February was a typical month for Woodbury’s Red Roof Inn.
On Feb. 1, police were called about a car theft. On Feb. 16, the burglary of a room. Feb. 17, a person choked during a domestic assault — and many more calls in between.
The hotel has averaged more than three police calls a week for the past three years. That is twice as many crime reports as any of the other five hotels in Woodbury.
There are other Woodbury businesses that get more police calls — Walmart averages 10 a week — but few others involve as many reports of violent crime, drugs and prostitution.
“You can’t live here and not have the Red Roof Inn on your radar screen,” said Kim Lemrick, one of many worried neighbors who live in the nearby Royal Oaks neighborhood.
“It doesn’t feel like Woodbury.”
The hotel’s reputation can be traced to at least 2012. That’s when a Stillwater man held 11 people at gunpoint for several hours in one of the hotel’s rooms, robbing and sexually assaulting some of them. During a late-night standoff, police mistakenly shot and killed one of the hostages when he escaped and ran toward officers.
Since then, the hotel managers and police vowed to work together to reduce crime.
However, Red Roof’s share of police calls to hotels in the city has stayed constant at about 42 percent for the past three years. Last year, police were called to the hotel 187 times, a 15 percent increase over the previous year.
The crime reports trickle in steadily — methamphetamine sales, thefts, assaults. They include high-profile crimes, such as the Sept. 17 prostitution sting in which 14 men were charged with soliciting sex from minors.
Woodbury police have been working with the hotel for years to reduce crime and have had some success, said Steve Wells, the department’s commander of investigations.
But, he said, police have limited options because the city does not license hotels.
Woodbury does issue licenses for bars, massage parlors and garbage haulers, which helps the city enforce rules. “It gives us more teeth,” Wells said.
But with hotels, the city has no authority to order an owner to make improvements.
“We can give them good suggestions, but, if they cost money, the owner has to balance them with the cash flow,” Wells said.
The Washington County assessor’s office lists the owner of the Red Roof Inn as Woodbury Lodging LLC. A business by that name appears on the website of the Minnesota secretary of state with an address in Roseville, but attempts to find an email or phone number for that business were unsuccessful Friday.
Last year, the Red Roof Inn had almost eight times as many police calls as the hotels in neighboring Oakdale. Two Oakdale hotels had 22 and 24 calls for police — and the worst crimes were reports of two thefts of items under $500.
“We have virtually no problems. We will let Woodbury keep the Red Roof Inn,” said Oakdale Police Chief Bill Sullivan.
For years, the Red Roof Inn has been a constant discussion topic on the neighborhood website, said hotel neighbor Lemrick.
She said she has stopped dining at Cowboy Jack’s restaurant because it’s next to the hotel.
“People were doing inappropriate things in the parking lot,” Lemrick said.
The restaurant’s manager didn’t respond to a phone message seeking comment.
The owners of a neighboring office building put up a chain-link fence across the parking lot that borders the Red Roof Inn.
“For our sake, it’s kind of nice,” said Randy Winger, chief financial officer of Broadway Station Restaurants, which has its corporate headquarters in the building. “It made people feel better.”
Police say one reason for the frequent crimes at Red Roof is the building’s design. It’s the only hotel in Woodbury with the doors of each room opening directly to the outside, allowing anyone to come and go with little notice.
In most hotels, room entrances open to interior hallways. That way, all visitors must pass a front desk and can be seen by other guests in the hallways.
Another possible factor: the low cost for the rooms.
With rates advertised recently at $59.99, manager Stephen Maria said, “The guests who stay here are not upper-class people.”
The other hotels in Woodbury charge more than $100 per room.
Maria said he is trying to minimize crime by personally inspecting the hotel, even late at night.
“It’s 12:30 a.m. when I go around. Sometimes I see a group of four or five people walking into a room, and I go in and tell them to get out,” he said.
Until last month, the hotel had no exterior surveillance cameras. But Maria has been installing a 22-camera system, which will help him keep watch on the rooms.
“We are going to monitor to see who is doing the dirty business,” he said.
He has been on the job since November and is focusing on cutting crime and improving the experience of guests.
“This is why I am here. This is what I am doing,” Maria said.
