Hotel housekeeper makes off with big haul

When you stay at a luxury hotel - paying big money for the privilege - you expect hotel management to have vetted the staff.

Not so in one unnamed hotel at Knightsbridge in London.

A hotel housekeeper has been accused of stealing a suitcase of jewellery worth £350,000 ($668,000_ - and she has apparently gone on the run to her home country of Romania.

British media reports that detectives are searching for Marinela Manolesu, 28, who was working in an unnamed hotel in the upmarket area when the jewellery was allegedly taken on October 8.

More than 20 items including necklaces, bracelets and watches were stolen.

The Metropolitan Police said the woman fled the UK around a week later and travelled to Romania, and that officers have contacted the authorities there.

The housekeeper had reportedly only been working at the hotel for a short time before the theft.

But I must say that if I had over a half a million dollars worth of gear in my luggage, then I would not leave it in my hotel room for the staff to half inch.

That, surely, is what safes are for.

Hotel with "secret" doors the site of mystery thefts

Imagine having several thousand dollars stolen from your hotel room.

Then discovering that your hotel has secret doors disguised as mirrors that allow direct access into hotel rooms.

Imagine the hotel owner coming up with a totally weird excuse for the secret doors.

And then discovering that the local police have made "no progress" three months after the theft.

The excuse from the un-named hotel owners is wonderfully Thai, too, especially with the doors being locked on the outside.

His version was that the secret doors enabled "mistresses" to escape. Which would not be possible with the doors shut from the outside.

This is a story from Kanchanburi in central Thailand (pictured above) - two hours from Bangkok - and the media is too scared to name the hotel involved.

Which means that all the hotels in the Kanchanaburi region - where the Khwae Noi and Khwae Yai rivers meet and form the Mae Klong River - are under suspicion.

Stranger and stranger.

The victims were two families who checked in and stayed at the hotel on April 26 of this year.

They filed a complaint with the officers at the Meaung Kanchanaburi Police Staion but there was zero progress, so they shared their story with the Thai media with the English language paper The Thaiger splashing the report.

Now, unfortunately for the Thai tourism industry, the story has gone global.

The victims helped each other in checking inside their rooms, doors, and windows until they discovered the secret doors hidden behind mirrors.

The hotel owner has argued that the victims could not prove the existence of their assets and he could not be responsible for their losses if they left their belongings in their rooms.

Our Thai correspondent reports that the hotel isn't named because a Thai business can sue for damages their business. So beware of leaving anything of value in a Thai hotel room - and don't expect much help if valuables do go missing.

That gold must be somewhere: massive heist at Toronto airport

Toronto's Lester Pearson Airport was a complete shambles when I was unfortunate enough to use it last year.

So it comes as no surprise to hear that millions of dollars worth of gold and other-high value goods went missing at the airport - and no one has a clue how it happened.

Canadian police are investigating the theft of at least $20 million in gold from a container that was being shipped through the airport, Travel Mole reports.

The entire container apparently disappeared without anyone noticing.

“Our investigators have got their eyes opened to all avenues - we’re looking at all angles on how this item was stolen,” said Peel Regional Police Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn.

“What I can say is that the container had a high-value shipment. It did contain gold but was not exclusive to gold and contained other items of monetary value.”

Local media reported that more than 1,600kg of gold was in the container.

Police said there was no impact to normal airport and passenger operations.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said the thieves accessed the cargo holding area via an adjacent company which has its entrance outside secure areas of the airport.

No arrests have been made yet.