‘INN’ HARMS WAY
Hotel gave attacker key to my room: suit
The Dream Downtown Hotel was a nightmare for a Queens man who was assaulted and robbed after front-desk staff handed his room key to a crook, he claims in a lawsuit.
Workers at the West 16th Street hotspot, where a suite runs $500 and up, didn’t hesitate to hand over Jaime Inclan’s room key to a woman who wasn’t a guest and wasn’t with him, he claims in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Instead, Catherine Lugo had set up Inclan, 35, arranging a meeting where three other people beat him, leaving her free to ransack his hotel room, he claims in court papers.
Lugo, who was convicted of robbery and gang assault, swiped cash, jewelry, watches, designer bags and other high-value items, according to Inclan’s legal claim, which seeks unspecified damages against the hotel, Lugo and others.
The two had been dating when they agreed to meet. Lugo was accused of conspiring with another man, Edward Curanovic, who was one of Inclan’s assailants. Curanovic was also arrested and con- victed in the case, according to the lawsuit, which accused the Dream Downtown Hotel of negligence.
The hotel, which did not return a message, isn’t immune to trouble.
Last year, owner Vikram Chatwal landed in court after he was accused of trying to light a pair of dogs on fire on a Manhattan street. The same year, a drunken art dealer swiped a $20,000 painting from the wall, only to return it hours later.
In August, two femme fatales stole $80,000 worth of valuables from men who were staying at the hotel after meeting the marks at nightclubs.
One of the 38-year-old victims lost his $20,000 Audemars Piguet watch after meeting one of the women at the Top of the Standard Lounge and bringing her back to his Dream room, where he then felt dizzy and passed out.
It was one of a string of incidents in which sexily dressed female criminals snagged men looking for a good time, only to rob them blind.
Around the same time in August, two other men staying at the Sofitel Hotel were robbed in a similar manner, police said.