Adventures in hotel theft -- Conclusion

That's right, conclusion. And not the "oh well this is just never going to happen" type.  

On April 29 I received an email from the hotel with a Western Union money order attached. It was in the amount of €140 (rather than $140). So that settles it, I can replace my stolen items and pick up the broken pieces of my life and move on.

Dear Mr. Foxx,
please find enclosed copy of the order of payment of € 140,00 to your name. As you can see your Dollars have grown up to more than 200.
I would be really happy if you had a possibility to meet Ms. ****** of ***** – who unfortunately suffered a theft as well- and offer her a drink with the compliments of **** Hotel to both of you. Just a little thought to attest our disappointment in this adverse event.
You are going to be asked for a code that you can see on top of the sheet: 132…(10 digits)
Also be informed that you need to know the name of the sender as it appears on the sheet in your hands: ***** ***** ********
I really appreciated your comprehension in this unfortunate circumstance.
Best regards
**** ***** *******

Hooray for happy endings!

Adventures in hotel theft -- Part 3

I received a response to my Paypal money request. Unfortunately, it was not the instant money I had hoped for.

From: *****@*********.com
Subject: R: Hotel theft
Date: April 21, 2008 1:25:20 PM EDT
To: ****@**********.***

Dear Mr. Foxx,

Actually I am not familiar with pay pal but I am positive I will be able to manage payment. I’ll confront with the system tomorrow and shall confirm transaction via e-mail.

Thanks again for your friendly conduct in this regrettable circumstance.

Best regards

****** *******

Notice the date (April 21) and the promise to "confront with the system tomorrow."  So far, it appears the system is winning.

Adventures in hotel theft -- second installment

It seemed appropriate to split this up. So, we last left our hero with a gracious response from the hotel requesting my bank account info, and this is my reply. For some reason, I found myself slipping into a very verbose "Nigerian spam" vernacular:

Mr. ******:

I truly appreciate you contacting me. I had honestly thought my email had been lost. I enjoyed my stay at your hotel, and in Milan, and this incident is the only negative part of the stay. But it has caused me a great deal of concern, so I appreciate your offer to compensate me for the theft.

I am glad to hear that your staff is not responsible, but I am equally concerned that someone who is not a staff member would have access to the rooms. I agree that it is very damaging to your hotel to have someone at large with the ability to enter rooms at will. I would be happy to report the whole incident to the Milan police if that would be helpful to you in catching this criminal. It would be of no use to me to view the video, but the police may be able to use it.

I'm sure you understand that I have not retained reciepts for these personal items. I have no reason to keep recipts for items that are no longer able to be returned to the store. But I am happy to provide links to the items from the stores they were purchased, for a cost demonstration.

The headphones were purchased here for $100:
[link]

And the USB card reader can be found here:
[link]


I do not feel comfortable emailing bank information, so I would prefer an alternate payment method. You may mail me a check or money order to:

Jeff Foxx
**************
**************
******, ** *****
USA

Thanks again for your attention to this matter.

Shortly after, I received this response:

Dear Mr. Foxx,
I truly appreciate your benevolent understanding of the circumstances.
I want to inform you about our reaction to this miserable event. We have taken prompt counter-measures as follows: all the ground floor safety doors have been locked so that now it is virtually impossible to sneak in the hotel unseen. It is only possible to exit through those doors in case of emergency.
Anybody who wants to enter ***** Hotel, from now on, must pass in front of Reception (monitored 24/7)
In addition we have hired security agents who shall guard the entrance area daily in the dangerous hours between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. plus full day on weekends (very costly!!)
As we know who the person is, and have spread pictures to the security Company and to all our staff, we believe that no more robberies can be performed in Hotel *****.
Last but not least we have ordered new doors equipped with state of the art anti-intrusion locks for all our rooms, in case all our filters fail and somebody does succeed in accessing the floors.
We have already spoken to the Police and handled pictures and videos of the crime scene.

Concerning your refund, I have spoken with our account dpt: they do not necessitate your original receipts, your self-declaration is sufficient because the amount involved is limited. The only restriction is that payment must be wired directly to your account. I kindly ask you to forward me your bank details:
a) via regular mail at the following address: **********, ********- Milan (Italy)
b) via fax at +39 02 ******** to my attention
c) via short message on my mobile +39 *** *******

As soon as I get the required information the net amount of US$ 140,00 will be credited to your account.
Thank you again for your cooperation.
Best regards
******** *********

OK.. yeah. I don't feel secure emailing my bank information, but I'm happy to fax it. At this point, I'm starting to think that it's not going to happen. So, I sent him a Paypal money request on Friday, April 18. So far, I haven't heard from him.

Adventures in hotel theft

While I was away in Italy, I had one unfortunate thing happen. A pair of $100 vModa headphones and a $40 USB Flash card reader were stolen from my hotel room. I complained to the front desk, but they didn't seem terribly interested in solving the mystery. So, upon returning I wrote the hotel manager and the ensuing exchange sounds like correspondence with a Nigerian prince. Names have been removed to protect the innocent (or guilty as it may be).

First, my email:

Dear Management:

I recently spent a week in your hotel as part of the ****** group. While there I had 2 items taken from my room by someone on your staff who had access.

The first item was a pair of headphones ($100USD). I first discovered they were missing on Sunday, March 30. I found the rubber tip by the door after I came in late that night having been out all day. I thought it strange, since I hadn' t had them near the door. But when I went to put them back on the headphones, I discovered they were gone. I had left them on the night stand table beside the bed.

The second item that went missing was a USB computer device for viewing camera photos on a computer. This device costs about $40USD.

I would like to be compensated by your hotel for these items. I know that they were not lost by me, but taken from my room. Someone on your staff who has access to the rooms took them, whether with intent or not. I feel it is your responsibility to provide a room safe from theives. Please let me know how I can be compensated for this loss.

Thank you for your help on this matter. I am sure that ******'s Italy office in Milan will be happy to hear that the hotel management worked to resolve this issue in case it chooses to use the hotel again in the future.

Thanks,

Jeff Foxx

This was sent on 4/7. Over a week went by before I heard a reply. Honestly, I had assumed the email was going to be ignored.

From: *******
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:27 AM
To: Jeff Foxx
Subject: Hotel theft

Dear Mr. Foxx,

First of all I wish to apologize for the delay in this letter of mine. I was away on business when the theft occurred, then the Furniture Show started, keeping all of us exceedingly busy until late hours.
I have read your mail of April 7th and I would like to express my deepest regret for such a frustrating event. We are literally shocked by such a terrible occurrence.

At the same time I believe that one crucial piece of information must be provided you:
- the thief is not part of our staff. Our video cameras in the Hotel allowed us to recognize the criminal, who in fact had worked here for a short trial period in the past (this is the reason why he knows the premises so well), after which he was released. The videos are available for your vision, in case you desire to watch the criminal action and recognize the robber (of whom we retain I.D. for comparison)
The damage this crook has caused us is immense, because ****** is one of our Prime Clients.

All our staff, the General Manager Mr. **** ***** and myself would like to express again our most sincere distress for this regrettable occasion, and at the same time we would like to fully refund you for the loss of your headphones and USB device. It will be our private contribution, without intervention of the insurance company, in order to reduce the time gap for your total refund to the shortest possible. All that we need are your bank-account data and a copy of your purchase receipts, required to write off the cost of our contribution from our books.

I wish to thank you for your serene evaluation of this dreadful accident and I take this opportunity to remain

Very Truly yours

*********** ********
Sole Director
Hotel *******