Ten swag bags full beauty products and other goodies were swiped from a Park City hotel during the Sundance Film Festival, a high-dollar case that had stumped investigators through the beginning of the week.

Rick Ryan, a Park City Police Department captain, said a report was filed with the police at about 2 p.m. on Jan. 24. The swag bags disappeared sometime on Jan. 20 or Jan. 21, Ryan said, during the busy opening weekend of the festival. The items inside each of the swag bags are valued at approximately $1,400, making the loss upward of $14,000, Ryan said, calling the sum a “big-dollar amount.”

The swag bags were in a ballroom at the Shadow Ridge Resort Hotel and Conference Center when they were taken, the captain said. According to Ryan, the ballroom was inadvertently left unlocked when the swag bags disappeared.

“I think they saw an opportunity and grabbed them and took off with them,” Ryan said.

He said the person or people who took them could either use the products themselves or sell them on the black market. The police did not have a suspect by early in the week. Ryan said there is not surveillance footage of the disappearance.

“A nice hot tip would be good,” Ryan said.

Some of the items in each of the swag bags, according to Ryan, included:

  • Sunglasses made by Rubber Duck
  • Cotton rounds made by Swisspers
  • Moisturizer made by Sophyto
  • Shampoo and conditioner made by Mane ‘n Tail
  • Travel spa treatments by Amala
  • Skin treatment made by Elemis

    There were approximately 25 items in each of the swag bags, Ryan said. The items ranged in value between $12 and $250, he said. The most valuable is the Elemis skin treatment, Ryan said.

    “It appears there were pretty top-of-the-line items,” he said.

    Swag bags have become a tradition at Sundance over the years, and they are typically handed out to celebrities and other high-profile people at the numerous corporate setups opened each year during the festival. The swag bags typically have a number of products or certificates for services inside, and the celebrities are seen leaving the corporate setups carrying the bags.

    The corporate interests that put their products into the swag bags see them as a chance to attach themselves to the celebrities and generate buzz. Ryan said the Police Department occasionally receives reports of stolen swag bags during Sundance, but it is “not often” that the loss approaches the value of the case at Shadow Ridge.

    Ryan said a group called Project Green is the victim in the case. Project Green is a not-for-profit group based in the Atlanta area that intends to protect land from development and build a summer camp for kids, according to one of its founders. Patrycja Siewert-Towns, a cofounder, said Project Green and another group were in Park City to promote the natural-products industry. Siewert-Towns declined to comment about the case, indicating she wants the situation resolved before speaking about what happened.

    People with information about the case may call the Police Department at 615-5500 or the department’s anonymous-tip line, 615-5847.