Top 10 items stolen from hotels

According to a new poll, 69 per cent of Britons admit to stealing from a hotel while on a foreign holiday. The survey, carried out by the travel discount website myvouchercodes.co.uk also revealed the top 10 items most likely  to find their way into travellers' suitcases...

10. Bible
Incredibly, seven per cent of Britons admitted to breaking the 8th Commandment by stealing a Bible from their hotel room. The irony.
Picture: AP

Sex toys
"Beyond the usual things, such as shampoos and bath towels, the most frequently stolen items are our sex toys," said a member of staff at the Residence in Bath, which offers kinky accessories - at a price - to adventurous travellers. "I would call them up to explain that they had been caught. A rather long silence would inevitably follow," she added.

Unusual items stolen from hotels

Stuffed boar
At the Hotel du Vin in Birmingham, one tired and emotional guest was caught trying to pilfer a mounted boar's head from the hotel's billiard room. Some weeks later, friends of the embarrassed would-be thief purchased the stuffed head from the hotel to present to him as a wedding g

Television
Other seemingly immovable objects he remembered being taken included overhead projectors and innumerable televisions.

"Looking back over the CCTV footage, we would see a guest walk through a busy reception struggling under the weight of a television set, yet no one would bat an eyelid," he said.

Unusual items stolen from hotels

Toiletries and teabags may be considered "fair game". But some hotel guests have made a habit of stealing everything that isn't nailed down. Coat hangers, alarm clocks, slippers, sheets and bath mats are fairly common targets for light-fingered visitors. But it gets much worse..

Grand piano
Colin Bennett, a former general manager for the Starwood Hotel Group, recalled the most brazen theft he encountered during nearly 20 years in the business: "As soon as I walked into the lobby of one hotel," he said, "I immediately realised something was missing - but I couldn't put my finger on it. It transpired that three people had strolled into reception, dressed in overalls, and had wheeled the grand piano out of the hotel and down the street, never to be seen again."