It’s not often that you see video footage of a hotel room break-in attempt from inside the room, so this is quite interesting…
Continue reading: Holiday Inn Room Break-In Attempt Caught On Tape
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"so it can be hard to get away"
Get away in the moment or get away with the crime?
The bay pretty much openly doesn't care about property crime, so the latter isn't really a factor. In the moment... well I guess if there is security/police on site, that's true. Doesn't seem like that was the case, here.
Illustrates why those deadbolts or chain arrangements are so much better than the "extra push" design they have there.
To open from the inside those require nothing more than if they are not locked.
I expect a rash of copycat robberies at hotels across the world.
Hopefully:
a) this type of lock will stop selling, and not be fitted going forwards
b) a lot of hotels will swap out bad designs for good ones.
Do they ever think of red-teaming their security practices?
I guess it's worth buying a portable lock for when one is in the room.
For when one is not, hotel staff have access anyway, so just recognise that it's not a secure place.
Crime in progress, call the police. Hotel staff are trained to not intervene or report crimes.
Maybe the guest had been observed wearing a luxury watch or other blingy jewelry? Or out & about using expensive camera / video equipment? And then followed to her hotel?
Another one recently here at this youtuber I follow: https://youtu.be/tXbmR-6TTCo?t=1019
When traveling, especially when traveling alone, try to remember to place a towel under the door to block off the "easy access" and put a bar glass or two on the towel. Hopefully, the glass falls over and scares the potential intruder - and whether it breaks or not, housekeeping will clean the glass, which is better than being robbed, assaulted, or worse.
What we don’t know from this report is if there have been other incidents of room theft at this place. I’m sure the hotel wouldn’t fess up if there were.
C'mon get your own name to troll. You've failed so many times now.
We all know when the real @DCS shows up.
Don't be a communal username like John who's sharing it with idiots.
The tool that slides under the door to open it is absolutely a real device used by hotel staff. Once at the Aloft in Austin, the electronic key reader to my door ran out of batteries or otherwise malfunctioned while I was out and this is how the maintenance and security team got me back into my room. I couldn't believe it and thought at the time that these electronic doors are actually relatively unsafe and unprotected since this very low tech tool can be used to get into the room without leaving a digital trace.
The tool that slides under the door to open it is absolutely a real device used by hotel staff. Once at the Aloft in Austin, the electronic key reader to my door ran out of batteries or otherwise malfunctioned while I was out and this is how the maintenance and security team got me back into my room. I couldn't believe it and thought at the time that these electronic doors are actually relatively unsafe and unprotected since this very low tech tool can be used to get into the room without leaving a digital trace.
I was wondering why in Singapore 15 years ago suddenly the door handles looked up upright.
Staff told me to avoid such break ins. And those were 5 star ones. So easy to prevent.
One of my friends were in such a way car keys stolen for a robbery. Of course hotel told him no break in… but police showed him a very tiny hole in the door, nicely covered after the stunt
This same thing happens a couple of months ago in DC. , sadly the woman died of brutal attack suffering several stabs wounds . She just check in a couple of hours earlier and also a single traveler. Please lock your door behind right away before unpacking or doing other stuff.
Why do people always emphasize "when traveling alone". Be vigilant whether you're traveling with a significant other, friend, family member, whoever or alone. Keep your head on a swivel.
Riiiiight, because accountability is totally the mantra and m.o. of the Right in the USA...
If you’ve got hard floors always hang a cup or mug on the door handle, anyone movement of the handles and cup falls on the floor and smashes, makes one hell of a lot of noise and scares them off - also wakes you up in shock too!!
I had the same experience as RealTaylor at a Hilton Property in California when the key card reader battery died. Maintenance was called and they brought their specially bent coat hanger to open the door. Then they replaced the battery.
I have to think that there are better card readers and more secure door handles available.
Ralphi...it is the LEFTO'S that let this nonsense happen with criminals doing whatever they want in major BLUE LIB CITIES!!~! get your facts correct....
esp in liberal calif,,you can get fired for interfering in theft or shoplifting
I don't think that hanger looking device is used by staff because they have a master keycard they can use. Locking your door is not always a safe method. I think using the extra bolt is safer. Often times if you push down on the handle the door will unlock, however it will make more noise and create more of a hassle and time for the robber if you use the extra bolt. There are simple devices that you can use to further bolt the door. I agree it is high risk and low reward and even lower reward than years ago because people travel with less jewelry and cash.
