More to this robbery than is being told.... I believe this too. I would bet money he knew the guy - not necessarily as a "friend"/"acquaintance"... but in passing. Maybe one of the guys he had words with one day on the road... They will remember you and seek revenge! I've told my story before, but I learned this the hard way. When I was staying long-term at an older hotel on the W. End road in 2010, there was a female crackhead staying there with her American "boyfriend" (guy was easily old enough to be her father, if not grandfather). The first day I saw her, I knew I should avoid her. I spent a lot of time on my porch & she liked to come by and beg me food/drink/money, you name it. I basically told her no and to stop asking. She would come and stand right in front of me and stare at me while I read my book, pretending not to know she was there. She was high 99% of the time & would come out of her room in the middle of the night and run around the courtyard, climb walls, etc. One night she scaled the wall to a guest's balcony on the 2nd floor & the guest woke to see her going through her stuff in the closet & chased her out of the room. Lisa (crackhead's name) jumped over the balcony railing & disappeared. The next day we figured out it was her by the evidence left at the scene. Her broken sandals on the ground under the balcony and her limping around the yard was a dead giveaway. Police were called. She was ordered off the property, not to return. Well guess what? She did return, along with her crackhead posse, about a week later and I was the next target. They unscrewed a louver from my window, reached in & unlocked my door, entered my room and basically took everything that looked like it might contain money. Owners woke me in the morning - I had slept through the whole thing, which was hard to believe, since he/she/they were within 1 foot of me in my bed (tiny room). Police were called. They told me there is a drug often used to target tourists called Scopolomine. If you've never heard of it, Google it - scary stuff. Apparently they can blow the powder into your face while you're sleeping and you will not wake up for hours. I could smell a chemical odor on my pillow so this sort of confirmed it. I was lucky... very lucky... they were only looking for money. My laptop was in plain view - not touched. My passport and ID were in my suitcase under my bed - not touched. They did find my wallet which contained approx. $40US plus my bank debit card & driver's licence. That was never recovered. All the photocopies of my ID were spread around on the steps outside - none was missing. Most importantly, I did not die!!! I could also say I was to blame for this in some respect. In addition to a push lock in the door knob, the door had two slide locks - one just above the doorknob (which they opened) and one about 4" above the floor. I neglected to lock the bottom one that night, which I hardly ever did. No particular reason I didn't lock it - just got lazy. Who knows if that would have prevented the break-in or if they would have just used a pole, or whatever other method? I don't beat myself up over my negligence, nor have I stopped going to JA. But I admit I am much more vigilant now and even slightly paranoid. I echo what someone said above, I am not taking applications for new friends! Good advice. Sorry for the long story, but just saying, in almost 90% of the cases of these home invasion robberies, the robber is known to you in some capacity, and very likely is someone you have pissed off recently. Oh, and I have been going to JA and staying long-term since 83, so it's not like I don't know the runnings, similar to Kahuna. It can and will happen to anyone.
Sorry to hear Sundowner. I have been robbed in Jamaica and robbed in the states. A thief is a thief. They will check your locks, windows, doors everyday waiting for you to make a mistake and eventually a lot of us do. May it be we have a false sense of security or one day we forget, they know it will happen. It takes more than one person to be vigilant 24/7.
I now lock every lock that is in the room. Also a big chair goes in front of the door. I have a mini sting operation of leaving some stuff on the porch at night. If it's gone the next day... Need I say more. I am on vacation and like to have fun but I know it can happen any time.
Geez after reading all these stories, I think I will be bringing my little personal alarm...it has a clip that fits into the door jamb. When the door opens, the clip opens and lets off an ear piercing alarm!
That reminds me... I did have one of those alarms you hang on your doorknob. It was in my drawer. I never used it, because I thought it might go off accidentally and frighten other guests!
I didn't mean scare anyone. My situation happened in 1992. I woke up to the security guard stealing my bag by my bed. Played opossum and stirred like I was about wake up and he left. Everything important was in the safe, so he got my bag and leftover cash for the evening. I didn't even have a credit card back then. Got over the situation pretty quick. A year passed and I was back. Jamaica isn't my only travel destination, I go other places. There are the typical tourist's crimes and then there is the crime where you can get hurt or worse. That is why there maybe more to the story. Yes Jamaica has an edge but so does a lot of the Caribbean and Latin America. Throw drugs, sex, ex pats, locals, bush doctors, tourists, thiefs, music, culture, patois, beaches, alcohol and money.....the list goes on. (Not in any order) its going to be very interesting - intoxicating
I'd been wondering why K3 packed up and left so fast after the robbery. I just read his post (no longer available -- can you image that) where he listed the many things he'd been told about how unsafe Negril is getting.
(Good thing I copied and pasted what I could of the thread before it got deleted or I'd never have been able to read it at all.) (PS: I even copied a really nasty comment by HRH)
Since I am basically a newbie, I am learning a lot of interesting history about the other board and this one that I did not know. I did know that the other board was white washed :-) The main Isla Mujeres board (chatter board) is the same way aka highly moderated and nothing bad happens on the island (even if it does) They also go as far as attacking the person that posted something bad.