Bonaire Crime - Our experience - Looking for input to share

[mmmbelows]

You seem to have a rather intense resentment that the Bonaire rental car agencies require renters to practice the widely known risk reduction practices of leaving the windows down and doors unlocked as a condition of coverage.

No, it's simply pointing out the difference between renting a vehicle in Bonaire versus anywhere else.

Pretty understandable comparison that demonstrates the severity of the petty crime problem on Bonaire.

You and a small minority here for some reason want to pretend that the crime issue is the same everywhere, but Bonaire due to I guess the fact they are Dutch or something have created a rule unique to them just by accident or something with no connection to the crime problem, you have decided to ignore or pretend the simple logic that the reason Bonaire has this rule and no one else anywhere else does is because of the severity of the petty theft there.

The rental agencies obviously have had to repair so many broken car windows due to the petty theft that they had to implement a rule to mitigate the large financial burden they were facing from all the crime. They have obviously spent years frustrated by all the money they have spent with no relief in sight from the local police.

Of course this is all just a bunch of hoey, as you and two or three others are convinced there is no connection between the rental agencies on Bonaire implementing this rule having anything to do with crime, it's because of the weird barometric phenomena that must exist on Bonaire that can cause a rental car with it's windows rolled up and the doors locked for the windows to implode for no reason.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Or it's possible that Bonaire doesn't have an Auto-Glass franchise.

 

[oldschoolto]

Thank you Pete (Netdoc) for your words of wisdom...

Jim...

 

[The Chairman]

Thank you Pete (Netdoc) for your words of wisdom...

Jim...

No worries... it's easy to get embroiled in these kinds of controversies. We often feel that if people don't agree with us, then they couldn't have possibly understood our position. It can be rather frustrating and it seems the more entrenched we get, the more vicious the vitriol becomes! People are going to have different opinions and it's quite possible that everyone is "right" to varying degrees.

 

[drrich2]

mmmbelows:

I do not pretend the rental agency insistence on leaving windows down & doors unlocked has no connection to crime. It's clearly in response to it. I don't know anyone who pretends otherwise. My home door locks are a response to the threat of burglary.

While the specifics of crime vary by location, you can find it most everywhere, and it turns out rental vehicle petty theft concerns are not unique to Bonaire, nor is the wisdom of some of the risk mitigation practices.

That said, I agree with NetDoc's last post, stick a fork in it, it's done.

Richard.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I've had rental cars in at least 30 countries world wide have left it on back roads hike remote areas, go caving, go to beaches, never once did any of the rental agencies require me to leave the car unlocked and the windows down to avoid liability to damage, and in all of these places I've had a hat worth more than $3.00 and it was never stolen.

Rental car company, no, but it may be good practice nonetheless. When we were doing some hiking in Panama, we were advised by others not to leave the car doors locked because vandals will smash windows to look for stuff. Regardless of whether I will be held responsible by a car rental company, I'd rather not have to deal with a rental car with a smashed window.

 

[Lorenzoid]

If you truly want a crime free vacation: try a liveaboard. Unbelievably convenient. You get up, eat a bit, jump off the back of the boat, eat a bit, jump off the back of the boat, eat a bit, jump off the back of the boat, eat a bit, jump off the back of the boat, eat a bit, do a night dive and just in case you're hungry, go ahead and eat a bit. Repeat for five or six days.

If a week on Bonaire cost as much as a liveaboard, Bonaire could afford to hire police and punish offenders.

 

[Skeptic14]

It is a very long flight from the east coast to HI and it is pretty expensive I guess, but we are going back because our first trip was so incredible. I'm all ears to other destinations with the diving/snorkeling and also the top side hiking/landscape that HI offers closer to the east coast

Our first trip our rental company didn't say anything about windows down doors unlocked on Maui and I'd never heard of that outside Bonaire, we didn't have to do that in Grand Cayman either and we did some off-the-path snorkeling there, maybe we got lucky.

I know that doesn't mean theft won't happen in other places, but it does make you think it must be very prevalent in Bonaire for those protocols to be required. I've also never heard of batteries being stolen from rental vehicles or gas siphoned.

Any time you lock something valuable in a car there is the chance it'll get broken into, however it just seems very odd to basically invite the thieves in, the "just let um rummage through your stuff and everything will be fine" attitude is a turn off to me.

I still want to go to Bonaire but the attitude toward the crime there is disconcerting... and I think that is a natural response. It doesn't mean I think there are magical places I can go alternatively where crime doesn't exist, it just means the culture there in relation to crime is unattractive.

 

[mmmbelows]

mmmbelows:

I do not pretend the rental agency insistence on leaving windows down & doors unlocked has no connection to crime. It's clearly in response to it. I don't know anyone who pretends otherwise. My home door locks are a response to the threat of burglary.

While the specifics of crime vary by location, you can find it most everywhere, and it turns out rental vehicle petty theft concerns are not unique to Bonaire, nor is the wisdom of some of the risk mitigation practices.

That said, I agree with NetDoc's last post, stick a fork in it, it's done.

Richard.

Again Richard, the issues isn't that there is no crime anywhere else, the issue is the amount of it happening in Bonaire, and there is so much of it that Bonaire's rental agencies have instituted a policy that prevents a renter from using the basic security of their vehicle (locking it) by putting the financial burden on the renter for damage by thieves if he does. Again nowhere else in the world does this policy exist, it exists only on Bonaire because of the amount of theft that occurs.

You like to compare apples to apples so please do so. You locking your doors and windows of your home is not the same thing - the same thing would be you not being able to lock your doors and windows if your home owner's insurance or renter's insurance policy said if you lock your doors and your home is burglarized by the thief breaking down the doors or breaking your windows we will not pay for the damages. Likely since unlike a temporary rental car situation in your home you would find it tremendously inconvenient to not leave any valuables in your home when you weren't there you wouldn't have that option and you would lock your doors and accept the costs of the damage to them if there was a break-in. On Bonaire you figure, it's easier to mitigate the risk by not locking and not leaving anything of value. Because you choose this solution does not erase the problem nor the fact that the policy exists because of the problem. Taking this one step further would be hotel owners issuing a policy that if you lock your hotel room door and it is broken into you are responsible for the damage to the property, so don't lock your hotel room door, and the solution is just don't have anything of value in your room. How far away is that policy? Sound preposterous and you think nobody would stand for that! Well, it's just as preposterous as a rental car company doing what they are doing. Who thought that would come about, who thought people would stand for it?

I hope you're "it's done" to the pretending Bonaire has no crime epidemic may be done and not that the thread is done by your decree as the OP's thread lives on as the purpose of him starting this was to raise awareness and create a public discussion to display to some of those with the power to make a difference in Bonaire. There have been lots of victims who have contributed with their stories and I hope that continues as it raises awareness to the problem.

 

[Lorenzoid]

With respect to the rental truck crime, the analogies make no sense. Bonaire is unique in that every single vehicle that is rented WILL be parked at some time--probably multiple times in a week--at a remote site at which vandals have been known to prowl and can easily pull off a smash-and-grab without anyone seeing them. They can hide in the brush until nobody is around, complete the crime in two minutes, and be off into the brush again. They know the drivers are out in the water and may very well have left some personal item hidden in the truck rather than take it in the water. I can't name anywhere else in the world with this perfect storm of conditions.

It's not like renting a vehicle elsewhere that one renter out of 100 MIGHT park in some remote location frequented by vandals. It's certainly not like hotel rooms or homes, where there are enough potential witnesses around that would-be burglars think twice. Bonaire is unique in this respect.