They should not even have been able to get to the guest rooms in the first place.
Im thinking that if the deadbolt/doorlatch on the inside of the door were engaged then someone cant break in from the hall, as just turning the door knob wouldn't work. The old advice of leaving the hall light and tv on when you're out is still good advice. Id rather be guilty of wasting a little energy than risking my safety and/or having to deal with lost credit cards, license, maybe passport.
If the the booty was <$950, and IF they were caught AND prosecuted (big IF as the defunded San Jose PD would likely lack the resources to investigate and the DA would not press charges, especially if the perpetrators were minorities), there would be minimal consequences, at most a fine, as property crimes of less than $950 have been decriminalised in CA in the name of social justice. If they stole more than $950, the odds of getting away were overwhelmingly in their favor for the same reasons above.
Burglary is a felony in California regardless of the amount or whether it was a forced entry. If the woman was in the room when they entered, it would have been robbery. There is no free pass on burglary. Shoplifting of less than $900 is a misdemeanor. This is NOT a shoplifting situation.
Always put the Don Not Disturb sign out. At least they think someone is inside and will look elsewhere
"Tape" ? You must be close to 40. I suppose "footage" is still part of your vocabulary too.
Why are there always these openings under the doors in the US? It's annoying because of light coming in under the door, and this video shows another reason not to have these openings. How about installing a threshold?
re ease of getting away: Don't ignore the possibility of the burglar(s) being hotel staff, contractors, disguised as contractors, or guests (booking made purely to do burglaries).
I'm not suggesting that long-term hotel staff are not trustworthy, but that it is comparatively easy to infiltrate (and leave after a week)
Disguised as contractors is probably the easiest - especially if cleaning or similar is contracted out because then other staff expect no continuity of personnel.
I remember a Penetration Test firm dressing up as telephone engineers and being waved into the server room ...
Read the novel Hotel by Arthur Haley!
It's an Oldie, but the principles are still the same.
Presumably so that the tolerance is high, which means requires less clear which means cheaper?
How encouraging to see someone not immediately claiming to suffer PTSD from being the (in this case accidental) target of a failed attack.
I get the impression she didn't sue the hotel for distress either, although I hope they gave her a free meal or drink.
Hotel industry guy here. Some background on hotel door locks and the devices described:
Those devices are specific break-in tools. The hotels themselves typically have two ways of opening doors in case of lock failure (electronic locks are battery operated usually). Apart from master keycards, most lock systems have some sort of a portable programming and emergency opening tool which can be connected via cable to a hidden socket on the outside of the lock. In case of electronic failure (or on locks which have no cable but only wireless access, failed due to empty batteries and don't have batteries which can be replaced from the outside), there is always a hidden keyhole which can be opened by a special master key. These keys and would usually be kept in a highly secure place (such as a safe).
Physical master key, programming device and certain master keycards will always override the deadlock.
Due to security concerns, most if not all door locks will always open from the inside if the handle is operated. This is by design, so occupants can flee the room i.e. in case of a fire.
In most modern hotels, the doors will have some form of a lip that drops down to the floor when the door is fully closed. This mainly is for smoke protection in case of a fire outside the room, with the added benefit of also blocking hallway light from shining under the door. In my personal experience, that mechanism often fails over time with either the lip not raising properly when door is opened (resulting in a door that "scrapes" on the floor) or the lip not dropping fully due to either failure of the mechanism or the door, door sill or floor sagging or lifting over time.
Those vulnerabilities prompt some hotel chains to always include a secondary inside lock (such as a doorchain) in order to prevent break-ins while a guest is in the room in their building standards.
On CCTV making it less easy for a burglar to escape: CCTV systems are indeed present in most hotels, but are typically not monitored live. So the CCTV as such will not necessarily help hotel staff to notice someone appears to be tampering with a door, and also, even on modern systems, most of the time you would get a somewhat blurry image of "generic person burgling a room" after the break-in has been discovered and reported by either staff or the guest. So while CCTV does help with the "what happened" part of the incident, it usually doesn't do too much for the "who did it" part.
That’s right. We were recently in a hotel in Guernsey that had great security. A card key was needed to exit the lobby into the hallway with the elevators, the key was also needed for the elevator, and again for the room. One of those gadgets wouldn’t work on the elevator. The hotel in Guernsey wasn’t a high crime area, just SOP for the hotel.