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twitterConvention attendee challenges $29,512 tab at adult club
Published Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 1:55 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 7:23 p.m.
A conventioneer from Massachusetts is challenging a $29,512 bill for a night of entertainment and drinks at a topless dancing club in Las Vegas.
James Hackett of Andover, Mass., filed a lawsuit Friday in Las Vegas against the owner of the Club Paradise Gentlemen's Club and American Express Co., disputing the amount that was billed to his American Express card last Oct. 12.
Adam Gentile, general manager of Club Paradise, said Tuesday he was not familiar with Hackett's claims. He said it's not unusual for someone to run up a large, confirmed bill at the club and later regret it -- in which case the dispute over payment of the bill would be between the customer and the credit card company.
Hackett says he flew to Las Vegas Oct. 11 to attend the Direct Marketing Association Trade Show. After checking in to the Las Vegas Hilton, he went to a Hilton hotel bar to watch a Boston Red Sox baseball game on television and had some vodka martinis, his lawsuit says.
While watching the game, someone handed him his wallet and said Hackett had dropped it, Hackett's suit says. Nothing was missing from the wallet, but Hackett noticed his driver's license and American Express card had been switched from their usual positions.
Hackett said in his lawsuit he talked to some Red Sox fans from Phoenix, left for the hotel lobby and apparently blacked out there and can't remember anything else that may have happened that night.
He called his wife the next morning and told her about the dropped wallet incident and had her check with his credit card companies to ensure there were no unauthorized charges, the lawsuit says.
No problems with his credit cards were immediately detected. But after returning to Massachusetts, Hackett said he learned of a series of charges to his American Express card by Club Paradise between 2:55 a.m. and 8:54 a.m. on Oct. 12.
These totaled $29,512 -- about $4,000 for a bar tab and more than $25,000 for "unexplained services" involving entertainers "Paulina," "Jani Lee," "Isabel," "Vanessa," "Roxanne" and "Lexi."
Hackett said in his lawsuit he has no recollection of visiting Club Paradise and that he filed police reports in Massachusetts and Las Vegas about the incident.
But the lawsuit says that after he challenged the charges, Club Paradise provided him with documents purportedly signed by Hackett in connection with the charges.
The documents said the club is not involved with prostitution or escort services, that he was not drunk or impaired and that he was not under duress when he purportedly signed the documents, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit, filed in Clark County District Court, asks the court to determine if Club Paradise actually provided services to Hackett, and if so, whether Hackett knowingly consented to the charges or if he was intoxicated, drugged or otherwise impaired; and if the services provided were prohibited by law.
The lawsuit questions not only whether the charges were valid, but the amount charged.
"Such charges are astounding and cannot be supported as reasonable, including charges for entertainment totaling over $25,000 and charges for alcohol of $4,000, the value and quantity of which would have rendered any person so intoxicated as to have no capacity to knowingly consent to any services or charges supplied by defendant Club Paradise," the suit alleges.
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...I need to take a shower after reading this story...
Ah, yes. I can totally see how someone would steal his wallet and then give it back to him later. LOL at this excuse.
He should just roll with the I was too intoxicated to know what I was doing defense. I think he'd have a much easier time proving that case. The charges are rather excessive, how can anyone one person drink 4k of alcohol and know what they are doing? He could just say he was drunk and the club ran up his card without his knowledge.
Whatever the case, sounds like Mr. Hackett had a very good time. Good luck with Mrs. Hackett.
Actually, I had something similar happen about 15 years ago when I was in college. I was at a sports bar that I went to several times a week and gave the bartender my credit card for the tab.
I forgot to close the tab when I left and since it was a seldom used card, I didn't notice it was missing for several days. When I finally figured out what happened, I went back to the bar, paid the tab and got my card.
When I got my statement that month, there was $2,500 in charges to a strip club that I'd never been to.
Wow. You gotta give this guy credit for having the stones to take his cover story to the absolute limit.
he didn't drink $4000 in booze. He paid for strippers to drink $4000 in booze.
I was eating dinner in what I thought was just a normal bar when this naked lady just fell on my junk.
The documents said the club is not involved with prostitution or escort services, that he was not drunk or impaired and that he was not under duress when he purportedly signed the documents, the lawsuit says.
1. How would someone consume $4,000. of drinks and not be impaired Just how? much is a drink.
2. How? much is the entertainment services of the club entertainment staff anyhow.
3. How? does someone do all that in a 6 hour window.
If the drinks were lets say $20.00 each thats 200 drinks in a 6 hour window, thats 33 drinks an hour thats 1 every 2 min. and sometime during all of this his mouth is occupied with something other than a drink so tell me that this club is not engaged in some kind of unscrupulous activity
and the man was not drunk.
If each drink had 12 fluid oz. times 200 drinks that would be 2400 oz. divided by 128 oz. (1 gallon) would equal 18.75 gallons.
still if each drink contained 1 1/4 oz. that is 250 oz. of alcohol divided by 128 oz. would equal almost two gallon of alcohol alone what? would the blood alcohol content have been equivalent too embalming fluid?
lmao
I believe him. Vegas. Scam Artists. Name of the game here.
