Jeanette Engler of Dallas, Texas was excited about her upcoming nuptials. She had worked for the better part of a year planning the big event, and everything was apparently going as planned when she and her wedding party checked into the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dallas that weekend.
The wedding happened, but not without a lot of drama. Ms. Engler returned to her $600 a night room to find it had been ransacked. Gone was an estimated $100-thousand worth of valuables including her wedding and engagement rings. This happened the day before the wedding.
The night before her room was burgled, the wedding officiant’s room was also ransacked and items were stolen from him as well. Ms. Engler was so distraught that she considered calling off the wedding.
She told a local television station, “It will never be the day that I wanted it to be because I didn’t get any sleep. I spent all night screaming and crying.”
In addition to her engagement ring, and the wedding rings and sapphire and diamond ring her mother had given her for Christmas, other things were stolen from her room. The burglar also made off with a Chanel necklace – a gift for her wedding planner, and Chanel earrings, which were gifts for her bridesmaids.
She says the thief also took a Gucci wallet and her wedding day accessories. Engler says, “I didn’t even know if I wanted to do the wedding because I just couldn’t pull myself together because everything was just, like, ruined.”
You have an expectation that you and your belongings will be safe when you pay for accommodations at a hotel such as the Ritz Carleton. Engler says she was not told about the safe in the room or the hotel safe at the time she checked in.
The Ritz of Dallas isn’t commenting except to say that police are investigating and that they take these things very seriously.
What do you think? Does the bride have a case?
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