LAJ's first drama thread...FRAUD!!! Whether you went to the show or not step inside!

[LAJ]

Well, after several years here on this board you know it had to happen sooner or later. And frankly while I hate drama, I feel this is the best way to handle this where the industry is concerned.

First off, I do NOT want to kill the positive buzz of Internext. The show was awesome, the hotel was awesome and I had a great time and will easily close enough biz deals to pay for YNOT and Eric Bernsteins trips many times over. I'll also add that what I'm about to say has nothing to do with the show itself at all. I place no blame on any company, organization or entity other than the one person directly involved.

Someone tried stealing money from me at the Diplomat last week.

The money this person tried to steal from me was small. If this was done as a practical joke I would have moved on and then figured a way to get even LOL. But as far as I can determine, this is not the case here.

This situation is all about principal to me and the fact that someone in this biz is stupid enough to try and steal from me in the manner that they attempted.

Please read on...

It appears someone who went to Internext has balls big enough to charge their meals to my room posing as me. How you were able to do this without a copy of my room key and the fact that you knew what room I was in is shows you aren't a total idiot... nice work.

And I gotta hand it to you, you also did a great job of forging my signature. I'm trying to think where you got a copy of it. Because when I saw your restaurant tab that was presented to me about 2 hours after you ate, I had to do a double take.

But you fucked up. Your printing of my name and how I write numbers wasn't even close.

OH, and one more thing...
There happens to be a surveillance camera just outside the cafe at the Westin Diplomat. You didn't think about that, did you?

So, your mug is caught on video, your table number and time sitting down to eat was on your restaurant bill. Security is going thru the footage with the waiter who waited on you and narrowing down the time to the few people who went into the restaurant. I will be e-mailed screen shots for identification purposes probably later this week.

I ended up wasting 90 minutes of my time yesterday dealing with the hotel manager and hotel security getting to the bottom of this, reversing the charges off my bill. There were other charges that shouldn't have been on their either. I hope you enjoyed everything. So while I'm very happy the hotel made this right for me (and threw some nice perks my way I might add, for my time and aggravation - Thank you Westin Diplomat)... I sure would have rather spent my last day at the show chilling by the pool.

SO... HERE'S the news... I feel reasonably confident I'm going to find out who you are. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this week, but probably soon enough.

This means you essentially have one of two choices here:

1. You either hit me up at jay at ynot dot com or ICQ 92418228 or phone 512-388-1728 explaining yourself, apologizing profusely and then dealing with the consequences. This way you avoid public humiliation. If anyone knows who is responsible for this, you would be best advised to tell your friend to step into this thread if they don't post here and contact me ASAP.

OR

2. You do nothing and when I find out who you are, your name and picture go up in this thread for all to see. Then you'll have the consequences to deal with, AND the humiliation, AND god knows what else. I would assume finding a job in this biz would be pretty tough with public knowledge of this petty activity?

And all for chump change. But again... this is ALL about principal for me.

A few questions...

Did you think you were going to get away with this?

Do you think that I don't actually LOOK at my bills?

Is your livelihood really worth something as ridiculous as this?

I think the decision is pretty easy to make here.

Ball is in your court... for now.

[Forest]

this has been done a million times at shows

who was it that had seveal bottle of crystal added to their room bill by someone posing as them at trhis very hotel several years ago

[TheEnforcer]

Damn man.. that sucks. Hope you catch them. I'm sure you will though. I have no doubt the Westin will be able to helpy uo do it with security footage.

Hope you had an otherwise great show. Wish I could have been there to see ya.

[ali25extreme]

That is a crappy thing to do and I hope they get caught! I am so sorry this happened to you...it will come back around to them!!

[bluemoney]

That's shitty! A Louisville slugger to the knee caps is in order.

[Toby]

Jay you are a better man than I.

If in the same situation I doubt that I'd give the shit stain an option 1. I'd probably go directly to option 2 as soon as I had the name and photos

[Hell Puppy]

Does Anal Hobbit have an alibi?

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

Does Anal Hobbit have an alibi?

They would refer to him as THAT guy in THIS thread with a badge in a picture with his face cropped out.

Just when you though the Spin Doctors were broke up.

[tony404]

its awful the scumbag quota seems to grow every year. That sucks.

