Man Set Up Camera In His Hotel Room; Caught Employee In The Act

by SharonKurheg

When we write about suspicion of theft in lodging situations, it’s usually in Airbnbs. With little to no oversight, some Airbnb owners have set up hidden cameras in their rental units (they’re supposed to tell the renters about them, and they’re not allowed to be in certain parts of the house, but not all owners follow the rules). It got to the point where more than one entity on the internet wrote pieces about how to find hidden cameras in your Airbnb rental.

Of course, hotels are just as bad. Guests steal stuff from hotels all the time. There was even a survey of the items most stolen from hotels and the nationalities of who steals what. But, for better or for worse, hotels know that’s going to happen; it’s just a part of doing business.

However, when you’re STAYING at a hotel, you want to think (or at least hope) that your belongings are safe, hotel staff isn’t going through your stuff, etc. Of course, it doesn’t always happen; peoples’ things are missing from hotels all the time (that’s why we always say you shouldn’t keep stuff in your hotel safe. Here’s why you shouldn’t, and here’s something you can use instead), and unfortunately, it’s hard to prove that someone may have gone through your stuff.

Well, until now.

Arturo B. was on vacation in Cancun. He was doing what everyone else does in Cancun – exploring the beaches and ancient ruins, maybe even enjoying a cocktail – when he got an alert that there was someone in his hotel room.

Before he left his room for the day, Arturo had set up a hidden motion-detector camera on his laptop. With that, he was able to see anyone who entered his room while he was away, and what they did. He wasn’t very happy with what he saw.

It turns out that, while he was having fun in Cancun, a hotel staff member came into Brunello’s room, presumably for a standard turn-down service.

But instead, the hotel worker had a thorough look through all of Arturo’s belongings.

The tourist was obviously horrified when he saw video evidence of the staff member drinking one of his beers, poking around his clothes, rooting through his suitcases, and even investigating the bedroom safe.

After catching the whole thing on camera, and reporting the incident to the hotel manager, Arturo shared the hidden camera footage on TikTok.

He captioned the video: “Our vacation got weird. I won’t be naming the hotel because they handled this situation very well.

“Just be careful out there and use technology to your advantage. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t see the green light on my webcam. Next time, I will be blacking it out.”

Take a look:

@clarincom

Puso una cámara en su habitación de hotel y atrapó infraganti a un empleado. #TikTokInforma #Hotel

♬ sonido original – Clarín 📱

Arturo said in the comments that the worker did some other things that were even more disturbing (he specifically used the word “perverted”), but they wouldn’t have been appropriate for TikTok.

He said the app is called iSentry. He mentioned there were other, similar programs in the app store (his computer was obviously Mac flavored) but this one was able to send him email notifications when it detected motion. Arturo also made it clear he was not affiliated with iSentry.

I couldn’t find iSentry for Windows or Chromebooks but I’m sure there are similar apps for both.

There were plenty of comments about the video, and lots of people asked what hotel he was in. Some people guessed Secrets The Vine Cancun, any of the Hyatt, Westin or Riu properties in Cancun, Grand Palladium, Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa – AMR, etc.

But Arturo said he purposefully didn’t mention the name of the hotel because when he went down to the front desk with the video evidence, they took very good care of him and the situation (they fired the worker on the spot), and handled it all professionally. When another user said she was positive of what hotel it was, he even said, “Then you know it’s a great hotel. They can’t be judged by the actions of their staff.”

Which is 100% the truth. Some of the best hotels out there could have a lousy staff member who’s willing to pilfer around guests’ things. Some of the sketchiest hotels could also have fantastic staff who would never think of doing something they shouldn’t.

But Arturo B. caught this guy in the act.

Feature Photo: Pixnio

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

12 comments

Leslie J. November 13, 2022 - 2:05 pm

How did he get into the safe?

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SharonKurheg November 13, 2022 - 2:14 pm

See above (3rd paragraph from the top of the article. Link of “Here’s why you shouldn’t”)

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richard sachs November 13, 2022 - 5:09 pm

There is an Android version of this via an APK download, although it may or may not be supported any more.

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KAREN November 14, 2022 - 10:44 pm

Why does the hotel staff have access to the safe? Thieves are weirdos.

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SharonKurheg November 14, 2022 - 10:56 pm

Because guests forget the codes they set up.

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Aaron November 15, 2022 - 8:36 am

When I worked security, only myself and the manager had access to the tools to reprogram the safe. ANY hotel where the regular staff have access, is a huge security risk….when you go to a hotel, always ask WHO has access to those tools…if you hear that multiple people have access, ask to speak to the manager and give them a bit of crap for being so lax with security. Only a couple of people at one time should have access. This is key to those safes actually working…

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Jamie November 15, 2022 - 8:52 am

This happened to us when we stayed at Universal Surf Side hotel. Went through our belongings. Took extra things like the towels we requested. We also asked for extra garbage bag for our dirty clothes. They dumped our clothes on floor and took bag? Hotel didn’t care.

