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Help! Currently at Harborside, room key stolen, maybe part of a scam?

JudyS

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Hi! I finally managed to get a trip to the Harborside! But something rather ominous just happened here. I got a call from someone claiming to work for a wheelchair rental place. (I use a wheelchair, but I brought my own -- I didn't rent one.) This woman said I had mistakenly taken one of their rental wheelchairs instead of my own. I checked and the wheelchair I had was definitely mine -- Derby brand, duct tape on one arm rest, bright plastic child's bracelet on one arm for easy identification. Not a rental wheelchair.

The woman persisted in saying I had her wheelchair. She said one of her wheelchair rental customers had found MY room key in the customer's wheelchair, and that is how the customer knew it was me who had taken the wheelchair. (Room keys here at the Harborside have the guest's name on them, but not their room number. So, this woman could have called the front desk, given my name, and asked to be connected to me.)

I questioned her story -- if one of her customers had found MY room key in HER wheelchair, doesn't that mean the customer still has HER OWN wheelchair? The woman gave an "answer" that didn't really address the question -- she said the customer didn't have a wheelchair at all right now, the customer had turned the wheelchair back in to the rental place. Then she said goodbye and hung up.

My husband and I checked, and sure enough, one of our room keys was missing. I had left one key in a pocket in my wheelchair. So, it seems pretty clear to us that someone stole that key out of my wheelchair.

The question is, what comes next? My husband thought they were hoping to arrange to meet us somewhere (to prove I had my own wheelchair or something), and while we were away from our room, they would enter our room and steal things. I'm not sure they know our room number, however.

There are very few wheelchairs here at Atlantis (wheelchair accessibility here is not great), so I doubt anyone could make much of a living scamming wheelchair users. But, I could see a similar "You took my beach bag instead of yours" scam.

We went to the front desk and got new room keys. Do you think there's anything else we need to do? Do you think we'll hear back from the people who stole our room key?
 

Maui_ed

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Hi! I finally managed to get a trip to the Harborside! But something rather ominous just happened here. I got a call from someone claiming to work for a wheelchair rental place. (I use a wheelchair, but I brought my own -- I didn't rent one.) This woman said I had mistakenly taken one of their rental wheelchairs instead of my own. I checked and the wheelchair I had was definitely mine -- Derby brand, duct tape on one arm rest, bright plastic child's bracelet on one arm for easy identification. Not a rental wheelchair.

The woman persisted in saying I had her wheelchair. She said one of her wheelchair rental customers had found MY room key in the customer's wheelchair, and that is how the customer knew it was me who had taken the wheelchair. (Room keys here at the Harborside have the guest's name on them, but not their room number. So, this woman could have called the front desk, given my name, and asked to be connected to me.)

I questioned her story -- if one of her customers had found MY room key in HER wheelchair, doesn't that mean the customer still has HER OWN wheelchair? The woman gave an "answer" that didn't really address the question -- she said the customer didn't have a wheelchair at all right now, the customer had turned the wheelchair back in to the rental place. Then she said goodbye and hung up.

My husband and I checked, and sure enough, one of our room keys was missing. I had left one key in a pocket in my wheelchair. So, it seems pretty clear to us that someone stole that key out of my wheelchair.

The question is, what comes next? My husband thought they were hoping to arrange to meet us somewhere (to prove I had my own wheelchair or something), and while we were away from our room, they would enter our room and steal things. I'm not sure they know our room number, however.

There are very few wheelchairs here at Atlantis (wheelchair accessibility here is not great), so I doubt anyone could make much of a living scamming wheelchair users. But, I could see a similar "You took my beach bag instead of yours" scam.

We went to the front desk and got new room keys. Do you think there's anything else we need to do? Do you think we'll hear back from the people who stole our room key?

When you got new keys, did you report the incident to the front desk? If there is a scam going on, where guests are being targeted, the resort should be made aware of it.
 

JudyS

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Yes, we told the Harborside front desk what happened. They didn't seem very interested, though.
 

presley

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We went to the front desk and got new room keys. Do you think there's anything else we need to do? Do you think we'll hear back from the people who stole our room key?
I think you'll be fine since your room is rekeyed. The fact that she couldn't answer your question on the phone and needed to hang up sounds like they knew they weren't going to get away with anything.
 

DeniseM

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I would talk to security, rather than the front desk - not their job.
 

Sea Six

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Did you check your bill for mysterious room charges?
 

JudyS

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Thanks for the replies! Checking for unauthorized charges was an excellent idea. I checked and nothing unauthorized was charged to the room. The room number serves as a PIN, and I don't think the person who took the key had any way to know my room number.

Come to think of, learning the room number may be the basis of the scam. Someone claims you have their wheelchair, beach bag, or whatever. They try to get you to tell them your room number so they can come and "see for themselves" that the bag (or wheelchair) you have isn't theirs. As soon as they learn your room number, they charge jewelry (which is sold all over the Atlantis) to your room.

Getting the room key and the description of a beach bag, wheelchair, or other item would be the easy part. People probably leave their room keys in their bags at the pool at the time, and a lot of bags look alike. Getting the room number would be the hard part.
 

DeniseM

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Since this may be a known scam, I would still report it directly to security, because it doesn't sound like an honest mistake.
 
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