I love the part where he "left for the hotel lobby and apparently blacked out there and can't remember anything else that may have happened that night".
I think the hardest thing to believe in all of this (and there is a lot that is hard to believe) is that he allegedly called his wife the next morning and had her check for charges. Yeah right. Any married man can tell you the LAST person you call when you think your credit card went wild in Las Vegas is your spouse.
Shame on the strip club for putting that much on the credit card though. Its one thing to capitalize on drunk fools, its another thing to completely rob them blind.
I am no expert on "gentleman" clubs in Vegas, I assume they don't have cameras inside the places, but do they have cameras at the entrance/exit so they can at least prove when a patron arrived and departed in these sorts of situations? It would seem that too many people go crazy in there and then swear the next day it wasn't them, that they were in their hotel room reading the bible all night long.
casinokid, have you ever heard of bottle service and gratuity? That's what happened here. Dude wasn't paying for top shelf liquor a la carte.
The Sawks prolly won and dude couldn't handle Vegas. Say goodbye to your wife and your savings Mr. Hackett.
Rookies!
The Hangover defense?
The Hangover Movie defense?
He was slipped some ruffies! Let's look for the camera to see what REALLY happened that night.
What does his hotel room look like? Did he get the tiger back to Tyson?
let me get this straight; I party like a fool, pretend to "blackout" come up with a story but no alibi and sue somebody.
Oh, the good old days.
he blacked out?
did he just wander around for a few hours like a zombie?
how did he get to his room?
any security footage of a guy laying in the hallway?
sounds to me like his company said "nice try" when he turned in his expense report.
I don't think the article every clearly stated that the signature is valid, his normal signature. If his signature is on the charges, he's TOAST! The blackout defense reeks of guilt.
Where are the video cameras?
In addition to signing the documents saying you agreed to the charges, I thought they had to take a finger print on the same document to prevent such claims. Is that true?
I've never had to give a fingerprint with a credit slip anywhere! Is that a strip club thing?
I also thought that in vegas that a erotic club could sell hard liquor and a topless club could only sell beer and wine and if it was a totally nude joint then it was soft drinks only, If I'm incorrect please correct me because I don't know.
Thanks
must have been that evil cabbie that simply made him go to that strip club. see, people dont need cabbies to get em there people screw up on their own.
And Harry Reid wants our US Government to send employees to Vegas for meetings. No, No, No!
Didn't the Boston Red Sox's win the World Series last year? Sounds like this guy went out to the strip club from the fans from Phoenix to celebrate. LOL
Well the first mistake he made was swillin vodka martinis at the Hilton...thats how all his mess started.
Any "$20 drink" at the club is merely a margarita (kool-aid and water).. and you also get a few grains of salt with that !
I can be almost sure Club Paradise would have a $4000 bottle of liquor in stock of whatever exotic brand they carry and charge outragiously -shared by everyone he had contact with.
There was only one charge on the credit card statement that shows :
Adultry - $29,512.00 but broken down to this :
*****************
One bottle of exotic 750ml booze with $20 kool-aid margaritas : $3690.00 plus tax = $4000.00
More than $25,000 for "unexplained services" ($25,512 total) involving entertainers "Paulina," "Jani Lee," "Isabel," "Vanessa," "Roxanne" and "Lexi."...which comes out to $4252.00 for each staff member.
[Unexplained service is when each stripper entertainer walks by any sugar daddy and says ''Oops, I am very sorry that I tripped, fell, and landed on your d...''].
Having to gotten busted by the wife when she actually reads the credit card statement first and questions it which is what really happened, so you go to the ''I dropped my wallet and blacked out but got the wallet back while noticing the credit cards were repositioned'', and play out the unauthorized and fraud charges card while filing a lawsuit to save the marriage... Pricele$$ !!!!
This town is desperate for money and getting sleazier by the day.
Anyone reading today's paper would think Las Vegas is dangerous and one big con game.
One guy sued for millions after he already gave millions-(after being drunked up and drugged) and now this guy.
Speculate about what a "fool" the guy is all you want but he won't be the only one staying away from vegas if this stuff continues.
Your comments make me sick.
Jerry Wayne is the only one that focused on how easy it would be to run up that drink tab- bottles of Kristal for each of the ladies - and if it was a stolen card, thats probably exactly what was ordered.
The $25k for miscelleneous services? i wish i could speculate.
to cnev... you don't find anything suspicious about the guy's claims? I understand that things are shady here in Las Vegas, but when have they not been? I'm not saying that this is completely the guys fault, but come on. As mentioned by JahReb he would have been better off fighting it with the excuse of he was too intoxicated to know what he was doing. To me it seems like he is trying to save his marriage with lies about what really happened. If the club has video of this guy, they better hope it doesn't show him drunk out of his mind or they could end up facing harsh fines themselves.
And for the record, what criminal do you know steals a guys wallet and then brings it back to him? And knows where he is going to be when he wants to give it back to him?
I mean come on man I see what your saying... but when has Las Vegas not looked like that? Yet every year, people still come here. You know why? Because people are fools and don't believe things until it happens to them.
