Zhung Kong Robbed?

[djtimmy77]

nevermind

 

[Mike]

BTW last year in Bonaire we saw patrols up and down the roads to the dive sites as Mike suggests.

Consider yourself blessed, divers have better odds of seeing two frog fish on a single dive than seeing a Bonaire police car on the dive road.

 

[Hintermann]

Going on holiday should be fun, yes, but you shouldn't be stupid.

True. But in most places in the world, locking one's car when you leave it parked is considered sensible and not 'stupid' but clearly this is not true in Bonaire. Anyway, what I was trying to say was that people tend to be more relaxed and let their hair down while on holiday (that is why it is called a holiday) than they would be at home. That, combined with the unfamiliar surroundings make tourists vulnerable to the local criminal element. Doubtless that is true in a lot of places in the world but it increasingly seems that it has become a way of life in Bonaire.

Some friends from Canada were robbed in Bonaire not too long ago. They were anything but 'stupid'. They followed all the advice given, locked everything in the room etc. But when rooms get forced open and things stolen, one has to ask what more they could have done. Perhaps they should have stayed in their rooms and dived under the beds?

 

[boulderjohn]

Shore diving generally means leaving a vehicle unguarded for about an hour, and even if the user returned and 'caught' the perp., the user would probably be encumbered with dive gear (e.g.: weights, fins, etc...) and easy out-ran. In any scenario where locals learn to identify which vehicles are dive tourist's, and know the prospective victims will be out of the country within a week, you have some risk for vehicle break ins.

In Bonaire, there is a well-established workflow for leaving nothing of value in your rental truck while diving, and the windows down & doors unlocked so thieves can see there's nothing much to steal, and this system works well for and to the satisfaction of legions of divers. There are fairly rare reports of battery or gas theft, and that is another story entirely, but it seems quite uncommon as yet.

There are people who, for whatever reason, want to take a cooler of drinks or sandwiches, or a change of clothes or a 'land camera,' and leave it in the truck while diving, truck locked, with no substantial risk of anyone breaking into the truck & stealing their stuff. Well, you can't do that! Not without some risk. That's just not how it works there. People who insist on hauling that stuff create more potential reward for thieves.

I was only in Bonaire once, and I carefully followed the windows down, nothing of value in the truck routine.

I have done a lot of shore diving in other locations where I have parked my car while diving. Some of these are in parking lots where thievery would be easily noticed, but many are definitely not. These sites include beaches in Florida, cave sites in Florida, southern California, northern California, Puget Sound, cave sites in Mexico, the big Island of Hawaii, Maui, Curacao, and New Mexico. Although we did not dive, a diver took me to a shore diving location in Australia where cars are routinely parked by divers.

In all of those locations, I have left the car windows up, and I clearly had valuables in the car. In all of those locations, that was the norm. In none of those locations did anyone give me any warning to do otherwise. I never had a problem. I never heard of anyone else having a problem.

It is certainly good advice to leave your windows down with no valuables in the truck in Bonaire, but it is not right to claim that things are the same everywhere else in the world.

 

[Hintermann]

It is certainly good advice to leave your windows down with no valuables in the truck in Bonaire, but it is not right to claim that things are the same everywhere else in the world.

Agreed. I was in Little Cayman Beach Resort - another Caribbean destination note - last year and the dive staff asked all of us to leave our dive it in mesh bags outside the rooms for them to pick-up and take to the boats early on. We all did it and no one lost anything - mind you, I did ask the staff if it was safe and they assured me that nothing would be stolen.

 

[Mike]

When the rental agency tells you that if you roll the windows up and lock the car and someone breaks the window you're responsible for the repair you know you in Bonaire.

 

[drrich2]

I have done a lot of shore diving in other locations where I have parked my car while diving. Some of these are in parking lots where thievery would be easily noticed, but many are definitely not. These sites include beaches in Florida, cave sites in Florida, southern California, northern California, Puget Sound, cave sites in Mexico, the big Island of Hawaii, Maui, Curacao, and New Mexico. Although we did not dive, a diver took me to a shore diving location in Australia where cars are routinely parked by divers.

In all of those locations, I have left the car windows up, and I clearly had valuables in the car. In all of those locations, that was the norm. In none of those locations did anyone give me any warning to do otherwise. I never had a problem. I never heard of anyone else having a problem.

