Out of town visitor arrested for stealing master key to enter 3 rooms at area hotel

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ST. GEORGE — Officers arrested a Chinese national after they investigated a suspicious person who was found in one of the rooms by the hotel’s housekeeping department, and officers later learned it was one of three different rooms the man had reportedly entered over the weekend.

2016 file photo for illustrative purposes only of St. George Police Officers respond to park on S. Convention Center Drive, St. George, Utah, June 6, 2016 | Photo by Kimberly Scott, St. George News

On Saturday officers responded to a suspicious person report at a hotel on Convention Center Drive in St. George shortly before 4 p.m. 

According to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest, officers arrived at the hotel and spoke to a witness who reported that a man was “entering rooms without being a guest of the establishment.” 

Hotel staff became aware of the suspect when one of the housekeeping staff went to a room to prepare it for a reserved guest, but was unable to get into a room that was supposed to be vacant at the time. 

When she was able to enter the room a short time later, the employee said she found a man inside of the room who was not a registered guest. She advised him to go to the hotel’s front desk so they could figure out what was going on, and while he said he would be down in a minute, he never arrived and police were contacted. 

At the hotel, officers began a search of each of the rooms and when they came to room 204, which was reported as unoccupied by hotel staff, the report states, police were initially unable to enter due to the dead-bolt being locked from inside of the room. 

Once they were able to open the door, officers found a man inside of the room who was later identified as 22-year-old Chen Bingxian, who was also identified as the man found inside of the room by the hotel staff. 

Bingxian was taken into custody while speaking to police. He said he went into the hotel and found some master keys that he used to access several of the rooms at the hotel, the first on Friday evening where he said he stayed for a short time as he heated and ate his own food before leaving the hotel.

Stock image of Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nev., date not specified | Photo by Julian Paefgen-Unsplash, St. George News

He went on to explain he entered the second room the following morning, and later that same day, Saturday, the report states Bingxian entered the third unoccupied room where he showered and ate more of his food, which was the room he was discovered in first by the housekeeping employee and then by police.  

During a search of Bingxian’s property, officers recovered a number of hotel keys which the suspect said he obtained at the time he registered as a guest of the various hotels. 

The hotel keys were from hotels located in Las Vegas Nevada, as well as hotels near Zion National Park.  

Officers also recovered a trespassing citation from Bingxian’s belongings that was issued out of California.  

Bingxian was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility facing second-degree felony burglary of a dwelling for reportedly entering the room where he was later found in, along with two counts of criminal trespass of a dwelling, for entering two other rooms, and misdemeanor theft. 

A no-bail hold was also requested following the arrest, based on Bingxian’s “hesitancy” to answer any questions as to the country he had traveled from, and “whether he was avoiding returning to his home country of China,” the officer noted. 

Moreover, the officers also stated the suspect had no family or friends to contact, which led him to surmise that it did not appear as though the suspect “is staying in the United States for tourist purposes” any longer. 

The request was approved and Bingxian remains in custody without bail. 

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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