Dec. 8, 2014
Dec 8, 2014, 12:00 PM | Updated: 12:00 pm
There are going to be a lot of visitors to the Valley over the next couple of months for the holidays and then the Super Bowl. That means a lot of people staying in hotel rooms.
Take this advice from Phoenix Police Sgt. Derek Elmore: “Don’t leave your valuables in your hotel room. If they have a safe, use it or take them with you when you’re out.”
Some hotel guests around the Valley are learning that the hard way. Police believe a theft ring has mastered the art of making master keys to get into rooms.
“The suspects were taking TVs, bedding, laptop computers, the guests’ personal belongings, anything that they thought they could turn around and sell or had some value,” Elmore said.
The thefts first came to light in February 2013.
“Mesa had seven cases, Tempe had seven cases, Scottsdale had six, Phoenix had nine and Avondale had one case,” Elmore said.
The thieves are a white couple in their mid-20s who used some of the stolen credit cards at a WalMart.
Our second case is believed to be related. It happened Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Two white men in their 20s and wearing hats, one of them a fedora, entered a hotel at Washington and 43rd streets near the airport.
“They used a key device to enter the victim’s room while she was at a class,” Elmore said.
They ransacked the room and were actually seen leaving the hotel with the victim’s suitcase.
The suspects were driving an older champagne-colored, two-door Honda with black rims.