It is certainly good advice to leave your windows down with no valuables in the truck in Bonaire, but it is not right to claim that things are the same everywhere else in the world.

A good point. It's worth considering what's different about those places.

1.) Hawaii - is much of the population at 'socioeconomically equivalent' to Bonaire? You'll find poor people everywhere, but it does raise the question.

2.) Any of these other places - is diving tourism such a prominent part of the economy that it draws as much attention? In Bonaire, the diver tourist's rental truck is practically iconic. In other other places you've been, is it typically so obvious, as one drives along the coast, that a vehicle or pair of vehicles is obviously rented by shore divers who'll be underwater for an hour?

3.) From what I have heard, Curacao has its own crime problems. Wonder how that compares to Bonaire?

4.) As for California & other U.S. locations, people would often be worried that an unlocked car would be stolen & taken to a chop shop, or at least the radio ripped out of it, so we do lock them almost universally. In California and Puget Sound, I'd think more of the divers would be locals as opposed to divers parking trucks in Bonaire.

My point is, yes, the crime prevention measures in Bonaire aren't practiced in all shore diving locations. This doesn't necessarily mean other locations have a lot less crime, though perhaps petty theft from vehicles may be less common. Non-diving anecdote: when I lived in an apartment in Louisville, KY, a guy was breaking into a row of cars mine was parked in (would've been locked), but somebody scared him off (I think) before he got to mine). So while I could lock my car, I wasn't really better off.

Out of curiosity, what factors do you think contribute to the difference in the other shore diving destinations you've been?

Richard.

 

[boulderjohn]

Out of curiosity, what factors do you think contribute to the difference in the other shore diving destinations you've been?

I have no idea. All I know is that I cannot name another dive location anywhere in the world that has these kinds of precautions repeated so regularly.

 

[Mike]

Out of curiosity, what factors do you think contribute to the difference in the other shore diving destinations you've been?

Richard.

I don't think there is any mystery to the differences. When the police ignore the problem of petty crime for years because it's just against foreigners who don't vote, don't have relatives on the island to make problems for you, are basically just wallets that appear and disappear every week with the next plane at the airport, that's the difference. For years the local police and politicians have sacraficed the tourist to the criminals with a non-spoken treaty of -- as long as you keep your petty crimes to the tourist and leave the locals alone we will look the other way.

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

Every place has a crime level, and a general level of caution people exercise. Someone mentioned locking their doors at home. There are places in the U.S. where many people don't; rural settings, for instance. I saw a documentary on t.v. where it seemed a number of Canadians didn't. And some people don't lock their cars much when they're out.

But many of us lock our home & car doors. But don't have bars on our windows, or have 2 or 3 locks on the door. But in some places, people do.

Shore diving generally means leaving a vehicle unguarded for about an hour, and even if the user returned and 'caught' the perp., the user would probably be encumbered with dive gear (e.g.: weights, fins, etc...) and easy out-ran. In any scenario where locals learn to identify which vehicles are dive tourist's, and know the prospective victims will be out of the country within a week, you have some risk for vehicle break ins.

In Bonaire, there is a well-established workflow for leaving nothing of value in your rental truck while diving, and the windows down & doors unlocked so thieves can see there's nothing much to steal, and this system works well for and to the satisfaction of legions of divers. There are fairly rare reports of battery or gas theft, and that is another story entirely, but it seems quite uncommon as yet.

There are people who, for whatever reason, want to take a cooler of drinks or sandwiches, or a change of clothes or a 'land camera,' and leave it in the truck while diving, truck locked, with no substantial risk of anyone breaking into the truck & stealing their stuff. Well, you can't do that! Not without some risk. That's just not how it works there. People who insist on hauling that stuff create more potential reward for thieves.

I suspect shore diving in other locales could yield similar results, at least if the locals are very familiar with it. Curacao comes to mind. Wonder about St. Croix?

When my wife went to orientation at a college, the security guys tips on being safe on campus made Bonaire sound downright carefree!

Richard.

are you serious?

those dumbasses that want to bring some water, gatorade or a PB&J to the dive site. fools. they should know better and follow this "system"? cmon.

it is not acceptable to know that a freaking bottle of gatorade or a pair of shorts will be taken out of your truck. if this is considered, "working well" then...well, just wow.