Copperhead,
Back from filing a Police Report - the officer titled it "report of - defrauding an innkeeper" - the offcer said I was comfortably within the law.
Seashanty, Good points - the guy IS working for CNN in Los Angeles and very well paid (supposedly) Actually I agree entirely with you, had no ambitions of getting to this point, He promissed to show up and pay his bill in a few days, so I held onto the stuff, then almost 30 days later he showed up with two officers to demand his belongings. and he tried to intimidate my housekeeper, Im a bit short-fused native Danish viking and did not think that was really fun. So the stupid thing is that having dragged the PD down here, he now got him self a police record for lousy $600ish. (and I learned how to file a police report on this subject and that the supervising officer is quite cool and probably would be a great guy to have a cold one with at the nearest irish pub)
In the process I applogized to the office for taking his time on this, as I am completely aware those guys have much more serious issues to deal with on any average day.
Interestingly, running out on the bill is punishable with prison or a fine.
Since Im new at this, I figure we will play it out a bit further to see how this plays. (in my costody is a bag of dirty underwear, I hope to be relived of this shortly)
Bo.