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I am confused about why she is charged with theft. If I do business with someone and they don't pay me, that person doesn't go to jail. That's why you qualif

by adrr 8y ago

I am confused about why she is charged with theft. If I do business with someone and they don't pay me, that person doesn't go to jail. That's why you qualify your customers and/or ask them to pay deposits. Every hotel I stayed at makes me prepay and put a deposit down for incidentals. It seems the hotels mentioned in the article failed to do even basic diligence and even violated their own rules by allowing Anna to stay at a hotel without a valid credit card or deposit. That is their incompetence and shouldn't involve the criminal system.

mruts 8y ago
It's because the hotels are rent seeking and seek to offload as much risk as they can into the legal system. Edit: This is also why faking loan documents and wire fraud is a crime.
detaro 8y ago
Hotels demand deposits as a kind of insurance, so they can get damages paid without involving the court system. That does not mean that not paying a hotel is legal, or that having a deposit protects you from being sued, it just means that the hotels prefer to solve the "getting paid" problem in a more direct, cheaper way when they can. And of course if it doesn't involve large sums, police are less likely to pay attention than in bigger cases like this one, so they might not actually inform the police either, even if they could (especially if it's not 100% clear it was intentional). It doesn't suddenly become non-criminal to defraud someone just because they didn't insist on the money in advance. She obtained services under the pretense she'd be able to pay for it, and didn't pay. That's basically the definition of "theft of services", and only in scale different from you jumping out of a cab at the end of the journey and running away without paying.
ufmace 8y ago
I'd say that you need a certain amount of trust around to make society work, and maintaining that trust requires that there be some real consequence when you go too far outside the lines. I don't think anybody would like it if, say, every hotel in the country wouldn't give you a room without the full cost prepaid in a confirmed bank transfer ahead of time, plus enough of a deposit to cover any mess you might make. Particularly the actual high-roller customers that they really want. And so people generally get a certain amount of trust extended to them, generally with various bad consequences for violating that trust. Not a lawyer, but I think you can technically be charged criminally for most such thefts. It's just not commonly done for single acts and small amounts, because the process is expensive for everyone, and more modest measures are usually good enough for everyone involved. But when you run around like Anna did, constantly juggling bank accounts and credit cards and making promises all over the city but never actually paying anyone, and keep it going for months and months and do it to like a half dozen hotels, eventually, there needs to be some firmer consequences than just trying to get money out of a stone.
stevenwoo 8y ago
This story was printed earlier (first?) and details the court case with the writer as an individual: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with...

by adrr 8y ago

mruts 8y ago

It's because the hotels are rent seeking and seek to offload as much risk as they can into the legal system. Edit: This is also why faking loan documents and wire fraud is a crime.

detaro 8y ago

Hotels demand deposits as a kind of insurance, so they can get damages paid without involving the court system. That does not mean that not paying a hotel is legal, or that having a deposit protects you from being sued, it just means that the hotels prefer to solve the "getting paid" problem in a more direct, cheaper way when they can. And of course if it doesn't involve large sums, police are less likely to pay attention than in bigger cases like this one, so they might not actually inform the police either, even if they could (especially if it's not 100% clear it was intentional). It doesn't suddenly become non-criminal to defraud someone just because they didn't insist on the money in advance. She obtained services under the pretense she'd be able to pay for it, and didn't pay. That's basically the definition of "theft of services", and only in scale different from you jumping out of a cab at the end of the journey and running away without paying.

ufmace 8y ago

I'd say that you need a certain amount of trust around to make society work, and maintaining that trust requires that there be some real consequence when you go too far outside the lines. I don't think anybody would like it if, say, every hotel in the country wouldn't give you a room without the full cost prepaid in a confirmed bank transfer ahead of time, plus enough of a deposit to cover any mess you might make. Particularly the actual high-roller customers that they really want. And so people generally get a certain amount of trust extended to them, generally with various bad consequences for violating that trust. Not a lawyer, but I think you can technically be charged criminally for most such thefts. It's just not commonly done for single acts and small amounts, because the process is expensive for everyone, and more modest measures are usually good enough for everyone involved. But when you run around like Anna did, constantly juggling bank accounts and credit cards and making promises all over the city but never actually paying anyone, and keep it going for months and months and do it to like a half dozen hotels, eventually, there needs to be some firmer consequences than just trying to get money out of a stone.

stevenwoo 8y ago

This story was printed earlier (first?) and details the court case with the writer as an individual: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with...