28 November 2023 , 13:38
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A cleaner was 'caught on camera' by suspicious British holidaymakers who set a trap to catch her stealing from their hotel room.
Alastair and Sue Conner laid their crafty trap after items like perfume and cigarettes began to go missing from their Benidorm hotel room. The couple had forked out £5,500 on the all-inclusive Jet2 package holiday, residing at the four-star Magic Natura Resort in the popular Costa Brava resort with their 15-year-old son Jack in September.
But the husband and wife turned detective after their dream holiday turned into a nightmare. The parents-of-three, who live in Stockton, Durham, installed secret cameras in their room after packets of cigarettes and perfume bottles were allegedly disappearing.
Determined to catch the culprit, Alastair decided to hide his laptop on the dressing table using a programme which allows footage to be recorded with the screen off.
Holiday sleuths Alistair Connor, 47 and Sue Connor, 53 in Benidorm whose belongings were stolen from their hotel room (KennedyNews/AlastairConner)
Jack's gold necklace was among the alleged stolen items (KennedyNews/AlastairConner)The couple could not believe their eyes when footage appeared to capture their cleaner and pocketing perfume and cigarettes while cleaning their room the following day. She later appears to stash the perfume bottle in her bra to hide it. Jet2 apologised and said the hotel had 'taken appropriate action with the staff member in question'.
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Sue, a 53-year-old finance director, said: "I noticed when we'd come back to the room stuff was missing, my bags had moved and I thought someone's been in my knicker drawer. So we decided to set some cameras up but the batteries weren't lasting. A lot of stuff had been moved. We ended up taking photographs when we went out to show what the room was like and when we came back we noticed my bags had been moved. Things weren't in their place.
This image is from the footage by taken covertly and appears to show cleaner putting items in her pocket (KennedyNews/AlastairConner)"I'd just bought a new bottle of Gucci perfume from the airport and that was gone. We bought 400 fags on the plane and they were all gone within a week. And our son Jack said his clothes had been moved in the wardrobe. He had a necklace with a gold pendant with a ring on it and that was gone. Money, cigarettes, perfume - it was all gone."
After setting up a covert recording system to uncover whatever was going on, the couple returned from lunch to view the footage.
Alastair, 47, said: "It wasn't until coming on until the end of the holiday that I thought I'd set my laptop up. I checked my laptop and we'd caught her. We never expected a staff member to rob us. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was disgusted."
Sue added: "I was mortified. She's gone through our private drawers. We felt violated. We'll never go on a Jet2 holiday again and we've always used Jet2 but will never use it again now."
The couple believe around €750 worth of items were taken from their hotel room - including €385 worth of cash, The furious couple showed hotel staff their footage and contacted Jet2 with their concerns.
Although hotel management was 'apologetic', the couple said they were not offered compensation or refunds by the resort or Jet2 in response to the incident.
Alastair said: "We reported it straight away and asked to speak to the manager. The manager was apologetic. The cleaning manager was in tears because she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Senior management was more bothered about us not making a massive scene.
"We were told we should've used the safe, but that was only stuck down with Blue-Tac. The items that were stolen weren't the sort of stuff you'd keep in a safe anyway.
"We weren't offered any compensation, we were just told to leave it with the insurers - that's all they kept saying. We wrote a letter to Jet2 when we were back home and they basically said you should've used your safe - for cigarettes and perfumes! I was absolutely fuming.
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"And the insurance is only offering us £41 of the €750 worth of stuff we lost because we didn't use the safe. But we didn't use the safe because it was Blue-Tacked down - you could pick it up.
"Any time that we go anywhere now, I'm taking cameras with us. The only thing I can think of doing now is getting a solicitor involved but that's more cost. We've just spent £5,500 on a holiday that we didn't even enjoy."
Jet2 have now offered the couple 'an appropriate gesture of goodwill' - but the couple say they won't accept anything less than a full refund.
A spokesperson for Jet2 said: "We are extremely sorry and disappointed to hear about this experience, and we understand that the hotel has taken appropriate action with the staff member in question.
"We have since been in contact with Mr and Mrs Conner to apologise, and to provide an appropriate gesture of goodwill." Magic Natura and the Spanish police have been approached repeatedly for a comment.