Florida Front Beach Inn refuses Veteran with PTSD Service Dog

Army vet denied a hotel room because he had a service dog
First Coast News
Mike Lyons
July 17, 2014

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. -- Karl Fleming was just looking to do something fun at the request of his family, but it turned into a distressing situation when he and his service dog were turned away from a hotel.

Army veteran Fleming attended K9s for Warriors camp in Ponte Vedra Beach. He graduated with his service dog 'Kuchar' last year and moved on, ready to face the world. But Wednesday night he had a setback.

Fleming has a traumatic brain injury as a result of a rocket propelled grenade while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2011. He went to Panama City Beach with his dog, which he depends on, along with his parents and his roommate. He went looking for a hotel room at the Front Beach Inn.

Fleming said he was yelled at by the front desk clerk and told she had no vacancies when the sign out front read vacancy. Fleming said she later told police they had rooms.

''You have to produce papers sir! Get out of my lobby!" the receptionist can be heard saying in a loud voice toward his roommate who was recording the incident on his cell phone.

"I mean it was humiliating, for them to yell at me like that," said Fleming by phone from Panama City Beach. "She did not know her facts, she would not listen to me. The cops really didn't know the laws either. I am still so much on edge because of it because I have an anxiety disorder."
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