DENVER (KDVR) — A Texas woman is frustrated after her car was broken into on vacation, while it was parked in a garage attached to the Magnolia Hotel Denver, a Marriott property in downtown Denver.
The parking garage where Monica Flewelling parked is a location Denver police have already responded to 50 times this year.
She said she feels violated but also wants to warn others who park in the area that this theft unfortunately isn’t uncommon there.
“I have stayed at a lot of hotels in a lot of big cities and I have never had anything like this happen before,” she said.
According to records from the Denver Police Department, they have responded to 50 calls at this location, at least a dozen being burglary from a vehicle. There is also an extremely high concentration of theft a block down at 16th and Stout streets.
“When I made the police report, the police officer is telling me that this is happening quite often,” Flewelling said. “I didn’t realize staying there — I mean, I’m staying at a four-star hotel so I’m assuming that it’s pretty safe.”
Hotel does not claim responsibility for parking garage
FOX31 called the hotel to ask about the thefts in the area. The manager, who was there at the time, told us they would have no comment.
Flewelling said she feels the hotel should take some responsibility, even though they do not own the parking deck.
“As far as they’re concerned, this isn’t their parking lot, even though it’s connected to the hotel and it may not be them owning it, but that’s going to be where everybody obviously parks their car. It’s right next to the hotel and this is where they’re parking the valet parking.”
Insurance in these types of instances can be tricky. Homeowners insurance can cover this kind of theft, but Flewelling’s theft was short of her $5,000 deductible.
And any responsibility on the parking deck itself won’t happen. Insurance expert Kim Alire said there’s a reason for that.
“There’s typically a sign when you’re driving in that says lost or stolen items are not their responsibility, because it just happens all the time. In fact, they usually leave signs up that say don’t leave things in your car.”
FOX31 also tried to reach out to the parking deck itself but the number listed online was not a working number.