While Coachella raged, burglars quietly hit a luxury resort

During Coachella weekend, burglars stole over $100K in designer goods from multiple rooms at the five-star La Quinta Resort and Club.

Preferring designer clothing, handbags, and sunglasses to traceable items like laptops or electronics, thieves entered rooms at the posh resort while the concert-goers were off partying. Some folks were so tired they didn't notice their room had been robbed until others brought the crime to their attention. There were no signs of forced entry, and the burglars seemed to have known which rooms to hit to collect a lot of easily sellable stuff.

Security took a couple of hours to arrive at the room, he said, and a police officer told him that they were the fifth room that had reported a theft so far that night.

On discovering that multiple hotel rooms throughout the 45-acre property had been hit, the affected parties formed a group chat of 20 people, according to Brownridge. Several have filed police reports (the Riverside County Sheriff's Department did not reply to SFGATE with comment by time of publication). When a security guard inspected the lock on Brownridge and King's room, the pair said that the guard mentioned that there was a "misplaced" housekeeping key that appeared to have been used. La Quinta did not confirm to SFGATE that a hotel key was used to access the rooms.

None of the three people interviewed felt pleased with the response from La Quinta management.

"Lack of urgency, lack of communication, lack of not even responsibility, but care and empathy," said King.

SF Gate

A "misplaced" housekeeping key was used to enter the rooms. So, is it an inside job?