HOTEL THEFTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 4

HOTEL THEFTS

AN INCREASING PRACTICE SERIOUS LOSSES INVOLVED Hotel “ hopping ” appears to be one oi the fashionable pastimes with a certain fraternity at the present time. One leading hotel in the city a few days ago reported the loss of an electric clock, part of the effects of a son of the house returned to the parents after his death in action. This theft was made from the private sitting room of the hotel, and recalls a similar occurrence at another hotel some weeks ago when an ornamental clock for which' offers running into three figures were made by guests, was stolen, and was recovered by the police from a merchant vessel in port a couple of hours before it was due to sail. During the past few days other hotels have suffered from the activities of a similar type of thief. In one city hotel a feminine guest lost a considerable quantity of valuable and irreplaceable underwear from a room which, for the first time in a week, she had forgotten to lock. On the following evening another room was raided a'nd clothing and jewellery of a substantial value were stolen. Shoes placed outside doors for cleaning have also disappeared with curious regularity in several hotels, and there are a number of boarding houses as well as hotels which report the loss of such furnishings as towels and sheets in unusual proportions. One establishment in the city has lost during the past three weeks no fewer than two dozen towels, a dozen and a-half sheets, and, strangest of all, floor coverings, including one valuable carpet 12ft by 9ft.