Tweet
This is our story from a vacation that me and three of my girlfriends went on back in the summer of 2006. This is the story that we tried to get out there for almost two years. We actually were on a local radio station in Philadelphia when we returned that summer.
We arrived in Jamaica on Thursday, August 17,2006 . We check into the Riu Tropical Bay in Negril around 4:30 p.m. Since there are four of us, we are given adjoining rooms (2120 and 2119).
Upon checking in, we are given a bolt and key for the safes in the two rooms. We were told to make sure we place our valuables in the safe and do not lose the key, since it would be a 50 dollar (US Dollar) fine for a lost safe key. We unpack our belongings and place money, cell phones, jewelry, passports, airline tickets, etc. in the safe. We were very careful with our bags, and never left anything unattended. Since we are staying at an all inclusive resort, money is not really needed all of the time. Besides, we all had some money from before that we were using to tip the staff (which we did VERY OFTEN). We found no need to go into the safes.
Not until Sunday (8/20) around 4:00pm. three of us decide on Sunday afternoon that we were going to actually leave the resort and go to Margaritaville for a late lunch and some drinks. Before leaving, two of the girls in room 2120 go into their safe to get some money for this fun day out we thought we are going to have. We, Lisa and Megan, open the safe to discover all of our cash and two credit cards are gone. $700 (US Dollars) and a Visa and American Express card, GONE. The room now turns into complete panic mode. We call the front desk and our advised to come directly to the lobby. We go to the lobby and are met by the head of security. We proceed to tell him what had happened, all the while receiving piercing stares from staff at the front desk. The head of security follows us to the room to look around and says that we must have let someone in who had a key to our safe. There was no sign of breaking into the room. And the lock on the safe wasn't broken either. The key was never left alone. The police are called and after about an hour a detective arrives. He looks at the lock on the safe and the doors in the room for about a total of 5 seconds and throws the lock on the bed and says in a heavy Jamaican accent "No sign of breaking in hear Mon." He stays for about an hour trying to understand what we are telling him.
The robber was let in by someone at this resort. At this point, we advise the staff that we need to make numerous calls to the U.S. And we also advise them that we are NOT paying for them. We were violated on their grounds, the least they could do was foot the phone bill. Since it is Sunday, many places are not doing business. We find out that in fact one credit card was used, but the details wouldn't be available until Monday (8/21). The detective tells us that there is nothing more he can do until the report of the card activity is available. He gives us his card and tells us to call him Monday morning. We then leave our room to meet with the Manger of the Riu Tropical bay resort. We tell him what happened. We tell him that we do not feel safe and we want to get the next flight out of here. We tell him that we don't even need to have a flight to Philadelphia. We just wanted to be back in the United States. We tell him if we can't leave tonight, we want to have extra security at our front door and back veranda door.
After speaking with the general manager, he looks at us like we were the criminals. He tell us that there is only one key to each safe. He tells us that we must have lost our key. He tells us that maybe the other two in the other room stole the stuff. He says maybe we brought locals back to our rooms. He tells us that he can't get us a flight. And more importantly, he tells us there is nothing he can do and that the hotel isn't responsible for anything. We, then ask for access to the internet to try and book our own flight out of this of the Riu Tropical Bay. He tells us to go into the gift shop and buy and internet card for 9 dollars (US Dollars). Appalled at what is happening to us, we return to the room and decide that we will just go to bed and wait until the morning, when we have the credit card report.
Scared to death, all four of us sleep in the same bed. We don't know how this intruder got in and whether or not he would be back. Most of the staff knew what was going on, and every place we went, we received stares and glares from staff. Who's to say whoever let him in to our room didn't call him and tell him that we are onto him. He could have come back and murdered us, and the hotel would not of cared one bit. They made no attempt to accommodate four foreigners.
We receive the report from Visa Monday (8/21) morning and find out that the card was charged up to $2600 (US Dollars) in charges starting Friday (8/18). Four pages of charges ranging from 15 minutes from the Rio Tropical Bay (that start with a gas station purchase) to three hours away are made known. They attempted a $20,000 (US Dollar), charge twice. But both times it was declined due to the Visa only having a $5000 limit. Lisa Alosi and Megan Nardini then go with armed officers to the gas station where the first purchase is made, and the receipt with the signature is pulled by the store manager. The individual who stole the card signed his own name. The manager of the gas station calls the gas attendant in. The gas station attendant knows the man who did it. She says he is a regular that drives a tour bus. He is at that gas station almost every day with another man. That is why she didn't ask him for his ID when he use the credit card. The police advise the gas attendant to call them when he comes in next and they will arrest him.
