Chip
Reged: 10/02/02
Posts: 273
Loc: Richmond, VA
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The robbery of occupied villas is a very troubling development. The recurrent nature suggests that the problem cannot be written off to the misdeeds of departing temporary workers. My view of the island as a relatively carefree eden has already been changed.
Many villas cannot be readily secured because of the indoor/outdoor living areas.
Interesting that the thieves are not bothered by the multiple circulation alternees slowing egress from Pointe Milou; perhaps they are within walking distance.
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Chip
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georgedp
Reged: 06/22/04
Posts: 2804
Loc: Beautiful hunterdon county new...
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Burglaries of villas on SHB are not a new development. Friends of ours were broken into over Thanksgiving 2001 while they and their two young daughters were sleeping in their villa. Don't recall if they were staying at Pt. Milou or some other part of the island. I could probably accept the burglary of an unoccupied villa but what is more disturbing is the brazen nature of burglars that dare to burglarize an occupied villa. The possibility of someone getting injured or worse is very much there.
As far as the SBH gendarmes are concerned, I guess they are too busy operating sobriety roadblocks so they don't have the time to properly investigate the burglaries or take actions to nab the perpetrators.
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RandL_SBH
Reged: 02/10/05
Posts: 6
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Thanks for everyone's comments. Just want to address a few issues some have raised.
We had small things, and thankfully my wife's important/sentimental jewlery, in the safe but unfortunately it was not of the size that it could hold the rest. Also, villa doors on bedrooms would not lock (broken) so we hid some of the electronics in other cabinets in the common area, thinking if someone would come looking they would focus on the bedrooms. Unfortunately the common area had sliders facing a verical stone wall in the back that went up from 6 to 20 feet and we left those open to try to get a breaze flowing through most of the time. Won't do that again!! But after looking at the set up on it and other similar villas, if they want in...they are coming in. Especially if there are 2 people where one could give the other a boost to climb over the front patio/pool area rails.
The neighbors that were robbed mentioned they had felt the villa may have been cased before and then the thieves came back that night going right for where things were stored (don't know why they said this). The area of Pt. Milou targeted were the Villas right above the Christopher. The villa Mgr. mentioned that they were notifying other villa Mgrs./Rental companies as many of the villas were empty and may have been hit but no one was there to report it. It was interesting that the police said that except for an owner's small stereo system that was taken, the rest of the property all belonged to the renters.
While the experiance put the old saying "a bad day at the beach is still better than a good day at work" to the test...yep, we will go back!!! But, more wise in our decisions and maybe more careful in the selection of our villa regarding surroundings, set-up, etc..
RandL
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Dennis
Reged: 04/05/04
Posts: 3202
Loc: Chicago
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Quote:
I could probably accept the burglary of an unoccupied villa but what is more disturbing is the brazen nature of burglars that dare to burglarize an occupied villa. The possibility of someone getting injured or worse is very much there.
If you think about it, there's little risk to the burglar. What are the chances that a tourist will be armed? If a burglar awakened me, the most I would do was try to frighten him by making noise or turning on lights. I would never attack unless threatened. I'm sure they know this and take the risk knowing they will scurry into the night if sighted.
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georgedp
Reged: 06/22/04
Posts: 2804
Loc: Beautiful hunterdon county new...
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Quote:
If you think about it, there's little risk to the burglar. What are the chances that a tourist will be armed? If a burglar awakened me, the most I would do was try to frighten him by making noise or turning on lights. I would never attack unless threatened. I'm sure they know this and take the risk knowing they will scurry into the night if sighted.
But as a tourist I am armed. I have my laptop which I would use to El Kabong
them over the head LOL
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Dennis
Reged: 04/05/04
Posts: 3202
Loc: Chicago
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Quote:
Quote:
If you think about it, there's little risk to the burglar. What are the chances that a tourist will be armed? If a burglar awakened me, the most I would do was try to frighten him by making noise or turning on lights. I would never attack unless threatened. I'm sure they know this and take the risk knowing they will scurry into the night if sighted.
But as a tourist I am armed. I have my laptop which I would use to El Kabong
them over the head LOL
If you're laptop is fired up, just leave the WW home page up. That'll occupy the scoundrel until help arrives!
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georgedp
Reged: 06/22/04
Posts: 2804
Loc: Beautiful hunterdon county new...
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If you're laptop is fired up, just leave the WW home page up. That'll occupy the scoundrel until help arrives!
With my luck it would turn out to be a female cat burglar LOL
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tim
Moderator
Reged: 06/18/03
Posts: 6111
Loc: Vélo, Virginia, Vitet
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I'm going out on a limb here and predict the culprits will be caught and brought to justice. Brazen repitition breeds careless mistakes by criminals. Also, if these perps were brilliant, they probably wouldn't be robbing houses in the first place.
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The best moderation is the least moderation.
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StBarthBlue
Reged: 02/21/06
Posts: 23
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So sorry to hear about your misadventure in paradise. On rare occasions, stuff like this happens. St. Barth is still one of the safest islands anywhere. In fact, it's probably one of the safest places anywhere. Nevertheless, it's not a bad idea, wherever one travels, to make sure things are locked up when you go to sleep. Also, checking to see what your homeowner's insurance covers when you are traveling may give you some extra peace of mind. Hope your next trip is nothing but fun.
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georgedp
Reged: 06/22/04
Posts: 2804
Loc: Beautiful hunterdon county new...
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Quote:
I'm going out on a limb here and predict the culprits will be caught and brought to justice. Brazen repitition breeds careless mistakes by criminals. Also, if these perps were brilliant, they probably wouldn't be robbing houses in the first place.
What if the perps are in fact the gendarmes? They won't be catching themselves any time soon.
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NYCFred
Reged: 01/06/04
Posts: 6323
Loc: NYC
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<<What are the chances that a tourist will be armed?>>
Depends on the tourist.
In my case, 100%
of course, not a firearm, but I guarantee there's something readily accessible that will even the odds somewhat.
you can take the boy out of NY, but....
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I go for the Q-tips.
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JustTourists
Reged: 06/15/06
Posts: 3
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My wife and I were one of the couples robbed. We were in a very remote Villa on Pt. Milou, steps away from the cliffs, and not within earshot of anyone. Around 4AM my wife woke to the sound of the glass of our bedroom door being pushed. What she saw was two men watching us as we slept and attempting to enter our room. Just take a moment and picture that. Picture yourself in that nightmare scenario. This was no petty robbery. It had tremendous potential to be violent. We have been to the island multiple times and love the island and its people. But there are several major issues confronting St. Barths now. More later...
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