Hotel Monteleone

Robber entered room while we slept

My family and I stayed at the Hotel Monteleone January 7-10. We had two connecting rooms – 1032 and 1033. Our party consisted of my husband, myself and our 3 young children. On the morning of January 10 we returned to our room at 12:15 am and entered and closed the room to our hotel room – 1033. My husband stayed in the room with our boys in 1032 while my daughter and I were in 1033. We had the connecting doors open at all times.
At 4:55 am I was awakened by what sounded like a door closing. I assumed that my family in 1032 was going to the bathroom. I rolled over and went back to sleep. Approximately 10 minutes later I woke up again and noticed that the bathroom light in my room had been turned on. Thinking that one of our children was sick I began to get up to check on them. At that time I noticed a man crawling on his stomach in our room toward my bed. The man appeared to be in his late twenties to thirty year of age. He was Caucasian with a shaved head and was wearing what looked like a black T-shirt with white design on it.
This man was no more than 3 feet from me. He looked me directly in the eyes and then grabbed my purse which was lying against the wall closest to my bed. He hopped up and dashed out of our room and turned to his left towards the stairwell. I know this for sure because I ran after him to ensure that he would not harm my 5 year old daughter who was sleeping in room as well.
When he turned the corner and entered the stairwell I ran back into the room to wake up my husband and call the front desk so that they could alert security. Within 10 minutes security found my large red purse in an opposite stairwell from the one that he fled to upon leaving our room. The only thing missing from my purse was cash.
Hotel security as well as two New Orleans police officers came to our room so that we could file a police report. The hotel security was unable to find the robber even though we called them no more than one minute after the robber fled our room. I asked if they could review the security camera tapes and was told that this could not be done until a manager arrived. We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and were told that we would be contacted by the hotel with information later that day.
They NEVER called! Any contact that has been made about this incident has been initiated by me. Once arriving home I called to speak to the hotel manager, Stephen Caputo. I was told that he was busy and would call me once he was available to discuss the incident. He NEVER called! Instead Mr. Caputo delegated this responsibility to Bertilia Burton, Guest Services Manager. She called me later that day and told me that she would need to meet with their security company the next morning and review video camera footage to see if the could determine who broke into our room. She also proceeded to tell me that their computer entry showed that no one had entered our room with one of their keys after 12:15.
I am certain that the door was shut. One of the police officers noticed that even though you closed that the door to 1033 the lock was not catching. You had to really push and slam the door in order for it to catch. The officer proceeded to pull the door from inside the room without turning the handle and it opened.
I was told by Ms. Burton that she would contact me the following day with any information that they could gain from watching the security camera videos. At approximately 1:30 pm I contacted Ms. Burton to see if they were able to learn how the intruder gained access to our room. I was told that they could not find anyone in the vicinity of our room or hotel at the time that the intrusion occurred. My first question was “You didn’t see him in the stairwell carrying a large red purse.” Ms. Burton replied that there are NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN ANY STAIRWELLS.
I was in shock. My response to her was, “So you are telling me that our throats could have been slit by this intruder and you would have no security camera to help piece together a crime.” She said let me put you on hold. Ms. Burton then returned to the line and said that she had confirmed that there are no security cameras in any stairwells. Instead they have a security guard walk up the stairwells about every 30 minutes.
No security cameras in stairwells after a MAJOR RENOVATION. I asked “Where are the security cameras located?” I was told that she wasn’t at liberty to say.
Several things about this incident seem unusual. The robber/intruder knew exactly where to flee so that he wouldn’t be caught on the camera. Also, we discovered a final checkout bill outside our door that didn’t belong to us. The corner of the bill was a little mangled and it belonged to someone several floors up from us. I am curious to know who was putting out the final bills that morning.
At one point after I told the security guard what the robber looked like he said that they have several people that would fit that description on different floors. Later he told me that he thought the robber fled an emergency exit. Yet the guest service manager told me that if he fled an emergency exit it would have set off an alarm. There are too many conflicting stories. They have an exact window of when this happened and they can’t pinpoint anything about the crime. Lastly, why would the hotel manager, Stephen Caputo, feel that an in room robbery isn’t important enough to contact the guest directly? Our family has not heard a word from him certainly not “I am sorry that this happened and we are doing what we can to keep our future guests safe.”
I can’t imagine what could have happened had I not awakened and startled the robber. He could have severely harmed me and my 5 year old daughter. She has been terrified at night since the incident – shaking and teeth chattering because she is so scared that someone could enter our home like this man. I find myself jumping up when I hear any little noise during the night. I see the man’s face over and over when I lay down to sleep.
This complaint is not about the cash that was stolen. It is that the hotel’s level of security is inadequate. I have stayed in many hotels across the country. Most hotels of this caliber you must show a key to get into the elevator. It was chaos in the hotel. The hotel bar is right beside two of the three sets of elevators. ANYONE could get into the elevator. There was no one checking guest keys before entering the elevator. The bar was packed with football fans in town for the BCS National Championship game. I would like to know if the hotel added extra security staff for the night due to the fact that this was such a huge event and they expected so many people. In my opinion they hotel is negligent in providing adequate guest safety.
Knowing what I know now about the security of the hotel and the attitude of its management I feel that our story must to be told. Once others know about our experience perhaps management will decide to make changes to ensure better safety of future guests. Hopefully the Hotel Monteleone management will begin show cooperation, understanding, caring and follow-up to guests’ problems as well.