So my boss, my travel agent, and all of my friends/family have heard the story at this point and most of them have just had a good laugh. Their main questions have been, will I ever stay at a Marriott again? This Marriott? and will I continue to use the valet? A and B remain to be seen, but for question C, I will definitely continue using valets. I am a young female traveler and often arrive at my location after dark. For me the valet is a safety issue and I will continue to choose them but maybe now I will call down a little earlier in the morning for the car just in case!
As PTravel mentioned, I am very fortunate that there were no tremendous costs as a result of this incident. What is lost can be replaced, and I am confident that I will be compensated fairly for the stress and unneccesary travel delays.
The day this happened, I was freaking out and imaging the little old man driving on the sidewalks of LA and taking out pedestrians. I just kept waiting for the police to come to the National car rental agency where I was camped out and arrest me! I was really concerned about liability issues the entire time - especially when the police and National refused to help me make a police report.
Oh, and I did tip the towncar $10 each ride for taking me to work and the airport. He was super nice and apologetic. Plus the way I figured it, he wasn't the one that gave my rental car away....