Rental Truck Vandalized
- Thread starter ronski101
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dfx
Contributor
I remember seeing this a lot on Curacao, but not on Bonaire.
The last half of the first comment is a total fabrication, while the entire second comment is entirely a fabrication (or maybe poster is referring to any and all kind of glass, not just vehicle window glass, all of which seem to stick around nearly forever in that arid environment), and, of course the third comment is simply trollish behavior on this poster's part.
t4e
Contributor
if only cops had guns then i can understand your comment
anyway, this thread is not about guns so maybe should just let that subject be
Bonaire is not any more dangerous and prone to vandalism then any other so called civilized countries, i had the emblem stolen from my car in my driveway in Canada, and so did half the street, and that is trespassing, here is a public beach, not defending the behaviour but it is what it is
like someone else mentioned before, the rental vehicles have a big sign on the dash telling you to leave windows down and car unlocked at dive sites
Mike
Contributor
Have you and your neighbors had the emblem stolen from your cars in your driveways over and over again for 20 years or just once? If you and your neighbors have had petty crimes committed against your cars steadily for the last 20 years then that is like Bonaire, if it happened one time, then that's like Canada.
Until more people react like the OP nothing is going to force change on Bonaire, the petty crime is petty in it's nature and is a blight and is a nuisance and unfortunately currently the admission cost you pay to dive there. It's unfortunate, it's more unfortunate that Bonaire chooses to ignore it, it's grown more and more well-known over the years and it's become part of Bonaire's reputation for being as famous for it's wonderful diving and as famous for it's well-known petty crime issue. It's like Roatan's reputation for no-seem ems and the nuisance they are, it's part of the noise you have to deal with if you want to go there. It's dumb, it sucks and it's probably not going to change since the recent changes in the government was the time if any that the issue would have been finally addressed and they didn't so I don't see it getting any better.
Have you or anyone else reading this thread had your vehicle in Bonaire vandalized repeatedly? Maybe I really do not comprehend the scale of what's going on, but I imagine that on average, any one of us who visits Bonaire once a year or so will not have our vehicles vandalized repeatedly. Maybe it will happen to us once or twice over the course of a number of visits? I just don't see those odds as being so bad when I consider that I am leaving an unattended rental vehicle at a remote dive site, which is something I have never been inclined to do anywhere else in the world because it would seem to be inviting just such vandalism. You're a traveler, Mike. How many times have we seen travel guidebooks warn us "do not leave your vehicle unattended" by the hiking trailhead or whatever? All over my own town, I see signs warning not to leave valuables in sight in parked cars.
I've had my car window smashed here in Atlanta twice in ten years, right in the parking lot of my building, behind a high climb-resistant fence. Atlanta is a big convention/visitor city, and I suspect the amount of resources the police devote to stopping this sort of crime is just enough to ensure the city doesn't suffer a loss of convention and visitor business and no more. I'm sure it happens to visitors, but even if one comes to Atlanta every year for a convention, maybe it will happen to a given individual's rental car only once every few years. Violent crime is another matter entirely, and the city devotes its resources primarily to preventing violent crime. As I said earlier, I sure don't "condone" this kind of crime on Bonaire, but I can't see Bonaire devoting a lot more resources to fighting it--maybe they should do a little more, but it does not seem to be impacting tourism enough to motivate them just yet. By all means, feel free to protest with your wallet and stop coming to the island.
rydog
Contributor
Wow, 8 pages for a stolen shift knob.
If you want to be safe and avoid issues on any island I suggest you stay at home. Make sure your mote is wide and deep and the concrete walls are thick. Oh yeah, don't forget the gun turrets.
If you want to be safe and avoid issues on any island I suggest you stay at home. Make sure your mote is wide and deep and the concrete walls are thick. Oh yeah, don't forget the gun turrets.
Reidkon
Contributor
I agree with this, and didn't mean for my previous reply to imply that fresh glass is piled at many sites. Just that I noticed glass in a few sites where I didn't remember seeing it on previous visits. As you noted even one event will leave traces of glass for years.
Nope. We've enjoyed 20 weeks on dushi Bonaire, spread over 16 years, and have only lost a pair of cheap sunglasses while parked at Andrea II. (My wife paid $5 for them at Cultimara.) I imagine our truck has probably been rifled a few times, but nothing has been stolen because we haven't left anything of value in it. The more recent trend of disappearing tires, batteries, and misc. auto parts is a little disturbing though. We don't have control over access to those things and it wouldn't be fun to have our truck disabled miles from town after a dive. But I'm still content with the odds and looking forward to a couple of weeks on the island in early June.
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