[PSA] Don't Eat or Drink Anything From Hotel Room Minibar

[AhMeng]

Hard Rock Hotel in Dominican Republic to remove liquor dispensers from minibars
cnn.com

(CNN)The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is removing liquor dispensers from guest room minibars at its resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, the general manager of the resort told CNN.
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino decided last week to remove the liquor dispensers and hopes to "provide more tranquility for guests," GM Erica Lopez said. The decision to remove the dispensers was made independently and not as a result of the two deaths that happened at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at Punta Cana, Lopez added.
The decision follows a series of American tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic, some of which may have involved liquor.
At least 10 American tourists have died during or after stays in the Dominican Republic over the past year, according to information from the State Department, family members and the resorts involved.



But officials in the Dominican Republic and the United States have not said the deaths are connected. A US State Department official said Friday there has not been a unusual spike in reported deaths from the Dominican Republic, and the State Department has not issued a travel warning about trips to the country specific to these deaths.

The Dominican Republic's top tourism official also downplayed what he called "exaggerated" reports about the deaths.
"It's not true that there has been an avalanche of American tourists dying in our country, and it's not true that we have mysterious deaths," Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told reporters.
Two deaths at Hard Rock Hotel
Two of the deaths occurred at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana.
David Harrison, 45, of Brandywine, Maryland, died at the hotel in July 2018, according to his widow, Dawn McCoy. They were celebrating an anniversary, and she said her husband returned from a snorkeling excursion one day earlier and he said he wasn't feeling well.

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Your questions about the Dominican Republic tourist deaths, answered
Early the next morning, she said, he was sweating and unable to get up before he died. Local authorities listed the cause of death as a heart attack and pulmonary edema.
Robert Wallace, a 67-year-old resident of Turlock, California, died after becoming ill at the hotel April 12, relatives told CNN affiliate KTXL. Tommy Tickenhoff, his son-in-law, told the station that Wallace became sick after drinking scotch from a minibar.
Three other tourist deaths occurred at the Grand Bahia Principe resort in La Romana. Samples taken from at least one minibar there are being tested by the FBI as part of the agency's collaboration with Dominican Republic authorities, Ministry of Health spokesman Carlos Suero said last week.
Suero added that an extensive collection of samples is taken by Dominican authorities when someone dies in a hotel room. Minibars are tested for bacteria and water from showers and sinks are examined, he said.
The FBI is assisting with the toxicology tests of three of the nine Americans who have died in the Dominican Republic in the past year, he said.

Tourism last year represented more than 17% of the country's economy, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
And about 6.5 million tourists visited the Dominican Republic last year, more than any other Caribbean nation, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. The United States accounted for 2.2 million of those tourists -- more than any other country in the region.

 

[AhMeng]

Man dies from hotel minibar drink at Dominican Republic resort
www.news.com.au

Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, became sick almost immediately after he had a scotch from the room minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana, his niece, Chloe Arnold, told Fox News on Sunday. He was in the Dominican Republic to attend his stepson’s wedding.
Ms Arnold said her uncle, an avid traveller, had been in relatively good health and just the month before had been skiing in Lake Tahoe.

Mr Wallace, pictured with his wife, was ‘fine’ before his sudden death, his niece said. Picture: Wallace familySource:Supplied
Ms Arnold said the family has been particularly concerned after having recently learned of the other seemingly mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic.
Miranda Schaup-Werner, a Pennsylvania woman, died almost four weeks later, on May 25, after she had a drink from her minibar at another hotel, the Bahia Principe La Romana.
“He was fine,” Ms Arnold said of her uncle who owned a construction business and whose obituary page was filled with comments about his generosity and compassion.
“He and his wife arrived there at around midnight on April 10. On April 11 he had scotch from the minibar. He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterwards.”

The couple were in the Dominican Republic to attend a wedding. Picture: Wallace familySource:Supplied
She said a hotel doctor had checked Mr Wallace, then decided on April 13 he needed to be hospitalised. He died on April 14.
Dominican authorities have yet to give the family a cause of death, Ms Arnold said.
“We have so many questions,” she said. “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
The US State Department, responding to questions about Mr Wallace’s death, said in a statement to Fox News: “We can confirm the death of a US citizen in April 2019 in the Dominican Republic. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family for their loss. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we do not have additional information to provide.”

