It's true that any asshole can buy a badge. It's also true that any asshole with a REAL badge can end your freedom. In these cases, I always err on the side of caution.

I can't think of any good reason a cop would purposely reveal his badge to you if trying to take you down in a sting. Maybe they were just trying to get some ass, hoping you dig the whole "I'm a bad ass cop" thing? Flashing a badge...I've seen worse ways to hit on a woman. Probably even works for them sometimes.

Either way, ya, keep it movin. That's way too weird; better safe than sorry.

What, Feds and Narcos not your thing? LOL Awkwaaaaaard.

I can't make any sense out of the events of tonight for the life of me... I'd love to hear what you think.

I had a date set with a charming gent who is in town for the evening.  Screening went well and he was a joy to converse with.  I was REALLY looking forward to meeting him.

I arrive at the hotel (a high-end hotel which has quite a bit of activity tonight).  I valet my car without a hitch, go to the elevator and a gentleman enters behind me.  As soon as the doors close and he is directly across from me, he reaches to the side and sticks his hand in his pocket to get something.  He's wearing a badge.  I'm thinking this is a "I'm trying to discretely show you my badge" sort of thing.  I get off at my floor and try calling my date.  No answer.  I go back to the lobby.

I call a friend and start yakking about my office job and tell her I'm meeting up with some friends to grab some drinks and listen to the band.  I get an e-mail back, call him and ask if I can come up "to talk" (sounding like a jilted lover who may have been dumped recently) and proceed to get back into the elevator.  This time ANOTHER guy gets in right behind me.  While in the elevator he gets my attention, starts fiddling with his belt and flashes another badge.

Are they frickin' kidding me?!?!  I get off on the floor again and get the hell out of that place.  I call my date and he tells me he has seen plenty of girls there with no problem but he can hear the worry in my voice.  I am thoroughly sketched out by the very deliberate events in the elevator and he is being his charming self and taking it like a true gentleman.

So... here is what I am wondering:  a) cop convention?  b) trying to deter friends from meeting at the hotel?  maybe security?  the badges looked legit though... c) pulling a sting at the hotel?  d) some other sort of crime went down?

What would you make of tonight's events?  And no, I didn't walk in wearing a hot pink tube dress.  I was wearing a well-tailored skirt with a fitted blouse and nice coat.  I looked exactly like a girl who looks incredible after a long day at work... I just had a bag full of REALLY fun accessories instead of a laptop.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts... fire away!

The semi-discreet badge-flashing would have little effect on anyone other than a provider, their intended audience. If the woman turns out not to be a provider, they are at least "doing their job" and justifying their pay.

any action that appears "evasive" will only prove to them who and what you are. Don't forget almost all major hotels have security cameras in the hallways. Skipping floors in an attempt to evade security will only exacerbate your problem.

You did the right thing, again if you were indeed their target, while they can't do anything to you for "visiting a friend" hotel security does have the right to knock on the door,interrogate both of you, and if your client decides to spill his guts in an effort to save himself, well you can do the math.......

I went to see a gentleman at high end hotel as well. I'd been to the hotel before to visit a friend in town. I'm waiting in the lobby bar when the gentleman alerts me that he is caught in traffic and should be there momentarily. So I'm sitting at the bar and 3 guys in suits walk up to the bar having an obvious conversation about "being on the force". I act normally and kinda tilt my head to the side a little thinking.. "did I really just hear what I thought I heard?" About 10 seconds after they walked away I turned around to watch them go down an escalator. I look over the balcony and see some 100-150 police officers standing around gabbing about their divisions. I felt weak in the knees thinking "this is it. How am I gonna explain this to who ever comes to bail me out" I finish up my drink and as I decide to leave, the gentleman is walking in. I ask what he knows about the hotel and he tells me he stays all the time for business. I try to calm down and turn around to see a big poster on an easel "25th Annual "area" Officer Convention" I just had to laugh at myself when I saw that.... my date went well and I wasn't arrested by the way lol

haul ass out of there.Whatever was going on that hotel sounds like some funny business.It is weird how you saw the first guy in the elevator and then your date doesn't answer.Then he emails you and when you go back into the elevator here is the second guy I would be nervous at that point.Your date might have seen ladies there before but on the night you were there must've been something going on at the hotel.Sounds like LE and the first one was trying to see what floor you were getting off at.You did the right thing who knows if you had stayed they might have stopped you on the way out.

You call or text the client from some place other than the hotel proper.

He comes down and escorts you through the lobby and on up to your room.

Would that satisfy the hotel dicks (And I use that term to its fullest') and make them leave you alone?

I suppose the safest thing would be to start all over at another hotel, but what a supremem hassle.

What hotel is this by the way?

I want to be sure I avoid them at all cost.

-- Modified on 11/30/2010 10:19:16 AM

They are for sale all over the internet...  Cops of all descriptions have them, hotel security (if they so desire), PIs, etc.  They even make them for CCW (Carrying a Concealed Weapons) permits.  YOU on the other hand have no way to know at arms length just what the badges were.  Under cover LE does not accidentally flash badges.  Detectives may but it is surely no accident.  House Detectives / Security may certainly do so.  

In all likelihood, it was hotel security...  guessed attractive single lady...  apply a little heat & see if you react.  It's their job & it's a discreet.  Strange that the client did not pick up when you called from his floor.  

It takes brass balls to continue once you've been "made" as surely you were.  If you were uncomfortable, then you probably would not have had a good time, even if you had gotten into the room.

Personally, I would make my call from outside.  I'd not enter the hotel without knowing the room...  Then you get off the elevator & go to his room like you belong there (brass balls).  

