Submitted by Viking603 t3_11bmb1i in newhampshire
Comments
Viking603 OP t1_j9yt91p wrote
And all the extra hotel costs.
Baremegigjen t1_j9zj59q wrote
And the travel costs to New York and all additional expenses for changing flights, lodging in New York, as well as meals and incidentals.
ImprintVector t1_j9ykzyk wrote
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume it was deliberate.
GPwarrior0709 t1_j9z74w9 wrote
That’s my thought. Those passports could sell for big money!
MornduNH t1_j9ynf3j wrote
To what end? More likely a Night Auditor misread a note in the FD journal.
Viking603 OP t1_j9ysggp wrote
That's why I question "mistakenly". Someone would spend several minutes shredding 44 passports. No contacting the group to see if they forgot them, nope, straight to the shredder.
NHBrian t1_ja2iiol wrote
It was a shredding company so it just gets dumped into a large industrial shredder. Takes a second or two to shred. More likely the hotel person set it on the recycle box because they were busy and planning on putting them away later and just forgot.
Sixfeatsmall05 t1_j9zvqgp wrote
There is zero reason for a hotel to shred any passport. Zero.
Viking603 OP t1_j9ylxw5 wrote
Agreed
CrowmanVT t1_j9z74t5 wrote
For what it’s worth, it’s very common on school trips with minors for the school staff to collect all the student passports and put them in the hotel safe for safekeeping. Kids lose shit… I doubt the hotel demanded them. It’s more likely they are asked to hold them, with unfortunate results.
bigkat5000 t1_ja7x4mo wrote
Agreed this is the most likely scenario.
Secure_View6740 t1_j9z3alp wrote
Who takes a perfectly valid passport and says hey let me shred that. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to tamper or destroy a govt document.
Tiggerthetiger t1_j9yk6d1 wrote
Is it common to have to surrender your passport to a hotel?
blzac33 t1_j9ys58f wrote
No, not common to surrender your passport to a hotel. In fact it is illegal in the US. I’ve had my passport taken in Europe while the front desk fills out paperwork but I either wait, or they bring it up to me within the hour.
Gr8hound t1_j9z2ayt wrote
That was my understanding too. Illegal in the US. Restricting someone’s travel sounds a lot like kidnapping.
hidden_verb t1_j9yliu1 wrote
Usually they just make a copy. I have never given a hotel my passport.
Viking603 OP t1_j9yqxwh wrote
I have had it tried on me. Told them no, they said you have to if you plan to stay here. I said by and turned to leave. Almost to the door when they said, ok you can stay.
Ok_Low_1287 t1_ja7liha wrote
very common overseas. I did this in Russia, Ukraine, Dubai, Yemen, Bosnia, Turkey, Korea,....
hidden_verb t1_ja7obpu wrote
Interesting. I have been to a little over 40 different countries. Have never and would never.
Ok_Low_1287 t1_ja7r6mx wrote
it's more common in authoritarian governments that want to keep track of you.
Granolapitcher t1_ja12y5i wrote
You never should leave your passport out of sight
Viking603 OP t1_j9ykuy3 wrote
Yes. I've never liked it. It is usually done to prevent you from skipping out on the bill.
akmjolnir t1_ja2pnhk wrote
That's why you pre-authorized with a credit card.
bigkat5000 t1_ja7y8yj wrote
Minors are asked to provide them to the chaperones, who in turn provide them to the front desk manager to be locked in a safe. Clearly the "safe" part didn't happen here.
Jerney23 t1_ja2156k wrote
They were probably stolen to be used illegally. I would want every piece of paper supposedly from them
BackItUpWithLinks t1_j9yiqit wrote
“Mistakenly”
?
No, mistakenly. What makes you think it wasn’t a mistake?
Viking603 OP t1_j9yjjlk wrote
Unless the lodge has a commercial shredder, a person cannot feed all the passports at once into a shredder. 1 or 2 maybe, but 44? No.
Sixfeatsmall05 t1_j9zw16j wrote
Give me one legitimate reason for a hotel to shred any passport. Passports are the property of the government that issued it. If lost or found (which, is hard to do inside a hotel) they are to be sent back to be destroyed. So give me your one good reason any passport should ever be mistakenly destroyed, let alone 40
BackItUpWithLinks t1_j9zwobc wrote
> Give me one legitimate reason
Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
EricPostpischil t1_ja0xqeb wrote
> So give me your one good reason any passport should ever be mistakenly destroyed, let alone 40
One hypothesis: The hotel routinely collects sensitive documents to be shredded by a service. The front desk clerk put the passports in a large envelope, and another employee, possibly new in their position, mistakenly sent the wrong envelope to be shredded. Nobody knowingly shredded passports.
MajorTrouble t1_ja1yqi7 wrote
This is most likely, IMO
PoorInCT t1_ja2h1wj wrote
What does a hotel need with a shredding service?
Darwins_Dog t1_ja2mwkn wrote
They routinely collect personal information about their guests?
Gatsby1923 t1_ja0nu94 wrote
Why wasn't this on WMUR?
Viking603 OP t1_ja0vfao wrote
They're too busy with the misparked trailer in Manch.
Gatsby1923 t1_ja1e8af wrote
Can't have real news... in 20 years the ghost of Fitz Weatherby will be telling the tail of the misparked trailer at 7.
procrastinatorsuprem t1_j9ysjv0 wrote
I can't open the link, is this at a hotel in NH?
Viking603 OP t1_j9ytudb wrote
Happened at the Kancamangus Lodge. A British school group traveling here went to checkout and were told 44 passports were "mistakenly shredded". The group then had to travel to NYC to get replacement documents so they could board the plane back home.
procrastinatorsuprem t1_j9yub5g wrote
Thank you very much.
DeerFlyHater t1_j9ynpur wrote
Jeesh. What kind of shredder is this? Must be a beast.
Also, I had to look it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Country
Viking603 OP t1_j9ypebj wrote
Exactly. I don't think a family run lodge has a shredder capable of shredding 44 passports at once.
jcb10Red t1_jaepmh1 wrote
Businesses that deal with a lot of sensitive documents routinely have a bulk shredding company collect large bags (or at my current job, locked trashcans that have a small slot on top) of shredding. This almost certainly wasn't someone hand-feeding them through a wastebasket-sized shredder.
smartest_kobold t1_j9yotz1 wrote
My guess is they were mistakenly given to a bulk shredder.
Or maybe someone assumed they were fake because they weren't red. Enjoy your Brexit kids.
Sixfeatsmall05 t1_j9zwayp wrote
Neither of these are legit. Why were passports anywhere except under lock and key. Second, again, no private citizen has the authority to destroy a passport. “Oh look at all these passports, they must be fake” is ludicrous and criminal because again, property of the government that issued. So no mistake here
OldEnoughToKnowButtr t1_ja7pfkg wrote
Why the police won't comment? Because minors involved?! I call BS. Local cops are buddies with the owner, would be my guess.
bigkat5000 t1_ja7xbkq wrote
No, because there's going to be a TON of lawsuits following this debacle. That's why.
KrissaKray t1_ja2i30c wrote
Why was the hotel holding the passports in the first place??
NHGuy t1_jaeuj9v wrote
Not sure why I had to get to the last comment to read the same question I had. I'd never turn my passport over to anyone
Whynotyours t1_j9yqe0l wrote
The hotel should, at the very least, be refunding their replacement costs.