Zhung Kong Robbed?

[boulderjohn]

Found nowhere else in the world? I agree that this particular situation and approach to dealing with it is pretty unique, at least to the degree it exists in Bonaire, but I'm concerned that this statement...

No one has said that there is no crime anywhere else in the world. No one has said that Bonaire has in general the highest crime rate in the world.

Can you name one other place that has the same general precautions given to divers and the same levels of discussion related to these crimes continually in its dedicated forums? I cannot think of a single dive location like it.

 

[drrich2]

Scott:

A few thoughts. A friend of mine lived on Bonaire at Little Venice apartments about a year & 4 months while attending medical school (the class work portion) at St. James; I believe he left the island April of 2013. From what he told me, based on what he'd heard and speaking to people while on island, there was a perception that there was an increase in crime. He told me the story of an armed break in (thankfully nobody was injured, but I would imagine it was traumatic) of some people I believe he knew.

A few years back my wife & I were talking in Kralendijk when a cop ran past us looking for someone who'd done a 'smash and grab' at a display case for a jewelry store (Littman's, I think). So, while it's a one time anecdote, I did actually see a cop doing something!

I, too, would like to see more proactive, aggressive law enforcement to fight crime on Bonaire. At the same time, I wonder how the current situation stacks up against some other places people go to dive (I'm speaking of home breaking, armed robbery, muggings, etc...)? I believe it's 'worse than it used to be,' but I wonder is it really worse than the 'competition,' so to speak?

From what I understand Saba is a steep, mountainous, small island with a population close to 2,000 and all the diving is by boat. The social dynamics must be a lot different from most other destinations.

I have noticed on one or more other threads people expressing concern about renting private residences as a perceived added theft risk. The idea is the neighborhood will realize it's a tourist staying in a stand alone house, I assume (not condo.s in groups). That is something worth considering. Of course, a lot of Caribbean dive vacations are for a week, and most of us aren't around long enough to press charges and act as witnesses in an investigation, so tourists are vulnerable. I take it some believe there's an added measure of security in staying at a dedicated dive resort, especially a larger one, such as Buddy Dive, Captain Don's, etc...

So there are legitimate concerns and I, too, would like to have a better idea of what the police do, and how practical it would be to do more. I've never worked in law enforcement and don't know what all they have to work with.

Part of the reason I respond to these threads is because I like to help people who are going to Bonaire 'know the score' so they can take precautions and have a good time, but part of it is because I've seen posts indicating some people are put off going at all, as though Bonaire were some unacceptably dangerous criminal haven. I've been 8 separate 1-week trips, the last trip solo, talk with others who go and read the trip reports, and I still find it to be a good destination for lots of fun diving with little chance of any serious crime affecting me directly. One trip, somebody's new BCD got replaced with an old, worn one in a gear room, but I don't think that was the locals' fault! And I think I heard of somebody experiencing theft from a truck.

The take home message is, Bonaire is a fine shore diving destination, and you can have a reasonably safe trip there (no place is perfectly safe) if you take some precautions. One precaution Scott mentioned that we don't talk much about is that if you rent a stand-alone private home, you might be an easier target than if you're in a big resort. Nothing makes you perfectly safe; only you can decide if you're safe enough.

Richard.

 

[Hintermann]

Pretty soon some truck rental company in Bonaire is going to come-up with the idea of an added extra at a small additional fee to deter break-ins - a resident Rottweiler.

 

[drrich2]

John:

Can you name one other place that has the same general precautions given to divers and the same levels of discussion related to these crimes continually in its dedicated forums? I cannot think of a single dive location like it.

Bold emphasis mine. Because there's no place like it (or at least very few), the recommended approach isn't seen elsewhere. In the Caribbean, there aren't many mainly shore dive destinations. When people ask about them, Curacao is the only place at all like it, and I'm told dive sites are farther apart, often involve fairly lengthy turn off roads as the main road doesn't hug the coast line, and some dive sites have businesses onsite offering facilities (for a nominal fee!), and someone told me in a post on another thread there Curacao doesn't really seem to have the 'Bonaire rental dive truck' as a strong presence. My only Curacao experience was changing planes at the airport; I'm quite curious about it but I have trouble picturing the situation there so as to try to judge how rental vehicle item theft would compare.