Meanwhile the hotel manager and staff are made aware of what is going on and who it was that did it. They still could care less. They are still telling us that the stolen $700 in cash is not there responsibility. They are treating us like we did something wrong. Monday afternoon, they cut off our phone line in the room. They wouldn't allow calls coming in or going out from the United States. We were waiting for our travel agent, lawyer, and numerous people to call us. We were lucky that one of the cell phones that we had brought with us with VERY HIGH roaming charges worked in certain area of the hotel. We finally got in touch with our travel agent in the United State, who then spoke with the manager to allow us to use the phone at the front desk. We had to sit in a hot, sweaty lobby for six hours waiting for our calls. The manager and his staff hung up on us three times when we asked to be connected to the United States embassy and was then given bogus phone numbers. The manager, who is supposed to be running this hotel, wouldn't talk to our travel agent. He had his staff tell our travel agent that he was too busy or he was on a break. We sat in the lobby for six hours and watched him walking around, socializing with other guests. No one asked if we needed anything. We asked for a bottle of water and were told to buy one in the gift shop. We were treated like criminals.
When we finally would get the manager to talk to us, he would get annoyed and walk away from us in the middle of talking. When we tried to tell him that he should apologize for accusing us of stealing from each other, he told us no and walked away. We are thousands of miles from home, and no one wants to help us. Monday night, the hotel finally connects a call to our room. It is a corporate rep from Liberty Travel in Jamaica. She tells us that she had a flight for us earlier in the day, free of charge. We were all guaranteed seats and we would have been home by now. She said she spoke to the manager of the hotel and told him that she wanted to come to the hotel and get us and the manager told her if she step foot on his property, she would be arrested. He assured her that he would tell us what was going on and we would call her. He never told us.
We get up to leave on Tuesday (8/22), and go to check out. The hotel tries to hand us a $400 phone bill. We argued with them until they must of got sick of listening to me and told me to forget it. We get on our tour bus and hand the man our voucher with our names on it. We get on the tour bus to the airport, relieved that we would be on an airplane soon enough.
About an hour in the ride the bus driver receives a call apparently from his "supervisor" and telling us that we are not going home today. That we are going to be stuck in a Jamaican jail. He tells us that his supervisor told him to tell us that there was going to be two police officers meeting us at the airport to do further investigations. We get to the airport and instead of standing around we decide to go to the police station. We don't want to just walk into the airport and wait for two supposed "officers" to greet us. We explain the whole story to a sergeant there and she calls our detectives handling the case. They tell her no officers should be meeting us. They never sent anybody. What they were going to try and do to us in the airport, I have no idea. The police believe that the people who stole our belongings were going to be meeting us there. We had to have police escort through the airport.
Our vacation was a nightmare. There was nothing enjoyable about it. We planned for this since March. We saved our money. We worked hard all year to enjoy ourselves. It was all taken from us. And to make matters worse, we were treated like we did something wrong. Riu Tropical Bay hotel NEVER even said sorry.
We arrived in Jamaica on Thursday, August 17,2006 . We check into the Riu Tropical Bay in Negril around 4:30 p.m. Since there are four of us, we are given adjoining rooms (2120 and 2119).
Upon checking in, we are given a bolt and key for the safes in the two rooms. We were told to make sure we place our valuables in the safe and do not lose the key, since it would be a 50 dollar (US Dollar) fine for a lost safe key. We unpack our belongings and place money, cell phones, jewelry, passports, airline tickets, etc. in the safe. We were very careful with our bags, and never left anything unattended. Since we are staying at an all inclusive resort, money is not really needed all of the time. Besides, we all had some money from before that we were using to tip the staff (which we did VERY OFTEN). We found no need to go into the safes.
Not until Sunday (8/20) around 4:00pm. three of us decide on Sunday afternoon that we were going to actually leave the resort and go to Margaritaville for a late lunch and some drinks. Before leaving, two of the girls in room 2120 go into their safe to get some money for this fun day out we thought we are going to have. We, Lisa and Megan, open the safe to discover all of our cash and two credit cards are gone. $700 (US Dollars) and a Visa and American Express card, GONE. The room now turns into complete panic mode. We call the front desk and our advised to come directly to the lobby. We go to the lobby and are met by the head of security. We proceed to tell him what had happened, all the while receiving piercing stares from staff at the front desk. The head of security follows us to the room to look around and says that we must have let someone in who had a key to our safe. There was no sign of breaking into the room. And the lock on the safe wasn't broken either. The key was never left alone. The police are called and after about an hour a detective arrives. He looks at the lock on the safe and the doors in the room for about a total of 5 seconds and throws the lock on the bed and says in a heavy Jamaican accent "No sign of breaking in hear Mon." He stays for about an hour trying to understand what we are telling him.
The robber was let in by someone at this resort. At this point, we advise the staff that we need to make numerous calls to the U.S. And we also advise them that we are NOT paying for them. We were violated on their grounds, the least they could do was foot the phone bill. Since it is Sunday, many places are not doing business. We find out that in fact one credit card was used, but the details wouldn't be available until Monday (8/21). The detective tells us that there is nothing more he can do until the report of the card activity is available. He gives us his card and tells us to call him Monday morning. We then leave our room to meet with the Manger of the Riu Tropical bay resort. We tell him what happened. We tell him that we do not feel safe and we want to get the next flight out of here. We tell him that we don't even need to have a flight to Philadelphia. We just wanted to be back in the United States. We tell him if we can't leave tonight, we want to have extra security at our front door and back veranda door.
