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Hellcat stolen from Ritz-Carlton Atlanta
A guest at the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta says his Hellcat Durango filled with Christmas gifts was stolen right in front of the valet stand early Christmas Eve morning. He claims management is withholding surveillance and information.
ATLANTA - A guest at the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta says his SUV loaded with Christmas presents was stolen right in front of the valet stand, and he wants answers.
Tony Ervin says it happened at around 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Hotel management says it is withholding surveillance video unless they get a court order. Some of the details of the theft do not add up.
Ervin says his 2021 Hellcat Durango was stolen and that it contained all of his gifts for his son. He said he thought, by paying extra for the valet to watch his car, it would be safe. "Not thinking anything about it because the car was at the front door of the Ritz-Carlton in valet, so I left the gifts there knowing the next day, I’d leave out."
Ervin explained it was the circumstances of the SUV’s disappearance that concerned him. He says he paid the hotel $60 daily for valet and upon check-in the valet told him for an extra hundred dollars, it would be kept in the valet circle by the valet stand.
The valet did not give him a ticket for his keys and Ervin has since learned the keys were not tagged, either.
"I still think the key should have been tagged," Ervin stated. "Whatever their protocol is, I think it should have been followed."
Upon checkout, he learned the car had been stolen around five hours earlier, but the valet still possessed the keys. "They told me that somebody busted the window and used a device to start the car and drove off with the car," Ervin recounted.
Ervin says if they told him when it happened, he could have tried to track and disable it remotely. He also asked the management where the broken glass was or what trashcan it was put into.
"They forgot where the glass was stored from the busted window," said Ervin. "So, I went and looked on the ground and looked for particles of broken window, broken glass, and there’s no broken glass."
Ervin filed a police report with Atlanta police and an incident report with the hotel. He says the hotel refused to give him any surveillance video without a court order which would show what happened and could identify the person or persons responsible.
"I’m really disappointed in Ritz-Carlton," shared Ervin. "And maybe I’m a nobody to them, but hey, I just expected more from them."
FOX 5 reached out to the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta, but the hotel declined to comment, citing a police investigation. Ervin was told that Evolution Parking is the valet service provider for the hotel. FOX 5 reached out to Evolution Parking but have not heard back as of this publication.
Ervin said the SUV was located just a few minutes after this story was first published. The vehicle was spotted by someone who saw the story posted to social media and tipped him off to the SUV was at the Villages on the Green apartments off Continental Colony Parkway in southwest Atlanta. FOX 5 has reached out to Atlanta police for more.
The Source: This article is based on original reporting by FOX 5's Brittany Edney.This story has been updated since it was first published to add that the SUV was found by the owner.