Escort robbed by two armed men in Palm Springs

Update: Man arrested on suspicion of robbing licensed escort

Palm Springs police are searching for two armed men who stole a woman’s purse at a hotel early Wednesday morning.

Lt. Mike Kovaleff said the armed robbery occurred outside a hotel in the 100 block of South Cahuilla Road at 2:30 a.m. The victim, a licensed female escort, was at the hotel to meet a client.

The victim told police she was confronted by two armed men as she walked outside the hotel. The suspects took her purse and ran to a nearby car and drove away, according to the release.

The general manager at the Palm Mountain hotel said they were stunned to hear this happened.

“We were shocked. I mean this is a very, very nice historic neighborhood and to have an assault in the street outside, our hotel and the new development and the Casa Cody, is frankly alarming,” Tim Ellis said.

Police said everything about this crime leads them to believe the men planned it.

“This victim worked for an escort service. She was a licensed and permitted escort and she was basically sent over there by her company. Everything leads me to believe that this was a setup by the suspects. They placed the call and waited for her to arrive,” Lt. Mike Kovaleff with the Palm Springs Police Department said.

The woman never met her client.

While there’s no shortage of escorts in the greater Palm Springs area, police said something like this doesn’t happen all the time.

“This is definitely an unusual occurrence and not an area where this type of thing would occur,” Kovaleff said.

Monitoring these activities is difficult for hotels but the Palm Mountain hotel may ramp up security.

“We actually had a conversation with our management team to see if we need more cameras, do we need more security and I think we’re just going to wait and see on that,” Ellis said.

Police said no matter who you are or what you do you should never be meeting strangers in the middle of the night in deserted areas.

Police are still looking for the robbers.

Police said one of them had short red hair, tattoos on his arms and neck, and was last seen wearing a red T-shirt and khaki shorts

The second man had short dark hair, tattoos on both arms, and was wearing a black hat, black shirt and dark shorts.

Kovaleff said the car used by the men was described as a newer model, four door, white Nissan Altima or Maxima.

Suspect No. 1: White, 20-25 years old, approximately 5’8″ tall, thin build, red short hair, tattoos on arms and neck, wearing a red t-shirt and khaki shorts.

Suspect No. 2: White, 20-25 years old, approximately 5’8″ tall, thin build, dark short hair, tattoos on both arms, wearing a black hat, black shirt, and dark colored shorts.

Anyone with information about the armed robbery is asked to contact the Palm Springs Police Department at 760-323-8116 or Valley Crime Stoppers at 760-341-STOP (7867).