A parking valet gave away the keys to one man's Ferrari so fast, he's furious.
Florida attorney James Fowler, 73, filed a lawsuit against Marriott International for negligence because he alleges a hotel attendant gave the keys to his $300,000 yellow 2014 Ferrari 458 Italia Spider to a couple later found in possession of marijuana and cocaine, the Tampa Bay Times reported Wednesday.
Fowler checked into the Vinoy Rennaissance St. Petersburg Resort and Golf Club for a convention on July 27. His Ferrari remained parked out front, according to the Times. Around midnight Levi Miles, then 28, insisted to a hotel valet that the car was his and that he had left the ticket inside the car. The valet gave Miles the keys, who promised to return with the ticket.
Miles got in the car with Chloe Rimmer, 24, a woman he met at the hotel that night. According to the valet, the pair sat in the car for "quite a while." The valet told police he stopped paying attention when he "figured he was not getting a tip," and eventually the Ferrari drove off.
About 12:30 a.m., the couple's joyride came to an abrupt end when a police officer noticed the Ferrari's taillights were out and pulled the vehicle over.
Miles told the officer he was a Marine and that he had borrowed his father's car, according to police. When asked about the taillights, Miles responded, "I thought I just got those fixed."
Police found cocaine on the car's center console and a gram of marijuana in Rimmer's purse. Miles was charged with grand theft, possession of cocaine and habitually driving with a suspended or revoked license.
Miles told police he did not steal the car because the valet gave him the keys.
"I was trying to impress the girl I just met at the Vinoy," Miles told police
