If you’re staying at a luxury hotel, most people are expecting the best of the best. That wasn’t the case for one American woman who is suing a luxury hotel chain for allegedly delivering a bottle of water that had been contaminated with human semen.
The woman and her husband were staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, California, in November 2022 for four nights. One evening, the wife requested a few bottles of water to their room, which were delivered by a member of the hotel staff.
The woman, referred to as Jane Doe, put one of the bottles on the nightstand next to her bed and fell asleep without taking a drink from it. Later that night, she woke up and took a swig of water without looking at the bottle, only to immediately recognize the odd taste.
“She opened it, took a drink, and knew immediately that something was wrong with the liquid she had just swallowed,” the woman’s lawyers said. “Jane Doe was mortified, terrified, embarrassed, and humiliated, but shared her suspicion with her husband, who then asked the hotel security and management representatives to call the police.”
The couple reported the incident to police, explaining that the water bottle that had been delivered to them by the luxury hotel’s staff contained “semen-contaminated water.” After a quick test, the results proved the couple had been correct in their analysis.
“The Ritz-Carlton subsequently sent the water bottle to a laboratory for analysis, and the testing confirmed that the water contained semen,” the lawsuit reads.
The couple is now taking the hotel chain to court for condoning its employee’s behavior after it issued a statement saying it would not disclose any information on the identities of hotel employees on duty at the time. The pair are suing it for sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and loss of consortium, claiming that its actions, or lack thereof, caused her to experience symptoms like “anguish, nervousness, anxiety, grief, worry, shock, humiliation, and embarrassment.”