After speaking with the general manager, he looks at us like we were the criminals. He tell us that there is only one key to each safe. He tells us that we must have lost our key. He tells us that maybe the other two in the other room stole the stuff. He says maybe we brought locals back to our rooms. He tells us that he can't get us a flight. And more importantly, he tells us there is nothing he can do and that the hotel isn't responsible for anything. We, then ask for access to the internet to try and book our own flight out of this of the Riu Tropical Bay. He tells us to go into the gift shop and buy and internet card for 9 dollars (US Dollars). Appalled at what is happening to us, we return to the room and decide that we will just go to bed and wait until the morning, when we have the credit card report.
Scared to death, all four of us sleep in the same bed. We don't know how this intruder got in and whether or not he would be back. Most of the staff knew what was going on, and every place we went, we received stares and glares from staff. Who's to say whoever let him in to our room didn't call him and tell him that we are onto him. He could have come back and murdered us, and the hotel would not of cared one bit. They made no attempt to accommodate four foreigners.
We receive the report from Visa Monday (8/21) morning and find out that the card was charged up to $2600 (US Dollars) in charges starting Friday (8/18). Four pages of charges ranging from 15 minutes from the Rio Tropical Bay (that start with a gas station purchase) to three hours away are made known. They attempted a $20,000 (US Dollar), charge twice. But both times it was declined due to the Visa only having a $5000 limit. Lisa Alosi and Megan Nardini then go with armed officers to the gas station where the first purchase is made, and the receipt with the signature is pulled by the store manager. The individual who stole the card signed his own name. The manager of the gas station calls the gas attendant in. The gas station attendant knows the man who did it. She says he is a regular that drives a tour bus. He is at that gas station almost every day with another man. That is why she didn't ask him for his ID when he use the credit card. The police advise the gas attendant to call them when he comes in next and they will arrest him.
Meanwhile the hotel manager and staff are made aware of what is going on and who it was that did it. They still could care less. They are still telling us that the stolen $700 in cash is not there responsibility. They are treating us like we did something wrong. Monday afternoon, they cut off our phone line in the room. They wouldn't allow calls coming in or going out from the United States. We were waiting for our travel agent, lawyer, and numerous people to call us. We were lucky that one of the cell phones that we had brought with us with VERY HIGH roaming charges worked in certain area of the hotel. We finally got in touch with our travel agent in the United State, who then spoke with the manager to allow us to use the phone at the front desk. We had to sit in a hot, sweaty lobby for six hours waiting for our calls. The manager and his staff hung up on us three times when we asked to be connected to the United States embassy and was then given bogus phone numbers. The manager, who is supposed to be running this hotel, wouldn't talk to our travel agent. He had his staff tell our travel agent that he was too busy or he was on a break. We sat in the lobby for six hours and watched him walking around, socializing with other guests. No one asked if we needed anything. We asked for a bottle of water and were told to buy one in the gift shop. We were treated like criminals.
When we finally would get the manager to talk to us, he would get annoyed and walk away from us in the middle of talking. When we tried to tell him that he should apologize for accusing us of stealing from each other, he told us no and walked away. We are thousands of miles from home, and no one wants to help us. Monday night, the hotel finally connects a call to our room. It is a corporate rep from Liberty Travel in Jamaica. She tells us that she had a flight for us earlier in the day, free of charge. We were all guaranteed seats and we would have been home by now. She said she spoke to the manager of the hotel and told him that she wanted to come to the hotel and get us and the manager told her if she step foot on his property, she would be arrested. He assured her that he would tell us what was going on and we would call her. He never told us.
We get up to leave on Tuesday (8/22), and go to check out. The hotel tries to hand us a $400 phone bill. We argued with them until they must of got sick of listening to me and told me to forget it. We get on our tour bus and hand the man our voucher with our names on it. We get on the tour bus to the airport, relieved that we would be on an airplane soon enough.
About an hour in the ride the bus driver receives a call apparently from his "supervisor" and telling us that we are not going home today. That we are going to be stuck in a Jamaican jail. He tells us that his supervisor told him to tell us that there was going to be two police officers meeting us at the airport to do further investigations. We get to the airport and instead of standing around we decide to go to the police station. We don't want to just walk into the airport and wait for two supposed "officers" to greet us. We explain the whole story to a sergeant there and she calls our detectives handling the case. They tell her no officers should be meeting us. They never sent anybody. What they were going to try and do to us in the airport, I have no idea. The police believe that the people who stole our belongings were going to be meeting us there. We had to have police escort through the airport.
Our vacation was a nightmare. There was nothing enjoyable about it. We planned for this since March. We saved our money. We worked hard all year to enjoy ourselves. It was all taken from us. And to make matters worse, we were treated like we did something wrong. Riu Tropical Bay hotel NEVER even said sorry.
Comment