door situation. From now on, I will!

Hi all, JJ5 I never thought about bathroom doors are often close to the exterior hotel room door either. Good grief. Now will be thinking about who is behind the shower curtain!

And sure can see &quot;someone&quot; walking in while the room is being cleaned.

It is strange, this week we have learned to never never leave a window or terrace door open even if one is on a high floor. To check out fire exits etc. after hearing about the Paris hotel fire last night and now about someone hiding in the hotelroom bathroom.

Well I know known of us are going to panic or become worryworts but having all the situations brought to our attention is good. It sure is important to be alert and aware.

Safe travels everyone.

Wellll....the plot thickens. First, I still cannot believe the detective assigned to this case is even still following it. But he is, and we are thankful, though amazed.

Anyway, the parking garage is owned by the city and, though it does have video, the video just rolls and does not record. (Duh...) So no recording of the car/license plates.

However, the detective has been over to the hotel (twice) and investigated things. He feels it's an inside job. Apparently the Sheraton is quite miffed that we filed a police report. They keep asking the detective to hide his gun when in the hotel, etc.

We have learned that the security system at the hotel was being upgraded and they had been working on it that very week. Interesting.

The detective has also pointed out that even if someone did see me, why would they come into the room after I left to steal anything?...I'd just left with all my luggage, remember? Also, if they saw a door open (it wasn't, but let's just pretend here), and walked in looking for something to steal, they'd have had to walk all the way into the room, to the other side to even SEE the luggage there. (Club level suite, very spacious room) Room service or housekeeping, however, may have seen something worth coming back for though...

Meanwhile, the Sheraton's insurance company has called to get statements. Theya re trying to determine if it was our fault or theirs. They have tried to bully us just a tad but we are not backing down.

To add to lessons learned:
File a police report.
Make friends with the detective and call daily for a status report.
Make sure the hotel knows you will press charges if the detective cracks the case (and therefore there will be a newsy little story for the local news...).
Do the above and you just MIGHT get some cooperation!!

I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for the update barmakelly. And I wonder how many hours you have lost on this problem. But good for you! If more people would follow through like you have there would be less &quot;shoving it under the table&quot;.

I say that after years in the insurance business.

Take care!

Wow, I am so glad that you were able to get a detective who takes his job seriously!
Thanks for keeping us up with what is happening!

Best of luck to a speedy resolution. I just found this thread tonight but read every fascinating word.

Yes, THANKS, bamakelly for the update.

You make an extremely good point about checking back with the detective by phone- not in a nagging or intrusive way, but just as you state.

You've done a great job with this yourself. Not everyone would have given the time and efforts. I hope you keep it from happening to someone else.