Security guard accused of stealing from Embassy Suites room

CHARLESTON - A woman is suing Embassy Suites for damages she allegedly suffered after a security guard wrongfully entered her hotel room multiple times and stole important possessions.

Atrium TRS V LLC is doing business as Embassy Suites.

Security America Inc. and Larry Peck were also named as defendants in the suit.

On April 30, 2012, Kelly L. McCoy traveled to Charleston to attend a conference so she could accumulate sufficient hours of continuing education to maintain her license as a clinician, according to a complaint filed Aug. 9 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

McCoy claims she chose to stay at Embassy Suites and, despite the expense of the hotel, Embassy did not furnish a safe in her room and she was not given the option of leaving any valuables with the front desk in the hotel safe.

McCoy claims she left the hotel at 6:45 p.m. for a baseball game by shuttle and returned to the hotel around 11:30 p.m.

While McCoy was at the game, her boyfriend called the hotel because he was unable to contact her, and he contacted the hotel and requested they check on her, according to the suit.

McCoy claims despite the fact that there was no way to confirm the identity of the caller or his relationship to McCoy and the fact that it violated company policy, the Embassy Suites management directed and/or permitted Peck and a female employee to enter McCoy's room to check on her status.

As directed and/or permitted by Embassy Suites management, Peck and the female employee entered McCoy's room without her permission, ignoring the "Do Not Disturb" sign on her door handle, according to the suit.

McCoy claims when she returned, she found Peck standing outside her room and he informed her that she should contact her boyfriend, who had called for her.

"McCoy was extremely upset that Embassy Suites management had directed and/or permitted Peck and another employee to enter her room without her permission, but she was tired and decided to go to sleep. She elected to discuss this invasion of her privacy in the morning with Embassy Suites management," according to the suit.

McCoy claims on May 3, at 12:29 a.m. and 1:23 a.m., Peck, while on duty, entered her room a second and third time without her permission or consent using a keycard supplied to Peck by Embassy Suites management, and at the time of the second and third wrongful entries into McCoy's room, McCoy was in her room sleeping soundly.

Peck wrongfully entered her room multiple times and stole her wedding ring, her mother's wedding ring, $50 and her prescribed pain medication, according to the suit.

McCoy claims Peck was employed by Security America Inc. at Embassy Suites.

McCoy is seeking compensatory and punitive damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. She is being represented by James K. Tinney and John K. Cecil of the Tinney Law Firm PLLC.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 13-C-1523