I don't know the size of the hotel but that's a lot of Security personel.  
skb

Yeah wanna hear weird.... sitting at a hotel bar (drinking a coke cuz of age yada yada) and slowly get surrounded by other bar patrons who just so happen to be narc agents (dea) and fbi and having one of them keep insisting on putting anything you get on his tab ..... that was FUN.....was like 9 of em' ..... creepy.

Could have been either some kind of LE convention or a sting, good thing you got out of there with no problems.

who they were or what they were doing, but it is always best to listen to your gut instinct. Better safe than sorry.

That will show them.  But seriously, they probably won't arrest you for taking the elevator.  Yet.  I mean, the stairs are healthier, but I don't think they are forcing people to take the steps yet.  But that's next, after the cigarette laws, fast food ordinances, etc.

Not by LE...They would have snagged you...but by hotel security that wishes to quietly discourage naughty little rendezvous in their establishment.  Did they absolutely know you were there for some "boom boom". No , but they tracked a single lady walking through the front doors the moment you arrived.  The casual show of badges was to scare you off if indeed you were a pacticioner of the honorable and ancient profession.  If you were indeed a guest there was no downside of a badge being slightly visible.   Your caution was wise.

A while back on business trip to Kansas City, MO, my niece which was 19 at the time, decided to come and visit me at my hotel on a Friday evening. I was staying in a five-star large hotel in downtown.

She told me she will be at the hotel in half an hour, I gave her the room number and asked her to just come up when she arrives. Well, about an hour later, I hear a laud knock on my door, and several in succession, when I opened the door there was this old fat person grabbing my niece arm with his left, and flashing his hotel Security ID card with his right demanding to know if I knew this lady being very laud and agitated.

The first thing I told him in a very stern tone, to let go of her arm, and that she is my niece coming to visit me. He proceeded to interrogate me and her, I asked again to let go of her, and we exchanged a few choice words. I picked my phone and started to dial 911, as he was becoming very angry, and jerking my niece by the arm, he did stop me from making the call by trying to grab my phone, and then grabbing my arm.

At this time I pushed the record button on my phone, while he was accusing my niece of being a "hooker" and other derogatory words, and that he was going to get us both arrested in front all the hotel guests and dragged to jail. I advised him to release my niece now or else it is going to get physical, and he did. I told him what he did was considered an assault on myself and my niece, and that she and I were going to file a police report for assault, etc.

I made sure that all of this was taking place in the hall in view of the security cameras if they had any, by that time the manager had arrived with other security personnel, and asked what was going on. I explained the situation, and so did he. The manager requested we come down to his office to try to clear this misunderstanding, I told him that I have recorded the majority of the conversation on my phone, and that I am still recording, and that I am putting him and the hotel on notice to not tamper with the security tape.

After the manager reviewed the tape, I think; he came back and started apologizing for this security guard actions and promptly fired him in front of us, and had him escorted out of the hotel. He then asked me what the hotel can do to make it right, and I told him the hotel needs to make it right for my niece not to me.

She was generously compensated and we signed an agreement, on the condition that I delete the recorded conversation from my phone, to which I agreed.

I do not know what made this person think she was a "prostitute"; she is a young 19 year old typical college student who dresses her age, with little makeup, she is a head turner; she is perfect, I am so proud of her, my princes.

enter a hotel elevator, push several floor buttons so they don't know what floor you intend to exit.  After the badge is shown, then get off on a different floor walk down the hall to the ice machine and then back to take the elevator down to the lobby or better yet, floor 2 where there are public meeting rooms.  You need to be in a discrete place to make the call to the guy.

Most big city hotels have meeting rooms on the 2nd floor that are accessible by stairs or escalators.  After entering the lobby, use stairs or escalators to get to 2nd floor, use the restroom, then take an elevator to the guys room.  Should help loose the tail.

So not fair that women are judged by their looks/apparel or even just walking into an establishment as a SINGLE WOMAN!!  Why does single woman=solicitation???  

but hope you aren't  blaming the messenger.

You missed the point MP. She WAS popped. That was why she was there in the first place!

If the police had "made you" and wanted to arrest you, they wouldn't have alerted you.  Still, If that had happened to me I'd have left too.  It's not worth taking the additional risk.

floor the client is on.  Discretion is paramount and if they want to question the lady, she should just STFU.  Why lead security to the client's room?

No, never blaming the messenger.  

I am a member of SWOP and ACLU and am always blabbering my mouth about human rights issues!  

But I'm wondering... do you show your face on your website?

Although the goons in question never spoke, be aware that if anyone says to you that they are LEO and have "a badge," they are probably fakes.  There is a code among LEOs, why I don't know, that they only refer to it as a "shield."  It's one way to tell a veteran cop from a fake or a rookie.  And even a rookie would learn pretty damn quick.

RIGHT....I had a hard time convincing myself to act like I was supposed to be there and not break out in a cold ass sweat and run back to my room.

This is a little tangential but I was returning from a biz trip one Friday afternoon in the late 70's.  An associate of mine mentioned as we were coming back through the terminal that a well known, locally raised porn star (Hyapatia Lee) was dancing that evening at a club near the state capital.  Since we had caught an earlier flight and no one was expected at home, we decided to check it out.  We hadn't even taken a swig of our first beer when one of the club managers came by with a release to sign.  He says "hey, Inside Edition is filming a spot on Hyapatia here tonight.  Need to to sign a release in case you end up on film" - we were "outta there" in a flash.  Never did get to see her dance but certainly did enjoy some of her work on film.

A truly disgusting story.  Normally I hate to hear of someone losing his job over some incident but not this guy!  It really illustrates what women still have to put up with in this society.