Updated: Mystery Fumes Trigger Hotel Evacuation

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A robot and bomb squad prepare to enter Casa del Camino hotel.
A robot and bomb squad prepare to enter La Casa del Camino hotel Friday, March 11, and ultimately found nothing illegal or the source of odor that set off the incident.

A hotel guest whose suspicious behavior triggered a bomb-squad search of an evacuated Laguna Beach hotel apparently had fled before police sealed off the area, a police spokesman said Friday, March 11.

A platoon of armed sheriff’s SWAT team members who entered the three-level, 36-room La Casa del Camino to search it room by room turned up no one, including in the top floor room where police initially suspected a guest had barricaded himself inside, Sgt. Tim Kleiser said.

The SWAT team didn’t find anything suspicious or illegal in their search and police still don’t know

Armed officers enter La Casa del Camino to clear the building where a man is barricaded on the top floor.
Armed officers enter La Casa del Camino to clear the building where a man is barricaded on the top floor.

the source of the odor that prompted the voluntary evacuation of the hotel, Kleiser said. Police intend to question the absent guest about his whereabouts, he said.

In a statement issued by a hotel spokesman, the smell was attributed to a bottle of cologne being left unattended on a heater. No  guests required medical treatment and the hotel reopened by 4 p.m., said a statement from spokeswoman Jennifer Morris.

Earlier, the 52-year-old unidentified overnight guest from Gilroy, his eyes watering and red, closed the door in the face of firefighters and told them he refused to evacuate along with other guests, who were leaving the hotel due to a noxious smell, Kleiser said. Firefighters reported smelling a strong perfume-like smell emanating from his room as well, Kleiser said.

Guests started complaining about a cough-inducing peppery odor wafting through the hotel about 6:30 a.m., said owner Chris Keller, who spent the afternoon outside on closed Cress Street conferring with police amid displaced staff, guests and onlookers.

A SWAT team wearing gas masks and operating a robot that looked like a combat-ready motorized scooter entered the hotel about noon to test the air. Keller said the air samples detected nothing unusual, though Kleiser could not confirm the results.

Even as the search was underway, Keller proved prescient in speculating that the man whose uncivil behavior prompted the huge police presence might have already exited.

Incident commander Capt. Darin Lenyi said police deployed an array of resources in reaction to the guest’s unusual behavior corresponding with the unusual odors. “There were too many things suspicious,” he said.

Police took over the Cress Street beach access for a command post.
Police took over the Cress Street beach access for a command post.

Meanwhile, refugee hotel guests were taken in by the neighboring Surf & Sand hotel or hung out at the nearby restaurant, Avila’s El Ranchito, Keller said.

One guest returned from an early morning gym workout to find himself locked out of the hotel. Without keys to his rental car or money to pay for a cab, Chris, a frequent guest from Toronto who declined to give his last name, said he rescheduled a business meeting at a local coffee shop still wearing his workout clothes. Moreover, he missed a 2 p.m. flight home.

“This is a good exercise for us to go through as hoteliers,” Keller said in a statement. “The fire department and police department have been outstanding. Our guests are really amazing and understanding. This is how a community comes together.”

Police activity closing down Cress Street thoroughly congested Coast Highway and likely changed the trajectory of a visit by former President George W. Bush, said Lenyi. Bush was to stay in town Friday after attending the funeral service in Simi Valley for First Lady Nancy Reagan.

 

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