A Porsche Panamera Vanished After A Valet Gave The Keys To The Wrong Guy
We’re sure there are plenty of good valet parkers out there. Valet parkers who are friendly, courteous and careful. However, unfortunately for the profession, the valet stories we’re most likely to hear involve joyrides and crashes, and the latest valet fail we bring you is the scariest of the lot.
It all started when Carlo DiMarco handed the keys to his Porsche Panamera over to valet staff at the Houston branch of DoubleTree by Hilton. When he went to retrieve the car a day later, it had gone, because staff had given the keys to a complete stranger, who clearly couldn’t say no to a free Porsche.
Over a year has passed, and the Porsche hasn’t been seen since. The hotel is still refusing to pay up, too. Hilton has passed the buck on to the valet provider, Enterprise Parking Services, Inc. DiMarco is suing the firm, which won’t pay either since its insurance policy doesn’t cover theft. Oops.
Speaking to NY Daily News, DiMarco reckons Hilton should cough up if the valet company continues to refuse a payout:
“You have a valet company operating your car and if they give your car to the wrong person they don’t have adequate coverage…The charge shows up on your bill when you check out, when you look at the telephone in the hotel room there is a valet button - this looks, feels and smells like a Hilton service regardless of whether it’s provided by a third party.”
His own insurance company valued the car at $68,000, well under the $125,000 he believes it was worth at the time. He said that he’ll continue to seek restitution through litigation rather than file a claim with his own insurance, something which seems likely to take some time.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Never do valet
About a year and a half ago I went to a fancy dinner at a hotel restaurant with some inlaws and reluctantly handed my keys to a valet… who then proceeded to flail his feet like an epileptic and do one of the most painful sounding hard stalls ever. I promptly told him to get the f*k out of my car. The manager or a clerk or something came out and rode in the passenger seat showing me to the service lot and apologizing profusely.
Only other story I have is waaay back I had a small 3 day job in Hawaii. I had some generic rental car. I was invited to some restaurant, clumsily found my way there, and parked in the lot on the side not realizing it was a valet lot and I was supposed to pull up to the front. The valet flipped out at me like “You can’t do that! You need to pull the car up here!” and literally wouldn’t let me go inside where the person I was doing the job for was waiting. I had to go into the lot, get the car, pull it up, and hand it to the valet. Then when I came out the guy brought the car and demanded a tip. I grabbed my key out of his hand, got into the car and drove off with the guy screaming at the top of his lungs at me as I left.
The Porsche owner probably didn’t tip the valet last time he was there… and they remembered
Never gonna use Valet anymore. Never
I’m a valet driver. Any questions?
Porsche guy, he probably lost his job
if it’s not been seen for a year, i’d say its been broken up for spares.