A B.C. couple is demanding answers – or at least a refund – after they woke up to find a stranger lying next to them in their hotel bed.
Joanie Blair and her partner Hannah checked into the Island Travel Inn in downtown Victoria for a one-night stay on March 28, and assumed they were in for a quiet night.
What they got was anything but.
“We’d gotten in late,” said Blair, who lives on the mainland in Hope. “We were stressed, frazzled from the trip there, just wanted to relax.”
The couple put on the TV and curled up in bed, then dozed off shortly after. That’s when the trouble started.
“I woke up with Hannah on one side of me and a strange body on the other side,” Blair said. “It seemed like a dream. I didn’t know what was up but my first instinct was to push him, push him out of bed.”
The man stood up but refused to leave, and the couple said he seemed black-out drunk.
They called 911 and eventually managed to push him out into the hall. Neither of the women were hurt, but they said they’re unhappy with what they feel has been a lack of accountability ever since.
The hotel has so far refused to give their money back, and it appears the alleged intruder, a 25-year-old man who was tracked down by police, won’t be charged.
Const. Mike Russell said there’s not enough evidence to charge the man with break-and-enter, and that the incident appears to have been a drunken mistake.
“We determined booze was a significant factor,” Russell said, adding that police “aren’t quite sure how he got in at this point.”
The hotel manager told CTV News the women must have left their door open, and that nobody could have accessed the room without an extra key.
Blair said she can’t figure out how the intruder got in, but insisted their door was locked. Despite how everything has turned out, she said she doesn’t consider herself a victim – just an “unfortunate guest in a hotel.”
“It’s $80 bucks wasted on a crap night,” she said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Sheila Scott
