NEEDLE IN BED OR POINTY ATTEMPT AT FREE SLEEP?

A long-running issue that sees drug-takers using public premises as private
hideaways has potentially resurfaced with four Abbotsford high school
students allegedly discovering a used needle and syringe in a hotel room bed.

Abbotsford Police Const. Shinder Kirk said discoveries of drug-related
items in hotels had been reported by local police over the past five years
and the potential was there for future cases.

And despite not having details of the latest alleged find, he was "not at
all surprised" to hear of the alleged discovery taking past incidents into
account.

"We have had calls from hotels and it is a problem throughout the Lower
Mainland. We have answered calls at hotels, perhaps where guests have
outstayed their welcome, and after they have left we have found drug
paraphernalia."

However, he said hotels were not the only places where the problem had
surfaced.

He said other areas, such as service station washrooms, had seen drug users
go inside for up to an hour and debris had later been found in garbage
cans. "It is certainly an issue. If you own a business to which the public
have access, you may find you get this problem. Hotels are not immune. If
you are travelling anywhere, you should give the room a once over and look
under the sheets and under the beds for debris or other hygiene issues."

Kirk said hotel rooms had always been notorious, not only for drug-taking,
but also for branches of crime where privacy aided operation.

"You get stolen property in there as well, if you want to get into all that
happens in hotel rooms. They can also house sex-trade workers but that is
something that has not been experienced here."

His comments follow an incident at 4:30 a.m. on March 21 when the four
students claim to have found a needle and syringe in a bed at the Alpine
Johnson Express Inn on Marshall Road.

"I just pulled back the blanket and there was a needle lying in the middle
of the bed," said Josh Beavington, 18.

"The lights were off and I just jumped up and started flipping out . . . We
put it in a towel and went straight downstairs. We were offered a different
room, but it was 4:30 in the morning and we wanted to get to sleep. This
should not happen. We were paying money to have a good night's sleep and
the needle could have potentially hurt me. We were all disgusted by it."

The student claims the needle and syringe was five and a half inches long
altogether, with the remnants of some kind of fluid inside. The cap had
been placed back on the needle.

The four friends decided to book the room as a way of getting together and
listening to music without disturbance.

But Beavington admitted the experience had put them off taking a similar
option in the future.

"It was the first time, and the last time. It was a really cringy feeling
lying in the other beds after that."

Hotel manager Jass Dhatt dismissed the claims and accused the group of
planting the needle to obtain a free night out. He refused to give them a
refund.

"What they were trying to do was get a room out of me for nothing. I spoke
to the housemaid afterwards and she said there was nothing there."

Dhatt said it had been the first complaint of this nature made against the
hotel since he became manager three years ago.

"If there was any kind of indication any of our staff were using these
things, they would be out straight away. We are dealing with the public and
it is their safety that counts.

"This is a service industry and it has to be clean. It is not just my
policy but the policy of all hotels in Abbotsford."

He discarded the needle immediately after receiving it, due to what he said
were potential safety issues.

"If you rent a room at 7 o'clock, you are not going to find something like
that at 4:30 in the morning. They planted it," he said.

He said he refunded $20 of the $85 cost of the room after the complaint and
offered them a switch as a gesture of goodwill.

"How much can you budge? Most places would not even go that far. My mind is
totally clear."