A Macomb County couple is suing an up-north motel after a nightmare experience they say was ignored for the past year and a half.
Lori and Wally Secord’s attorney, Richard Klamka, tells 7 Action News the family booked a stay with Super 8 Grayling off I-75 in July of 2014 for a family get-together. On the morning the family was set to leave, Lori Secord found her four-year-old daughter playing with a tube of sexual lubricant, apparently left on the floor near the bed by previous guests and overlooked by housekeeping.
“It wasn’t in a box, it wasn’t in plastic. A half-empty bottle of sex lube,” Klamka described. “She’s smearing it all over her face, licking it, putting it all over on her eyes, hands, arms,” he added.
“I freaked out. Freaked out,” Lori Secord said.
Lori’s husband, Wally, went to the motel office to complain, but staff told him the family would have to wait for the manager. The Secords said the manager showed up about 20 minutes later pounding on the door, demanding the family leave. Four police officers arrived shortly after to escort the family out.
“What did they tell them to have that kind of response, to bring out that many police officers?” Wally said.
The Secords said they were never told why motel staff called the police on them, nor were they asked if their daughter, Grace, was okay after the incident.
Fortunately, Grace didn’t get sick, but Lori – who suffered two asthma attacks during the incident – said the thought of what could have happened makes her stomach churn.
“Is my daughter safe? Later on is there going to be something I have to deal with health wise for her?” she asked.
Klamka reached out to Wyndham Hotel Group, Super 8 Grayling’s parent company.
In short, officials told Klamka the company is just a franchisor of the Super 8 name, and that lodging facilities are independently owned and operated.
Klamka said the only acknowledgment the Secords received from Super 8 Grayling was a check that refunded their one-night stay. The Secords never cashed that check.
Management also told the Secords that housekeeping staff cleaned their room.
Klamka filed a lawsuit for damages in Crawford County Circuit Court in late December. It’s not the money the Secords said they want, but a sincere apology.
“I would like some attention brought to it so that someone will answer to it and that this doesn’t happen again and that people aren’t treated like this over a situation that we had no control over,” Wally Secord said.
