BOSTON — The Boston Licensing Board is investigating after a woman woke up alone in the bathroom of a Faneuil Hall bar after the establishment had closed for the night.
An officer responding to a report of a person inside Ned Devine’s Irish pub just after 2 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, learned a woman was locked inside the bar by herself, a Boston police officer said at a recent Boston Licensing Board hearing.
“She stated that she woke up inside of the female restroom on the second floor and did not remember how she got there or what had happened during the night,” the police officer said. “She stated that she had consumed one espresso martini.”
The woman suspected that she might have been drugged by having a “contaminated drink,” the officer added. Staff told the board that surveillance video showed the woman purchasing drinks from two different bartenders.
The woman said she arrived at the bar for a private work event more than seven hours earlier around 6:45 p.m. and that she last remembered receiving a text from a friend around 12:30 a.m.
The board didn’t issue a violation to the bar because the woman’s toxicology report came back negative.
Dennis Quilty, an attorney representing the bar, told the board what happened was an “unfortunate error.” Board chair Kathleen Joyce described the incident as “frightening,” adding that “someone could have died.”
When asked why staff didn’t check the entire building before leaving for the night, a bar employee stated, “Usually we go about and check each bathroom and each closed door just to make sure no people are in there...We just missed it. That was an error on our part.”
Quilty said the bar staff has been retrained to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
The board has documented the incident on Ned Devine’s record and will review surveillance footage from the night of the incident.
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