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Jeannie R braswell November 15, 2022 - 5:11 pm

Unfortunately i work at a hotel that is owned by a company in which standards are subpare at the most. And i am sorry to say but most hotels and motels do not pay what your worth . so some of these people think they are in the right to do this . Which is unbelievable on its own. And sadly understandable some people ask a l
Out of the staff and not matter what we do how good the sevice is our yelp reveiws say nothing about what we did for them or the fake they checked in to a room 6 hrs early to their set arrival time. So housekeepers are forced to rush and get out of the room the longer the early jerk waits the more money we are docked . and your yelp reveiw said nothing about you being so early and the housekeeper on hands and knees drying the hardwood floor as you complain about the floor being half washed when indeed good sir it was half dried. . or the fact you said the shower wasnt cleaned at all when your son went straight in and took a shower before the housekeeper was off the floir from trying to dry it. And through all your lies you come back request same housekeeper and wrote the same. Incorrect. Review. Again on yelp. And through all this the housekeeper knew what was said and docked pay for.doing what was asked with a smile and thinking she made someones stay a little nicer. Just to be docked for lies and cheap shots. And no tip. Or a thank you once. I completely understand why they think this is justified. Dont worrie though Chandii is taking over the wyndom hotels and shoving good hard working honest people out of jobs for the huge family to all work and live there. So anything you leave or lose there will get you banded if reported to owner. Because its their family doing it . until they have no one coming then they rent to literally anyone . good luck be nicer to your housekeepers that are local and american. What happened to honest pay for honest work???

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Jennifer Gaines November 15, 2022 - 9:22 am

About eight years ago my husband got home and said “ hey babe wake up, WHERES the truck? I was groggy it was about 1:00 AM, I said it’s okut front” he said it wasn’t. I reached for my bag and that was gone too. My husband was calling 911. I realized the guy came through our screen window and was right Nedra ri me as I slept. He took every photo of me and took längere. It was CREAPY. The next morning he was spotTesdriving my red Ford &-150. When they finally Cut him he said my name he acted is if he knew me that we were close he knew or I work and all sorts of stuff it was creepy and the creepiest part was that he had an ankle bracelet on. In other words he was let out of prison with an ankle bracelet that was supposed to be monitored and it wasn’t because he was in my house with it on it took six months to catch him they had to do DNA on the truck and everything and I was completely disgusting and gross out and I still lamb so yeah this stuff happens lock your doors even if it’s hot out lock your doors

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DJ November 15, 2022 - 1:54 pm

Same thing happened to me in Cancun 2018! Shortly after checking in we dropped our bags, got settled briefly, and off we went to explore. Though 5 minutes after leaving hotel we realized we forgot something (I believe the go-pro) and went back to retrieve. Upon entering our room a hotel staff member that wore same color shirt as one in video was in our room snooping around, and I immediately yelled WTF. He pretended to be on his walkie-talkie when we came in, but looked like a fool. He tried to pretend he didn’t speak much English, and headed for the door trying to go around us. Thinking back now I should of been much more confrontational about the whole thing, but we had literally just arrived to Mexico hours prior, and were going to be in Mexico for the next 3 weeks and didn’t want to make much of a fuss, so we only let the employee know working the front desk who seemed appalled by the situation, but thinking back we kind of suspected he was in on it, as when we left the hotel the first time, he was the only one to see us head out, so he could of easily of let his colleague know, the new guests were heading out and now would be a swift time to rob them blind. Wish I remembered which hotel now that it seems to be happening to others. Would love to expose the shit out them. They did nothing btw besides apologize, and on we went on our exploration. Strange.

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Titanium Elite guest November 15, 2022 - 2:33 pm

We used a camera to monitor housekeeping staff at one hotel (in USA) and when we pointed out housekeeping negligence we were asked to check out immediately and discontinue remaining nights. My wife and I were staying in a lot of hotels pre-pandemic, I always used an old tablet as an alarm clock and for music. I had also installed a security camera app because I was under the impression that that cleaning was not being done properly and to protect my belongings. (At a previous hotel stay of the same brand, we requested sheets to be changed and felt like they weren’t doing it so we marked two corners with a discreet pen mark. Sure enough, we discovered all housekeeping did was flip the sheet inside out! After that I started using the camera regularly to monitor cleaning.) Well, we were shocked to observe a cleaning lady toss the pillows and blanket on the floor to change sheets, then put the same pillow and blanket on the bed without changing pillowcase. When I called the hotel and spoke to the manager she stated “You’re watching our staff with a camera? We don’t allow that, you need to check out immediately and don’t come back to this property”. This was at one of the biggestt hotel brand chains. A call to corporate and they were indifferent to the incident and left it up to the hotel to make decisions on this matter despite my super elite reward status. Hotel housekeeping staff are often disgusting and negligent, there are poor standards for service especially with all the franchised independently owned hotels where owners have no standards at all, their goal is to be cheap and cut corners. There was a time (long time ago) when staying in hotels for business or vacations was exciting and you had amazing service. It’s rare now. Hotel apps need to have a responsive “report quality issue” link on their app that goes right to corporate, but they don’t. Note to self, whenever you check in to a hotel, ask for a new set of sheets and change them yourself before your stay.

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DJ November 15, 2022 - 3:58 pm

Same thing happened to us Cancun!

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