A front desk worker at a Fourth Avenue hotel is charged with using her key card to slip into a guest's room and steal his prescription drugs on Friday, said Detective Capt. William Stanton.
Andrea Rachel Chan, 26, of 51 Columbus Ave. Apt. 1, Waltham, was charged with possession of a Class C drug, possession of a Class B drug and larceny of drugs, police said.
She pleaded not guilty yesterday at her arraignment at Waltham District Court. Judge Gregory Flynn continued her arraignment to tomorrow.
A guest at Extended Stay Hotel, 32 Fourth Ave., told police he had stepped out of his third-floor room around 4 p.m. for five minutes, and when he returned, found someone had stolen his medications, Stanton said. He had locked the door before leaving, according to the police report.
The guest discovered his medications, oxycodone and clonazepam, were missing and called 911, according to the report. Oxycodone is a prescription painkiller and clonazepam is an anti-anxiety medication, among other uses.
Police and the front desk manager checked the card access computer panel to determine who keyed into the man's room, according to the police report.
An officer questioned the front desk attendant, Chan, who initially denied entering the room, but later admitted to entering the room. She said she checking vacant rooms for damage.
At one point, she told police that she had dropped her key card in the third-floor hallway, suggesting it may have been used by someone else to enter the room.
The manager, citing policy, fired Chan, according to police.
As Chan was leaving the hotel, the manager saw her take a small white bag from under her desk, police said. In the bag, the manager found the guest's medication bottles, police said.
Police were called back to the hotel and questioned Chan again. She admitted going into the guest's room, taking the drugs and putting them in two bottles of her own, the report said. She took police to some bushes outside the hotel where she had hidden those bottles, police said.
She told police she had run "out of her medications and needed more," the officer wrote in his report.
Joyce Kelly can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jkelly@cnc.com.
