Woman hops out of hot tub, hauls with man’s pants

A woman was taken into custody by police early Friday morning at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Joplin on suspicion that she robbed a male guest of the motel of his pants, wallet and cell phone.

Police called to the motel at 3510 S. Range Line Road at 2:13 a.m. found some guests staying in one room pounding on the door of another room in the apparent belief that a woman may have been being held hostage there by two male occupants. Further investigation determined that was not the case, Cpl. Chuck Niess of the Joplin Police Department said.

Niess said that the two men inside the room told officers that they had gone to a restaurant at 3506 S. Range Line Road that night and met two women there. The four of them decided to party together and went to Wal-Mart and bought some liquor, Niess said.

The four of them then checked into a room of the motel, Niess said, and the two men and one of the women got into a hot tub together. The men told police that the woman got back out of the hot tub, grabbed a liquor bottle and one of the men’s pants and fled. Niess said the pants belonging to Rodrego Chavez, 47, of Joplin, contained his wallet and cell phone.

Niess said the woman apparently fled to another room of the motel, knocked on the door and told its occupants that she had just been robbed by Chavez and his friend, and that the two men were holding her female friend hostage.

Niess said that once officers arrived and sorted through witnesses’ accounts, the alleged stolen liquor bottle was located. But they were unable to locate Chavez’s pants, wallet and cell phone. The woman was arrested on suspicion of robbery, he said. He said an officer’s report on the incident did not mention if the second woman involved was located or what happened to her.

A charge had yet to be filed late Friday afternoon against the woman taken into custody.