If you want to be a Big Boy and play in Vegas and then if you loose big; one suggestion...shut up, face your wife, family & friends and take it like the man you were pretending to be! Hey Big Spender, you got what you asked and paid for. You want to be a fool in Vegas, your choice!
oh and AKsilvereagle--- hahahahahahhahahah so true!
I mean come on people, don't comment on an article if you don't know yourselves how these things work. I can't believe people on here are honestly unsure of how this guy could drop 4k on liquor. hahaha. Wake up Las Vegas! How do you think clubs out here do business? 4k is an average night in town for some of these people. As AK mentioned.. 4k will probably just get you 1 or 2 bottles of a really exotic top shelf liquor... if that! It's not like the guy went to Lee's Discount Liquor before hand and pre-gamed haha
and ther glitter that he found all over his clothes came from tinkerbell?????
Predatory clubs & strippers? Say it ain't so, not in Sin City! Unless a law was broken, this guy is rightly responsible for the charges he ran up and should be held accountable. Welcome to the real world.
And as for driving away visitors, hardly. Gambling, alcohol, drugs, strippers, hookers -- a walk on the wild side is what draws tourists here! Without that, there's really very little here that isn't just as available back home, be it LA, SFO, SLC or PHX. However, a walk on the wild side always involves some risk, and so long as there wasn't any coercion or duplicity, buyer beware.
Just pay cash for these sorts of things and you will never have any problems.
the guys a faker. I know this girl who had a sugar-daddy. A couple of years ago we went to Seamless and between five people the bill was something crazy like $15,000. And that was for about 3 or 4 hours. Apparently the man thought he was a sugar-daddy too, to several different strippers.
Strip Clubs make people put their fingerprints on receipts for situations exactly like this. oh, Cristal Rose is probably about $1000 in a strip club. I wouldn't know for sure, I've never paid for one.
If he personally charged that amount on his card he would have had to provide accurate,flawless, two photo ID's of identification. American Express would have talked to him and confirmed his identity. There would be many witnesses and strippers remembering him - not to mention security cameras.
He could not have pulled all that off in a black out.
As unlikely as his story sounds, it is possible. If someone found the guys wallet they could have cloned his credit card and taken his personal details from his driving license.
Then whoever cloned his card took their friends for a night of fun and debauchery.
The blackout could be explained by said unsavoury characters slipping him a Mickey Finn.
Unlikely, but possible.
I agree with everyone who called for a camera check.
Obviously none of you have been to a Las Vegas Gentlemans Club. Bottle prices range from $250 - $7000. It is possible he bought one or two bottles of alcohol. Wine or champagne included in the bottle list of course. There is also a 15% surcharge on all credit card transactions.
I've seen many a man spend well over $10,000 on a regular basis at Las Vegas strip clubs.
Bottle of 20 year old scotch -- $4,000
Fun times with Paulina, Jani Lee, Isabel, Vanessa, Roxanne and Lexi -- $25,000
Explain his $29,512 American Express bill to the wife -- PRICELESS
Wow,
This loser is toast. I wonder if it made the front page of his hometown paper too!
If a guy ever spends 30 grand on a trip without his wife, he better have a $30,000 item from Tiffany with her name on it, or a new convertible to show for it, not a "honey I blew up the credit card at a strip club" story. What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas.
I have been to many gentlemen's club, and I never denied that it's possible to spend $4000 on alcohol. I guess the point flies over your head. Which is, anyone who spends that much money on alcohol is probably inebriated to the point of not knowing what they are doing. That would be my defense, anyways - I got completely wasted, the club took advantage of me. The venue does share responsiblity over their patrons...ever heard of cutting people off?
Even at $800-bottle, that is 5 bottles of booze during what, 4 hours while he was there? 10k might be a somewhat regular occurrence...but this is one guy who rang up 29k in a few hours. Something is afoot here.
Poor Thumper.
Still caught up in the big "conspiracy!"
"Kenyan, Muslim President."
Run away, run away.
DOLT.
My friend use to own a strip club.
He tells me that if you charge that much to a credit card (he said that they do this for anything over $1,000) that they photocopy your license, your credit card, require the customer to sign and fill in a form with their address, phone number and sign a legal binding contract. He even has heard of some joints taking finger prints.
The guy's only out is the drunk thingy....you can not sign a valid contract if you are drunk.
But I doubt if the court or a jury will rule in his favor.
The strip joint has their money and with all their proof I doubt that the credit card company will reverse charges.
It is the credit card company that will trying to collect on him.
Like it says, "What happens in Vegas. Stays in Vegas...like your money."
This town is one big con.
On the other hand...it is probably a good thing that the casinos, prostitutes, strip clubs, night clubs, taxi cab drivers and awful food joints are conning people.
It is taking money from the dumb and giving it to the smart.
I prefer that smart people have money.
Fingerprints are required on any transaction over 4-5 hundred. And get it through your heads people......6 dancers for 6 hours at $500 an hour. Possibly 1 bottle of alcohol. 15% surcharge. And then any tipping he may have done. Strip clubs will NOT run a transaction if the guy is wasted because most likely he can't sign properly. If the signature is off, it could come back. Clubs don't want that.