A valet at Baltimore’s Pendry Hotel stole an Audi RS7 when the guest dropped it off to start a date night at the property. And in a cruel twist of fate, the valet was carjacked at gunpoint.
Instead of parking the Audi in the hotel’s lot, the valet admits taking the car off property to a minimart for a “car meet.” That’s where, he says, he was carjacked. Police eventually found the vehicle “abandoned and completely destroyed.” The valet says he was seated in the back seat of the Audi when “three people jumped into the car, flashed a handgun and stole it from him.”
The vehicle was found near an apartment building and impounded. The “whole body” of the car was destroyed. The front bumper was partially torn off the car. The doors wouldn’t open. Gas was spilled throughout the vehicle. The hotel has offered a future free night’s stay as compensation.
And to think, my worst valet experience was at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond where my car was returned with the door dinged – and after tracking down a couple of managers they agreed to cover repair costs.
The Pendry hotel is on the spot that used to be the City Rec Pier, which was used as police headquarters in Homicide: Life On The Street. In The Wire the Fells Point neighborhood of East Baltimore, where The Pendry is located, is where Avon Barksdale’s strip club “Orlando’s” was and also where Stringer Bell met with Clay Davis and developers in the fourth season. Car jackings should not be surprising?
(HT: Paul H)
I hope the hotel/valet company gave him a lot more than that free night, no matter what waiver of liability might have been present
Sorry your car got stolen and wrecked. Here are some free nights so you can come back to the scene of the crime and be reminded of what happened.
They need to get serious and repair or replace the vehicle.
File a claim with insurance and they will surely subrogate against the hotel and their insurance company. A free night is ridiculous. Like how could they even think that is adequate compensation.
Crazy.
I’ve never thought through this situation so I’m genuinely curious..what can be done here? I vaguely know valets “aren’t responsible” for anything that happens but are they legitimately 100% off the hook?
Seems like just another TV morning news story in The District; but, this is Baltimore, in a close race with DC for non-celebrity misadventure travel.
No need to fly WN or other ULCC tiktok-worthy airline after surviving these tawdry tales of hotel and ground transport misadventures….
Fresh out of college I was working on the front desk of a 5-star hotel. One of our VIP’s usually flies his own plane up from Florida and we pick him up at the airport. This trip he parked his new sports car under the hotel’s porte cochere and ask me if he could leave it there for 30 minutes. Well, okay anything for him, and the car looked great. After about 45 minutes one of our valets asked if he could park the car in the valet lot. I called the guest and he said to go ahead as he was busy. Long story short, the teenage valet took the car for a joy ride and wrapped it around a tree and killed himself. Sad but true. At least no person lost their life in Gary’s above post.
Wouldn’t the valet be charged with grand theft auto (well depending on the state). The guys car insurance would most likely sue the insurance of hotel and valet.
Kids, Baltimore is suffering a 40 % loss of police. Most of the available law enforcement is channeled to tourist areas. I love my state but Baltimore has now a legacy of violence.
This story is not surprising, and please don’t compare it to our nation’s capitol. They are not the same
One free night, eh? At least that shows that the hotel has a wicked sense of humor.
The hotel and the Valet company know they are screwed. They just hope the guest doesn’t know it.
What are the first 5 cities you would name off the top of your head when you hear the word “car jack” ? I bet Baltimore would be on most peoples list.
The fourth word was Baltimore and that was enough.
Baltimore…It’s not for amateurs.
The idea that our entire city is a crime-ridden cesspool is a tired trope. Sure, the story is crazy — but if you think about it for a minute, is it really that surprising that a car meet in a not-so-great part of the city would attract carjackers? Sorry for the rant, but you don’t get to dismiss this as “oh, what do you expect in Baltimore,” when this is not, in fact, what you would expect in Baltimore. The situation could have just as easily happened in NYC, DC, or Philly. So, yeah, a carjacking in Fells Point would be front page news, but that’s not actually where the carjacking happened (fun fact — they don’t usually film in unsafe neighborhoods).
@Jerry
Just this past month, the New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams and his mother were carjacked at gunpoint. Williams had to coax his Mom out of the car in order to assure her safety. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Oh… Baltimore. Never ceases to amaze me. Planning for a trip to South Africa with my dad, I state that Joburg is one of the most dangerous places on earth. He reminds me that I’ve survived trips to my cousin’s house in Baltimore plenty of times.
While negligence can be waived prospectively, reckless and intentional conduct cannot be.
Then the question becomes, is the valet service operated by the hotel or an independent contractor?
Why was the valet in the backseat?
Karma. Plain and Simple.