I got an email asking about property stolen from a hotel room.

I got an interesting email from a web visitor asking what rights they had. They reported that jewelry was stolen from their hotel room at a casino resort.

Unfortunately, they did all the wrong things:

1. they left jewelry in the room unattended
2. they didnt use the room safe
3. they didnt ask about a safe or safe deposit box at the cage

Yes, they filed a police report which might help the police recover the jewelry if taken to a local pawn shop. Apparently the jewelry is unique and engraved.

What rights do they have?

What kind of "rights" do they think they have?

They should get the cooperation of the casino's security dept and the police and perhaps they can determine who entered their room.

There is no witness that the jewelry was actually stolen.

On a personal note: about 40 years ago (yes, really 40 years ago) my parents had jewelry stolen from their hotel room when they went to the pool at a hotel in Puerto Rico. They were able to successfully sue the hotel for a small amount of money (not enough to cover the actual loss) because:

1. there was no room safe
2. the standard security warning on the door of the room that says to put valuables in a safe deposit box at the main desk was missing
3. there was a photo taken at the hotel with my mother wearing her distinctive ring

They were able to collect a small amount only because the security warning sign on the door was missing.

I'm amazed this doesn't happen more often. People think staying in a high end place makes it less likely you'll be ripped off. I think it's the other way -- the higher end the place, the more likely you are to be ripped off. Each room is essentially a target. Thieves have motive, means, and opportunity -- and each room is likely to house something valuable, whether in the safe or not. In low end rooms, nothing left in the rooms is likely to be of any value, and it's really not worth the effort.

A hotel room is a public place -- you really have no idea who has access, if there's camera or audio access, and who's keeping tabs on you. Hotel rooms should be treated, for the most part, like public washrooms. You don't leave your stuff there. The amount you're paying is for the space, not security for the space.

If they say this happened at a casino resort, it's probably a good bet these folks found themselves losing when they had high hopes before stepping foot inside the place. Insurance fraud is up since the recession. Besides, anyone who chooses to leave valuable jewelry (I'm assuming this WAS valuable jewelry) anywhere inside a hotel room--whether it's inside that safe or not--has no one but themselves to blame IF in fact the stuff was really stolen. I have no idea why people regularly trust a system where they have no idea how many others and who can access their safe any time they want. When I was in Nevada weekly as a pro gambler, I regularly carried 5 figures in cash with me and I wore watches worth anywhere from a hundred bucks to nineteen thousand. I knew where everything was at all times, I never had to worry about any of it -- all because I used my head and I knew casinos are some of the safest venues in the country.