There is a theft problem on both islands in some areas.
When you get your truck on Bonaire, there will often be a warning sticker on it to not leave anything of value in it at dive sites. Or the rental agent will advise that. And to leave the windows down, doors open. This is because there is some theft at the more remote dive sites - that's most of them except for at the resorts. The best way is take just what you need for the dives you'll be doing and take it all with you diving. Except for tanks, you can leave those in the back as no operator will fill anothers so they have little/no value. We left towels, water and cheap sunglasses in the truck - not much else.
At some of the south sites other divers will be coming/going nearby. On Bonaire you'll likely go by your resort once or twice per day if you need to stop for anything. And leave your c-card in your room - once you have the BMP orientation tag attached to your BC you won't need it anywhere - even if you rent from another operator - or one with multiple locations. I've heard you don't even need your driver's license but I'm not suggesting that...I carried it, a CC and some cash in one of
these all week.
At the condo I've left gear laying around to dry - ground floor patio - and no one touched it. My buddy left his splitfins in a rinse tank once, went back a couple hours later and they were still there.
On Curacao our apt. mgr warned us to always lock the vehicle(s). At most sites we weren't the only ones there though. At many there's an on-site operator who will watch your vehicle if asked. We did have bars on the apt. windows at one location and gated security at another. I noticed most of the resorts did also. There's a grittier part to Curacao since it's a deepwater port and much larger than Bonaire. Out west we left things locked in the SUV hidden under a cargo cover and didn't think anything of it.
I felt really safe walking around downtown Kralendijk (Bonaire) late one night. It's a pretty small area and there's open bars/restaurants all over. We did have a night watchman at our condos but his job seemed mainly to help you park in the lot - close to the street. Downtown in Curacao one night we were approached by someone who offered to "watch" our vehicle for a fee so it wasn't
damaged while we were gone. There's a lot of people in that area, cruise ships dock there, there's the famous market area etc. so we locked the vehicles there as well. Like you would in a larger U.S. city...
