New Orleans Hotel Offering $15,000 Stay to Past Guest Who Stole the ‘Most Outrageous’ Item

Anyone with a moral compass knows that stealing is bad, but what if you were rewarded for your sticky fingers? As Condé Nast Traveler reports, The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana is offering a free seven-night stay in its Presidential Suite to the person who returns the “most outrageous” item stolen from the hotel in the past.

This unusual (and oddly specific) promotion is valued at $15,000. According to general manager Tod Chambers, the person who hands over the strangest stolen item will also receive private dinners prepared by the hotel’s executive chef, as well as spa services. The hotel is located near the French Quarter, and it would be an affordable way to vacation in a vibrant city.

Does this offer sound suspicious? They promise they won’t ask any questions, and they won’t have police officers waiting to arrest you in the lobby. The stolen item will even be returned to you when the promotion ends, if the guilt isn’t too much to bear.

The “giveback sweepstakes” is part of the hotel’s 125th anniversary celebration. The business has existed in different incarnations over the years—first as the Grunewald Hotel, then as the Roosevelt, then as a Fairmont property, and finally as the Roosevelt once again (though it's now part of the Waldorf Astoria family). Eligible items could have been swiped at any point in the hotel's history, and those items can be dropped off or mailed to the hotel’s marketing department (with this PDF form attached). The hotel says they will be displayed in lobby window cases and then returned to owners, if they wish.

According to Chambers, the stolen items are another way of celebrating the hotel’s heritage. “In a way, knowing they have something that reminds them of our Roosevelt in their own homes? Well, that leaves us flattered,” Chambers says. “We’d estimate nearly 700 of our logoed Sazerac glasses are ‘borrowed’ from the bar during the holiday season alone.”

So far, the hotel has received menus, postcards, a plate, stemware, a tablecloth, bud vases, and brass keys.