Crime in the Caribbean is on
the upswing. I don't mean the
"grab you in the alley, pull you out
of your car, club you on the head"
kind of crime. The crime that's
been a problem is the kind that
happens when you leave your car
unattended or leave valuables in
your hotel room. One of our
correspondents has had a run of
bad luck recently. Here's his story.
We were robbed. These aren't
words you want to associate with
your vacation, but the fact is, we've
been robbed on our last three
land-based dive trips in the Caribbean:
on Cozumel, on Cayman
Brac, and on Bonaire. The thefts
on Cozumel and on Cayman Brac
were certainly no threat to our
physical safety. The crime on
Bonaire was more sinister.
Cozumel at Christmas was a
balm for the senses, with blue
skies, clear water, and plenty of
fish. Thankfully, I came away with
several underwater shots I can
enjoy, because I lost my land
camera and a pair of binoculars to
a thief within hours of arriving.
They were stolen from my secondfloor
room overlooking the pool in
the Fiesta Hotel.
Upon arrival, we hastily
unpacked and then left to arrange
the next day's diving. When we
returned several hours later, we
were unable to find the camera or
binoculars. The thief apparently
came into the room through the
main door. He probably had a key,
but he may have used a credit card
to jimmy the lock.
Because the night before a
dive trip in our house is never a
model of logistical efficiency, I
wondered whether I had left them
behind. Rather than risk making a
false accusation, I chose not to
complain. Of course it turned out
that I didn't leave them behind,
and my loss was about $200.
After a day of diving out of the
Divi Hotel on Cayman Brac, we
went shopping for snacks to go
with the Mount Gay rum at happy
hour. When I opened my wallet, I
found a couple of Cayman bills
and a U.S. $20 where before there
had been a couple of Cayman bills
and several Franklins. Our thief
had been kind enough to leave
departure tax.
Our building, the last one in
the Divi Tiara complex, felt nicely
secluded, which meant it was also
isolated. The second-floor balcony
provided a beautiful view of beach
and ocean, but the lock on the
door was a flimsy device that could
easily have been breached with a
credit card. The sliding doors to
the balcony had been exposed to the
salt air too long; they slid with great
difficulty, and the lock didn't work at
all. Since we'd been told repeatedly
how free of crime the island was, we
thought little of it, and it never
occurred to us to ask whether there
was a safe in the room. (Later we
found out that what looked like a
rusted-out tissue holder in the
bathroom was actually a safe.)
The thief took money from both
of our wallets. Mine had been under
a pile of clothes in a dresser drawer,
my wife's in a small purse in a
drawer of the night stand. Apparently
the thief made a leisurely
search of the room. Nothing was out
of place to alert us to the theft.
The hotel manager was
sympathetic, emphasized again
how little crime there is on the
island, and did little else. I informed
the police, who took the
information over the phone but
never made it to the hotel to
interview us. The constable told us,
"if you find out who did it, please let
us know. We hate to have this sort of
thing happening on the island."
Petty theft from cars is
well-documented on Bonaire, but
little is said of more insidious
crime. We stayed at Lions Dive; its
two-story buildings arranged
around a central courtyard and
pool offer the comfortable, safe
feeling of a small neighborhood.
The only access to first-floor rooms
is through sliding doors that open
into the courtyard. When you pass
through them, you immediately
enter a small kitchen; there's an interior door that separates the
kitchen from the bedroom and
bath. The sliding doors worked
well, but the locking mechanism
was hard to use. Since the bedroom
was the only air-conditioned
room, we closed the door between
it and the kitchen at night.
I woke up about 4:45, noting
an indistinct form hovering over
the chest of drawers in the bedroom,
rifling through my wallet. I
felt extremely vulnerable for an
instant, and then overwhelmingly
angry. I yelled at the thief to get out,
jumped out of bed, and foolishly
chased him out into the courtyard,
yelling clichés like "stop, thief"!
Apparently the only one who heard
me was the thief's accomplice, who
rounded the corner on the other
side of the building just as I rounded
the corner on my side and turned
into the parking lot. When I saw
him, I came to my senses and
stopped the chase.
We lost only a small amount of
money that night, but, as the
police put it, the thieves had been
on a "tour." At least three other
rooms had been burglarized. But
we were determined not to let a
crime ruin our vacation, and we
soldiered on with our diving.
Hotel management immediately
fabricated "burglar bars" to
use on the sliding doors, but, since
both doors move, this device
wouldn't work. I suggested a
security pin through the center
portion of the door where the
door frames overlap. Management
received the suggestion enthusiastically,
and I hope the rooms now
have security pins. We also received
a $50 voucher toward the cost of a
meal at a nearby restaurant. The
maitre-d' had heard of the theft
and covered the entire cost of the
meal and drinks.
I travel to New Orleans, New
York, and Washington, D.C.
regularly, thus far without incident,
probably because I am aware of the
risk and on guard against dangerous
situations. In the tropics, on
the other hand, I'm complacent,
although I shouldn't be: we stayed
at a Tari in Papua New Guinea
where highlanders armed with
bows and arrows patrol the
grounds at night.
Rather than expecting thirdworld
hotel management, which is
too often defensive, to fully protect
you, take your own precautions,
especially by blocking sliding doors
that can easily be opened. Check
your doors and windows. Insist on
locks that work. If there is no room
safe, store your valuables in the
hotel safe.
And, if you do have a problem,
don't dwell on it. Spending your
time trying to retrieve a couple
hundred bucks or tracking down
perpetrators will definitely kill your
fun.
-- Alan Eaton
P.S.: When I returned home
from a peaceful, crime-free trip to
the Turks and Caicos, I found that
the glass on the sliding doors on
my home had been crushed with a
rock. Only a couple of old coins
and a few dollars I'd left lying
around were missing. The police
noted that the thieves had carefully
looked under clothes in drawers
and the closet and under the
mattress. "That's where 90 percent
of the people hide money and
wallets," he said, "and a thief who
doesn't want to linger will look
there, find what he can, and leave."
If anything, fellow divers, be
creative. Consider purchasing an
alarm you can hang from your
doorknob; if the door is jiggled the
alarm goes off -- $25 for the
Security Travel Mate from
Brookstone at 1-800-926-7000; $69
for the Body Guard from Sharper
Image at 1-800-344-4444.
To secure your sliding glass
door, pick up a telescopic walking
stick ($50 to $75) from any outdoor
sporting goods store. About
eighteen inches long, they can be
extended and secured at a length
proper to jam a sliding glass door
-- and if you are headed to
Dominica they can help you get to
and from Boiling Lake.
For some security on the cheap,
a bungee cord hooked around a
door knob or sliding glass door and
some other stationary object can
offer resistance to intruders.
-- Ben Davison