Thefts, Liabilities and Next Steps?

AlexHunter

As some of you may know, I do some work as a freelance educator for the Holocaust Educational Trust. On Thursday I was at the Cardiff Mercure with around 180 students using their conference facilities.

During a refreshment break between sessions some bugger went into the rooms and stole valuables ranging from laptops to credit and debit cards and my iPad. I feel particularly awful for the students who then had to endure long journeys back to mid and North Wales without their things.

So, yes I should have known better than to leave my iPad unattended in a conference room, but I am suspicious as the 3rd floor can only be accessed by the lifts, only has conference rooms and we were the only people using them at the time. I find it hard to believe it could have been anyone else than a staff member, as the likelihood of joe public walking in, going to the correct floor and both conference rooms (at opposite ends of the floor) during a 40 minute break seems a bit of a stretch.

No apologies or much concern from the Mercure (they’re checking the CCTV which only covers the lifts), the Trust have raised it with the police and have got the crime reference number but no further detail yet. 

Where should the insurance liability rest? Suspect my personal insurance may or may not offer me around £50 after the excess has been taken.

Do I surrender all hope and erase the iPad now? I’ve changed passwords and put the tracker on.

Do I be somewhat stroppier with the Mercure or just leave it alone?

spark240

No way....social media is your friend,....get the info out everywhere.

boogieman

Presumably the venue have to be insured against things like this? Have a look at their T&Cs. Who booked it? It might be mentioned in the hire contract.  

Also were the conference rooms locked during the breaks? And in fact were there are any keys provided to lock them? If not then the responsibility may rest with the venue. 

stickyfiddle

Assuming the ipad is fingerprint and passcode locked (right?) then it shouldn't be too vulnerable to data theft.  That said, I would also assume it's backed up (right?) in which I'd definitely wipe it remotely if you have the option. 

As for insurance, I would expect Mercure to have a policy, but they'll probably also have made someone in charge of the booking sign a waiver of some kind. Time to check all T&Cs

darcym

I saw your pain post earlier Alex, from a dumb point of view, if you are the only people on the 3rd floor, and it can only be accessed by the lifts, and the hotel covers lifts - they should be able to show some evidence of what's happened here. 

If you booked the conference room rather than it being a gift, they should have some sort of insurance to cover this. 

Other than that, it's time to let it go, and treat it as a weak excuse to upgrade. 

Sorry Alex

chillidoggy

Have you got the 'find my ipad' thing on your iPhone?

AlexHunter

Conference rooms were not locked, no keys provided to lock them.

ipad is passcode locked (no fingerprint as it’s the original Air version), I’ve put lost mode on via find my iPhone but as it’s not 3G it will only work when connected to WiFi. The majority of its contents are backed up via iCloud.

As my work with the Trust is freelance I don’t know what their arrangements were but it definitely wasn’t a gift.