Mr Wallace was said to be an avid traveller. Picture: Wallace familySource:Supplied
In recent days, a Maryland widow went public with concerns about the death of her husband, David Harrison, last year at the same Hard Rock resort under similar, sudden circumstances. The two had gone there with their 12-year-old son to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
“My husband was a very fit, very healthy person when he passed away,” she told Inside Edition.
She said he’d had a physical shortly before the trip and, except for high blood pressure that he kept in check with medication, everything was fine.
“I started seeing all these other people that were dying of the same exact causes, which made me start to second guess. I no longer feel like my husband died of natural causes,” Ms McCoy told local TV station WTOP.
“We went down there as a happy family, and we came home a broken family. I came home a widow, and my 12-year-old son came home fatherless.”

Miranda Schaup-Werner died while holidaying in the Dominican Republic with her husband.Source:Twitter

Five days later, Edward Holmes and Cynthia Day were found dead in their hotel room.Source:Facebook
On May 30, an engaged couple from Maryland, Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 49, died in their room at the Bahia Principe La Romana. A hotel employee found them unresponsive in their room after they failed to check out.
Dominican authorities have said either preliminary or final autopsies indicated they all died of natural causes, and they were isolated incidents, but the families said they had doubts. Some have hired lawyers and planned additional autopsies and tests in the United States.
US officials have been restrained in their comments, only confirming deaths when asked. Neither the State Department, Bahia Principe, nor Dominican authorities have responded to repeated questions by Fox News about how many tourists from the US and elsewhere have died in their rooms, or anywhere in resorts, in recent years.
Nearly half of the roughly five million tourists who visit the Dominican Republic each year are from the United States, statistics have shown.

A number of deaths have rocked the Bahia Principe Resort in Punta Cana. Picture: Bahia Principe HotelsSource:Supplied
While saying little publicly, however, teams of experts and inspectors from several international agencies, including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted tests on Thursday at the Bahia Principe properties where US tourists died. It was unclear whether they inspected other resorts.
The FBI confirmed to Fox News it was assisting Dominican authorities in investigating the deaths.
The testing and the FBI’s involvement marked the first public indications officials in the US and the Dominican Republic have considered the possibility of something other than natural causes.
Dominican officials said Mrs Schaup, Mr Holmes and Ms Day had pulmonary oedema, a condition in which the lungs fill with fluid. They said Mrs Schaup, 41, who collapsed after having the minibar drink at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville — which is adjacent to the sister hotel where Mr Holmes and Ms Day died — died of a heart attack, though her family said she was healthy.

The Dominican Republic is especially popular with American holiday-makers. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied
In recent days, the family of a Pennsylvania woman who was holidaying in the Dominican Republic last year said she died in her room at the Bahia Principe Resort in Punta Cana resort after she had a drink from the minibar.
Relatives of Yvette Monique Sport, 51, told Fox 29 Philadelphia she was visiting the popular tourist spot last June, had a drink, later went to bed and never woke up. Her death certificate said her official cause of death was a heart attack.
“It’s a complete fabrication,” Felecia Nieves, Ms Sport’s sister, said, “that you could have as many people and they all have the same cookie-cutter outcome. It’s impossible.”
Ms Nieves said she planned to reach out to other families and press for answers.
“This is about justice for people that we love,” she said. “We’re never going to get them back, but we can give them justice.”
This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission

 

[AhMeng]

