Bride's Dress Goes Missing Shortly After Wedding
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- When she found the wedding dress, Lauren Slionski of Long Island knew it was the one.
"I went to every bridal store on Long Island, in Manhattan, everywhere," she said. "And I tried on hundreds of dresses, and I saw this one, and I put it on, and I just loved it."
She had it customized and personalized. And she had plans for it -- for her future children.
"I wanted to take pictures with the baby on the dress and eventually make a christening gown or a communion gown, but I'll never have that again," Slionski said.
The dress disappeared on June 6 or 7 when Slionski and her new husband spent one of their first nights after the wedding at the famed Waldorf Astoria hotel, CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported. It was in a garment bag in their car, in valet parking at the hotel.
But when they got home, she realized it was gone.
She called the Waldorf asking for help.
"They were kind of giving me the runaround, and they said that they were going to do an investigation," Slionski said.
They then sent her surveillance pictures of herself. Not exactly helpful.
"They were like, 'Oh, no, you left with the dress in your car,'" Slionski said. "And I'm like, 'No, we definitely didn't leave with the dress in our car."
Slionski said Waldorf management told her the valet service brings cars to a garage three blocks away, that another company handles parking the cars, and it doesn't lock them.
Because of construction, there wasn't any surveillance video available from the garage, Waldorf management said.
All of that was news to Slionski, since there was nothing to indicate another company was involved when she parked. From the signs to uniforms, receipt and ticket stubs, it all read Waldorf.
She got a letter saying the hotel's insurance company completed its investigation and concluded the Waldorf is not responsible.
"When I called them back and I asked them if they could send me some of the information about the investigation, the woman hung up the phone on me," Slionski said.
All management would offer her is two free nights for her trouble. She's not interested. She just wants her dress.
"It's something that's so meaningful to me," Slionski said. "How could it mean something to somebody else?"
CBS2 reached out to the Waldorf. The calls were not returned.
Slionski said a high-end wedding table cloth was also missing.
