Carlo DiMarco pulled into the Doubletree by Hilton near the Galleria one night last year, and did what hundreds before him did: He handed the keys to his car, in this case a Porsche Panamera, to the valet parking service and headed to his room. The next day, when he went to retrieve the vehicle, it was gone.
But the Porsche, it turns out, wasn't stolen in the usual sense. Valets allegedly handed the keys to someone else, who drove off with the $120,000 sports car, which has never been recovered.
The events of that night are now at the center of lawsuit filed recently in Harris County District Court against Hilton Worldwide, the franchise owner, the property management company, and the parking vendor. The complaint alleges negligence and fraud and seeks unspecified damages between $200,000 and $1 million.
Hilton Worldwide, its franchise owner and management company did not respond to comment. Efforts to reach the valet parking company were not successful.
The Porsche, a 2014 model, was just over a year old when DeMarco, 36, of Austin, arrived at he Doubletree on May 25, 2015 for a weekend stay. The hotel, according to the lawsuit, told DiMarco that the valet parking service's "midnight crew" had given the car to another individual at some point after DeMarco checked in.
While data is hard to find, valet-related car theft is not necessarily unusual, taking several forms. Sometimes valet attendants give the keys to the wrong driver, but other times, thieves get their hands on the keys themselves, according to news reports. At an Atlanta restaurant last year, thieves managed to steal keys from a valet station and drive off with three cars.
Other times, drivers leave their cars running and before the valet attendant can get in, a thief jumps in and drives off. In Florida last year, a man posed as a valet attendant and when restaurant patrons dropped off their cars, the "attendant" took off.
DiMarco reported the missing car to Houston Police, who watched the hotel surveillance tape, said David M. Gottfried, an Austin lawyer representing DiMarco. It showed two men walking up to the valet stand, the attendant giving one of them the keys, and the unidentified men driving off in the car.
The video showed the car was parked in front of the hotel, rather than the garage, Gottfried said.
When DiMarco reported the stolen car to the hotel, the lawsuit said, staff there told him that valet services are provided by an independent contractor and to take up the problem with the parking company. The parking attendants were wearing Double Tree by Hilton uniforms, according to the lawsuit.
Since then, DiMarco said in an interview, he's been going in circles. Chad Schiefelbein, the lawyer for the hotel franchise owner, HDH Tenant, wrote DiMarco that the hotel is not liable for the theft because he did not park the car with the hotel, but with an independent company that offers services to hotel guests. When contacted, Schiefelbein said he could not comment.
Scottsdale Insurance Co., which is part of Nationwide, represents the valet parking service. According to a letter it sent DiMarco, Scottsdale Insurance denied the claim because the property damage policy doesn't include theft. The insurer did not return a call for comment.
And DiMarco's personal insurance company offered him only $68,000 to replace the Porsche.
Not only would DiMarco lose something like $50,000 in value on the car, which had less than 5,000 miles, but he would also have to give up his legal rights to recover the full value.
He took out a six-year loan and continues to pay $2,000 a month in car payments. All he has to show for it is the valet claim ticket.
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