Luxury-geared thief

The Houstonian deals with crime in the men's locker room

On a recent sunny Saturday, a dark plot unfolded at the tony Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa. According to an email alert sent from regional director Mark Stevens to Houstonian Club members, a male entered the campus and stole cash and belongings from nine lockers inside the Men's Associate Locker Room.

"We have reason to believe that he blended in with other members as he dressed in workout clothes, utilized the locker room facility as a member would and scouted out potential victims," Stevens wrote in the email to club members. According to the email, the thief has been identified, and together with the club's "Loss Prevention team" and the Houston Police Department, the Houstonian is working on capturing the suspect.

Supposedly the character arrived at the club in a taxi and gained access to the pool area by jumping a fence, after which he used a device to open lockers without noise or apparent damage. He left from the club via the front desk, where he asked for a taxi at the front entrance.

This is the second incident of this type within the Men's Associate Locker room, and Stevens' crew believes the same thief is involved in both. He suggests that the thief has hit other local luxury clubs with identical crimes — but notes in the email,"It is my belief that we have the absolute strongest membership in the City and altogether, I think we can work together to eliminate any possibility of this type of behavior in our Club."

Over the past eight years, the Houstonian has implemented controlled points of entry, hired extra staff, decreased access doors and launched that Loss Prevention program. Whether tougher measures are on the way is yet to be confirmed.

"I just hope this doesn't mean that they put the creepiest security guards back in the locker room and showers," Houtonian member Jeff Hoffman tells CultureMap, referring to security measures put in place after a theft incident a couple of years ago. Stevens had not returned a CultureMap call for comment at the time of this story's posting.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”