My buddy who used to live on Bonaire was under the impression Curacao had worse crime (I'm not talking about shore diving theft), but I don't know if he had any real basis for that.

Where else do people shore dive in the Caribbean? Scuba Club Cozumel and Hotel Cozumel? One site and you don't have to travel to get there. Grand Cayman? A few sites. St. Croix? CocoView in Roatan (an island with armed security reached by boat)? I've never been to Indonesia, so I don't know what life is like over there.

Some thoughts:

1.) Bonaire is so famous and has such 'brand recognition' and high-volume dive tourism that it has it's own sub-forum on ScubaBoard. Rather like Cozumel in that respect. Out of all the islands in the Caribbean, almost nobody gets their own sub-forum from what I see.

2.) Some people can't get past leaving no valuables in your rental truck or accepting theft risk, and will gripe about it on new threads, and some of us will argue with them, and the perpetual motion machine grinds on...

3.) I think we're all concerned about home & apartment break-ins and confrontational violent crime such as armed robbery, and aren't happy about a perceived lackluster law enforcement response. This is legitimate! I'm not convinced it's unique to Bonaire, but being such big dive destination, a lot of people are watching it.

It might be worth thinking about how vacations at other dive destinations tend to go. At CocoView, Roatan, from what I understand you can stay on the resort all week, and dive the house reef and by boat. In Cozumel, you might stay at a southern A.I. or a hotel in town and get picked up by (or taxi to) your dive op., so you're not leaving a vehicle parked around. As with the cenotes example earlier, you can find something somewhat similar to Bonaire in some respect, but I don't think many destinations offer what it offers - lots of fine shore diving right off a coast-hugging road with fairly short swim outs up & down the west coast.

Richard.

 

[boulderjohn]

Richard, there are dive sites outside of the Caribbean, and I think the Yucatan peninsula should be considered part of the Caribbean.

 

[kelemvor]

Did the whole of Bonaire not have any police officers until this incident? If so, no wonder petty theft was so common.

 

[tursiops]

Disclaimer: I've been going to Bonaire since 1999....upwards of 30 visits so far.
Yes, crime has increased. Yes, there have been police all those years. Yes, locals get their houses robbed, and many have bars on windows. Yes. there are lots of reports on SB about crime on Bonaire....but the number of reports needs to be normalized by (a) the VERY large number of people that go to Bonaire, (b) the fact that it has its own forum, (c) the huge percantage of dives that are at remote sites, and (d) crowd frenzy. The only thing recently that has raised concerns is the *armed* robberies....and the Dutch police seem to have jumped on that immediately with a stop-and-search policy just implemented.
Yes, I feel safer in Bonaire than in Belize City, or Guatamala, or Honduras, or the wrong parts of Oahu, or downtown DC (a few miles from me), or...the entire mid-East. Someday I'll go dive the Red Sea. Not now. I hope it is still worth diving then...

 

[Ray and Pam]

Zhung Kong got robbed?

 

[tursiops]

Zhung Kong got robbed?

Yes. See Police Report - Page 3, for example.

 

[JG109]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion but Boy oh boy, there is some justification in this thread.
I'll concede that wanting a ham sandwich and a gatorade after a dive is pretty outrageous! (humor intended).
And the comments such as "It is what it is"??? That's the problem the locals have. Stop blaming the tourists for crime- you know, the folks who come and spend a lot of money!
If the dive operator association and hotel association etc complained enough to the Governor, the Netherlands, the Chief of Police and anyone else in a leadership role, the problem could certainly be greatly lessened. Bonaire is a relatively small island with a small population. Crime mapping, remote video etc, an anonymous tip line/email, good old fashioned police work, like questioning the drug arrests etc, there's a lot of options that could be effectively used without spending a million dollars.

So, instead, the non-violent crime goes largely ignored and now it has progressed to violent crime. What's next, maybe a tourist gets murdered? We won't need to chat about a tourist murder here, we will just read about it in the New York Times.
I think the locals will feel differently (and the villa owners from abroad) when Bonaire gets a reputation as a dangerous island, and hotels and dive boats are not full, restaurants and casinos are empty and the villas aren't rented.
But, it is what it is, right?