Pranksters promote hotel damage
The woman in a hotel room near Orlando International Airport was called by someone who claimed to be a front-desk clerk. There was a gas leak in their room. The hostel guest frantically relayed information to her husband about smashing the windows of their room with a toilet.
Then the caller told them to break the mirror on the wall…then to bash in the wall…then to throw the mattress out the window.
"When I broke the window, I got suspicious," the man said. "It didn’t seem right, but she [his wife] was panicking, so I continued."
By this time the Orlando couple began to be suspicious: They had become the latest victims of a prankster who are nationwide duping hotel guests into doing outrageous destruction of hotel rooms, including breaking hotel windows to test fire alarms.
The incident follows others from across the country reported in The Orlando Sentinel.
—In Arkansas, a caller posing as a sprinkler-company employee persuaded a motel employee to do more than $50,000 in damage to a motel as part of a "test" of the motel’s emergency alarms.
—At a Comfort Suites in Daphne, Ala., a caller ordered a guest to turn on the sprinklers for a fire that wasn’t. The result: more than $10,000 in damages.
—In Nebraska, a Hampton Inn employee was convinced by a caller to pull the fire alarm, later telling him the only way to silence the alarm was by breaking the lobby windows. The employee enlisted the help of a nearby trucker, who drove his rig through the front door.
One culprit bragged about the misdeeds on Twitter: "I just pulled off the most epic prank. I had a hotel guest back his truck into the hotel front window, and break the window."
The crime is a second-degree misdemeanor though prosecuting pranksters will be hard, says Bob Dekle, a law professor at the University of Florida.
This was not the first such incident in Orlando. A hotel guest set off the sprinkler system at the Best Western Airport Inn earlier in the year.
There’s not much police can do to identify whoever did it but tourism officials worry there are more than 470 hotel properties and 114,000 rooms in the Orlando area.
Report by David Wilkening
David
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025
Higher departure tax and visa cost, e-arrival card: Japan unleashes the fiscal weapon against tourists
Cyclone in Sri Lanka had limited effect on tourism in contrary to media reports
Singapore to forbid entry to undesirable travelers with new no-boarding directive
Euromonitor International unveils world’s top 100 city destinations for 2025