Former hotel employee shouts racial slurs to customer

FORT MYERS, Fla.- A Fort Myers hotel is doing damage control after a former worker lost it and yelled racial slurs at a customer.

That worker could soon be in serious trouble with the law. It happened at the Value Place Hotel near I-75 and Palm Beach Boulevard.

“Very hurtful, very hurtful,” Mark Howard tells WINK News.

A couple of days ago he walked in to the Value Place Hotel to book a room, but no one was at the front desk, so he picked up their phone and dialed the on-call line.

“I said ‘I am trying to get a room’ and he said ‘we don’t have no rooms,'” said Howard.

Howard says the man on the other line became irate and started yelling racial slurs.

“‘We don’t have no rooms for you . You “N” lovers,'” said Howard.

It was so bad, Howard called back and recorded the conversation.

“He was just saying the “N” word. That is basically what he just kept saying,” said Howard.

A Value Place spokesperson tells WINK News that a recently fired employee hacked their phone system and transferred calls from the hotel help line directly to his personal phone.

That’s a process computer expert Shaun Book says can be very intricate.

“Typically users would have to know master passwords or an account level login,” said Book.

A Value Place spokesperson says they didn’t realize what happened until the Howard family complained.

“I want something to be done about it,” said Howard.

Value Place also tells WINK News, they fixed the problem and quickly added security measures to their phone system. They also apologized to Howard and offered him a free stay.

“I said thank you, but I would be too scared to stay there,” said Howard.

A Value Place spokesperson also tells WINK News the former employee could face criminal charges.

“These hurtful and incredibly inappropriate words, used by a person we terminated weeks ago, are in no way reflective of our values or who we are as a company. Since our founding a dozen years ago we have extended a great experience to thousands of guests and employees, regardless of race, ethnicity, color, or creed,” said C. Roger Bolton with Value Place.