[DannyCox]

No, the scumbag quota has been getting nicely filled every year since the beginning. One goes and there is another right there to take his place. It's the main reason I just don't play the bro' game like so many others do. After going to shows and seeing and meeting the majority of people in this industry, it's become quite obvious to me that most of them don't have friends in "real life". Just look at 99% of the people at the Zoo!

[LAJ]

Well I can tell you now that option one is off the table. I'm a lenient nice guy but they had their chance.

Forest... the cristal bottle was charged to Mike Price from Silvercash.

[DannyCox]

During the party we hosted at WebExpo (pre-Cybernet) in 1999, we were handing out drink tickets to everyone. They were good for beer, wine or mixed drinks. At the end of the night, I found that 14 bottles of Dom had been charged against me! That was a wee bit upsetting at $350.00 a bottle!

[softball]

Mike price from Silvercash? You gotta be kidding. Is silvercash in financial trouble?

[Toby]

Two separate champagne freeloader incedents, Mike Price was the victim of the most recent one.

[LAJ]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

Mike price from Silvercash? You gotta be kidding. Is silvercash in financial trouble?

Huh? how do you get THAT from my post?

Someone was trying to rip him off.

[jdog]

The same thing happened to me this year. I had a charge from The Cafe on Aug 9th, when August 9th I had lunch meeting and dinner party and I didn't even eat at or near the Cafe on that day, much less the rest of the time I was there.

Mine probably wasn't as much as these ones but it's still $100 charge that shouldn't be there. They really do need to start checking ID for charging to the room. Might be a hassle for people, but better to know that the person signing is the person from the room.

[tony404]

Im sorry LAJ, I gave them your name and they fedexed the food and drink to me. J/k

[mmemmer]

Good catch LAJ, curious as to why so often times they target the nice guys. As to what he thought, well how can you even include thinking as part of what whomever was doing.

[softball]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Huh? how do you get THAT from my post?

Someone was trying to rip him off.

Oops, my bad. I misread.

[Hammer]

I can't wait to find out who it was. Can you get a shot from the surveillance camera to post for all to see?

[LAJ]

Well... I can tell you now that the hotel is doing what they possibly can to make this go away. They paid me back and gave me perks and I'm guessing consider this case closed.

No one is returning my calls... and frankly... they are partially to blame in allowing this to happen in the first place for not asking for ID from the thief.

I'll tell ya this much... I've narrowed it down to one person that i'm about 90% on. They deny it, but the evidence is pretty overwhelming. I won't shame them (just yet).. BUT... I'm friends with their bosses and they are keeping an eye out. This person is all very new to the biz.

[ali25extreme]

Bad move on his part! Glad you got some perks out of it and they gave you your money back!

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Well... I can tell you now that the hotel is doing what they possibly can to make this go away. They paid me back and gave me perks and I'm guessing consider this case closed.

No one is returning my calls... and frankly... they are partially to blame in allowing this to happen in the first place for not asking for ID from the thief.

I'll tell ya this much... I've narrowed it down to one person that i'm about 90% on. They deny it, but the evidence is pretty overwhelming. I won't shame them (just yet).. BUT... I'm friends with their bosses and they are keeping an eye out. This person is all very new to the biz.

Candy ass.

[Buckwheat]

Don't even think about pulling the "Buckwheat Card"

[LAJ]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Candy ass.

Aw man.. that hurts!!

[SinSational]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Well... I can tell you now that the hotel is doing what they possibly can to make this go away. They paid me back and gave me perks and I'm guessing consider this case closed.

No one is returning my calls... and frankly... they are partially to blame in allowing this to happen in the first place for not asking for ID from the thief.

I'll tell ya this much... I've narrowed it down to one person that i'm about 90% on. They deny it, but the evidence is pretty overwhelming. I won't shame them (just yet).. BUT... I'm friends with their bosses and they are keeping an eye out. This person is all very new to the biz.

Damn, I was hoping you were going to get to the bottom of this so you could get some type of revenge.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by Buckwheat

Don't even think about pulling the "Buckwheat Card"

O-tay!

[Hammer]

If you conclusively determine it's the person you suspect there is only one thing the company he works for should do. Fire his ass.