What are my rights as a hotel guest: Theft personal property

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll check with the police officer whether they have done this yet. Thanks again.

Bastards...this is one of the reasons that I never tip the bloody maid.

Unfortunately this one won't be easy. Options....

1) Eat the loss.

2) Sue the hell out of the place.

3) Insurance??

4) Keep calling the cops.

5) Set up your own sting, O.J. style. After you find somebody trying to sell your stuff, arrange to meet them back at the hotel to buy it. Get a gun (which is probably pretty easy to do in a place like Mississippi), and burst into the room screaming ""Don't let nobody out of this room. Motherf*&%er, you think you can steal my shit and sell it?" Then you grab your stuff, run out of the room, and go back to trying to find the real killers.

Oh wait, forget that last part...wrong case.

Good luck!

Unfortunately, the pawn shops will tell you they can't help you and to file a police report so it will become official. That's what a pawn shop told someone I know when they called them with the serial number of the item that was stolen.

# OJ'ing

Bags is correct that the pawn shops don't want to help you. But cops often check their goods for stolen merchandise, etc. Also the local gold buyers.

But, if it is sold to one of those places, I suspect it gets melted for scrap PDQ.

Still, a small chance is better than no chance.

Think of it the same as the possibility of hitting a RF on the first spin.

Only less.

too tiny to hold jewelry? just how big is this jewelry?

This doesn't really help you but it might help a future guest....

Use the internet to get the word out. Go to Tripadvisor.com and Yelp.com and tell your story in that hotel's review section. And look to see if other people had similar experiences there. Hotels are VERY CONSCIOUS of these sites and complaints like yours that are made public on those sites force them to crack down on scummy people within their organization.

Look up the Desert Rose in Las Vegas on Tripadvisor...scroll back to comments from a couple years ago. There was massive idenityt theft going on there and people raised hell on Tripadvisor. Eventually Desert Rose fixed the problem but you can bet their business suffered with that slew of complaints.

This happens all the time; it's a business. Don't take this stuff with you when you travel. If you do happen to have something valuable in your room, put it in the safe. If the safe doesn't work for any reason, notify management.

You can claim the loss as a deduction against income on this year's Form 1040.

You will get over the loss. Our personal relationships are infinitely more valuable than the gifts we give. You might choose to replace them with similar items.

Your "rights" as a customer? Well, you have certain expectations, one of which is to hope you will be safe in your possessions. Another expectation is that you are in a place not under your control, and as always you need to secure your possessions. Your loss is of course unfortunate but your BEST recourse was preemptive: Don't bring it, wear it at all times, secure it, either in the room safe or downstairs in a safe deposit box.

Get on the horn with your insurer. Don't go chasing after some attorney thinking you have some recourse against the hotel.

You can claim the loss on your 1040? I don't know but that smells like IRS audit.