Hotel Apologises To Teen After Falsely Accusing Her Of Having “Drug Party”
For many teenagers, their birthdays are something they look forward to celebrating with family and friends. Some go all out while some prefer something more low key — like a stay-cation.
For this teenager, her birthday celebrations at W Singapore in Sentosa Cove were interrupted when a call for help took an unexpected turn.
An arrest led to the teen and her friends spending 14 hours in police custody, according to her Instagram stories. Her mother posted screenshots of them on Facebook, which you can find here.
The arrest was because of this:
Hotel staff thought they were taking drugs in their room.
Broke bathroom door while trying to get out
The birthday girl, Miss Sharonia Paruntu, shared on her Instagram that the incident started on 10 Nov at around 2am. Her friends could not get out of the bathroom because the door was stuck.
In an attempt to get themselves out, they accidentally broke the door, following which they called the hotel management.
W Hotel provided them with a new room so that they could fix the glass door.
Police suddenly barged in
The police later “[barged] into [her] room” around 10am.
She thought that the police were there because of the broken glass door. But the officers told her that it was for a “random check”.
Hotel staff thought the girls had drugs
To her horror, the police said that the hotel staff reported them because of “a white substance in a plastic”.
Miss Paruntu then realised it was her deodorant powder and retrieved the plastic bag in question.
She explained to the police that it was for “your armpit and then you wouldn’t smell for the rest of the day”.
The police officers, however, were not convinced and placed her under arrest.
Spent 14 hours in custody
Miss Paruntu described her experience at the police station as horrible as she “slept on the floor like an animal”. She added that it was “humiliating” knowing that the hotel guests who saw them would think they were criminals.
They were not allowed to contact anyone for the 14 hours that they were in police custody. This left her parents anxious when she failed to turn up for her birthday dinner.
Parents were told she “checked out”
When her parents went down to the hotel, they were told that she had checked out.
They only told her parents after 3 calls that she did not check out at all. The staff apparently also did not inform them of where she went.
Hotel apologises for misunderstanding
Miss Paruntu’s mother then sent an email to Marriott’s customer service and the Singapore Tourism Board.
W Hotel has since apologised for the incident and refunded the $1,700 that they charged the girls for the broken bathroom door, reported TNP.
In response to TNP‘s queries, police have also said that Miss Paruntu and her friends were “released unconditionally at 1.43am on 11 Nov after preliminary testing on the white powder and their urine samples turned up negative for controlled drugs.”
It’s unfortunate that Miss Paruntu’s birthday celebrations turned out so horribly. Hopefully, there can be better communication between the parties in the future.
Featured image adapted from Instagram and Facebook.
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