Mystery surrounds American deaths in Dominican Republic
www.channelnewsasia.com

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WASHINGTON: US authorities are scrambling to get to the bottom of a rash of deaths of US tourists in the Dominican Republic, with the number of reported fatalities over the past year now rising to six.
Three people whose deaths have been confirmed all arrived on May 25 in San Pedro de Macoris, a seaside resort in the south of the Caribbean country, Dominican authorities said.
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Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, booked a room with her husband at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville hotel. She lost consciousness on the day of her arrival after going out on the balcony. She could not be revived by her husband or hotel medical staff.
Cynthia Day, 49, and Edward Holmes, 63, stayed in an adjacent hotel, Grand Bahia Principe La Romana. The couple from Maryland was found dead on May 30 in their room by hotel staff.
According to the Dominican Prosecutor's Office, the three victims died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema. Schaup-Werner also had a heart attack.
A PATTERN?
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News of the deaths has drawn attention to earlier deaths of American tourists at island resorts that received no publicity at the time - some now suspect - may have been part of a pattern.
The sister of Yvette Monique Short told a Philadelphia television station that the 51-year-old died last June at the Bahia Principe after having a drink from the minibar in her room.
Two other deaths that have recently come to light occurred more than a year apart at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in the resort town of Punta Cana.
Robert Wallace, a 67-year-old from California, died there Apr 14, after drinking a Scotch from his minibar and falling ill, his niece Chloe Arnold told Fox News.
"He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterward," she said.
David Harrison, 45, had died at the same hotel in July 2018. His widow, Dawn McCoy, initially accepted that he succumbed to a heart attack, as she was told, but now questions it.
"When all these people started passing, I stopped and thought to myself, 'How can all these people have the same cause of death as David?'?" she told The Washington Post.
Steven Bullock, a lawyer for Day's family, said autopsies and tests will be performed on Day and Holmes in the US.
Asked about contacts with Dominican police and authorities, Bullock said "it has been very, very difficult. We haven't heard enough and that's part of the problem.
"We don't seem to be getting anything (from police). We have some reporters on the ground that are assisting us in gathering information that might be available," he told AFP.
Meanwhile, Colorado couple Kaylynn Knull and Tom Schwander told CNN that they suffered from headaches, abdominal cramps and diarrhoea after encountering a strong smell of chemicals in the La Romana hotel in June 2018.
According to tests done on their return home, they could have been exposed to pesticides used against ants and cockroaches.
The couple, who lodged a complaint, believes that the product has spread through the air conditioning system.

 

[syed putra]

Tainted alcohol? Similar outbreak in jiu hu where foreign workers and indians are dying due to methanol poisoning. Tge retailers bought the cheap drinks from unauthorised agents at a discount. What they did was to recycle used bottle with tainted alcohol.

Four die after drinking illicit liquor in Johor

• NATION
• Tuesday, 18 Jun 2019
  6:24 PM MYT
  
  
  
• 
  

JOHOR BARU: At least four people have died and another blinded after consuming illicit liquor in the state.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd said the deceased comprised a Malaysian, a Nepalese, a Pakistani and an Indian national, all in their 30s.


The cases were reported in the past 48 hours.
Comm Mohd Khalil added that the illicit liquor could have contained methanol.

(Methanol is a toxic substance, unlike ethanol, the type of ethyl alcohol found in drinks.)
"Since we were alerted about this we have formed a special team and have arrested nine people," he said, adding that the suspects arrested include four locals and five Indonesians.
All of them were arrested in a series of raids in Johor Baru south, Seri Alam and Kulai.
"We have seized some liquor which was smuggled into the country illegally without paying customs duties," he said during a press conference here on Tuesday (June 18).
He added that this was the first case of people dying after consuming illegal liquor in the state.
Comm Mohd Khalil said samples of the liquor have been sent for testing and police are also waiting for the results of the post-mortem.
He urged the public to refrain from purchasing illicit liquor or even smuggled alcoholic drinks.
Asked if the deaths had any connection with those in Penang, he said police were still investigating.
"We believe those involved could have moved their stock after they heard about the cases," he added.
Six deaths were reported in Penang on Monday, believed to be after consuming illicit liquor,
In September last year, 33 methanol poisoning deaths were reported in Perak, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nat...-illicit-liquor-in-johor/#oQkB877OMkV6DYj5.99

 

[Ang4MohTrump]

Chow Ang Moh good to get killed.

 

[rocket]

Fake liquor.

 

[AhMeng]

Come to think of it... A new and novel way for terrorist strategy...Scary...