A cautionary tale, especially for returners

I've debated whether or not to share this, primarily because A) it can happen anywhere and I don't want to see Negril unfairly disparaged and B) I am reluctant to expose myself to the victim-blaming that goes on on message boards.

I'm not going to tell you which hotel we were at because that's not part of the story, but the hotel is respectable and has responded appropriately.

With all of that in mind-here goes:

We are multi-year returners to Negri to and like most everyone, develop favorite hotels, restaurants, drivers, etc. That's as it should be, because it adds to our overall enjoyment- we don't pretend to "know" people in a really personal way, but we've developed fond business relationships with them. On Wednesday, February 26, our hotel room was broken into while we were sleeping and we were robbed of about $2000 in electronics, phones, cash, and other important items. Why we had these items with us on vacation is simple-- we have demanding jobs and checking in on vacay is a necessary trade-off for extended vacation time.

We had had an early evening, ate dinner in our room and were asleep by about 10 pm. About midnight, my husband woke up with an upset stomach, checked the time on his Ipad and stepped onto the balcony for some air. After a while, he returned to bed and closed the patio door but did not lock it because the spring-loaded bolt mechanism makes a lot of noise and I was sleeping. When he woke at 5:30, he discovered that all of our items had been stolen-two Ipads, two cellphones, my kindle, his watch, my small beach purse, his backpack, etc. We later discovered that there was video of the thieves and that they were going from room to room looking for access- our balcony door and one other just happened to be open on this particular evening. Had he not felt ill, we would have had two closed and locked doors, so it's important to remember to be always vigilant, even if you are on the third floor. On the video, you can clearly see the thieves (a man and a woman) putting the items into his backpack, so we feel fairly confident it's not an inside job. We were unharmed, which is fortunate, and they were armed, but we did not find that out until the next day. The other guest who was robbed woke up while they were in his room, chased them outside the property and confronted them, when the man pulled out a knife and made his escape.

There are a lot of additional details, but the security firm employed by the hotel does bear the greatest liability here- there are 14 video cameras on the property and yet the robbers were onsite for more than 20 minutes according to the time stamp. They were clearly not paying attention.

We are still dealing with the fallout- replacing these items takes a lot of effort and we're fortunate that we have replacement coverage on our homeowners insurance, but it's a pain in the ass. On the other hand, we did sleep through it, so we were spared the trauma of waking during the robbery. I described it to my friend as a sort of "reverse Santa".

We carry a theft-proof bag that we use when we leave the hotel- but we don't lock things up when we're in the room. I'm not trying to scare anyone, but give some thought to your safety, especially for those who are familiar with Jamaica, because it's easy to be complacent in the place that you love. One small oversight was very costly for us, even though we are very careful people.

I'm not sure whether we will return or not, and that's not a decision that we have to make right now. Take from this what you will, and enjoy your travels.

Sadie

Jesus Christ. This is getting ridiculous. Never seen such a rash of thievery in my life. This is very upsetting. A big turnoff.

Why do these people always steal from tourists???

Because tourists have stuff to steal - doesn't make it right.... Sorry to hear about your experience.

Thank you for sharing, Sadiekat. It's a darn shame.

Being on an upper floor has given me a false sense of security at night. I will remember to lock my balcony doors better!!
Better safe than sorry.

That's pretty unnerving having someone come into the room while you are sleeping.

I'm glad no one got hurt!

It was, especially considering that all of my items were on the nightstand, less than 2 feet from my head. It's not as bad as you might think, though, because there's no direct connection between the event and the loss. I'm glad we slept through it, it would have freaked me out to have been awake and had a confrontation. My wedding rings are always on my hand, and my finger is still attached, so we're good there. Funny, I wear almost exclusively sterling silver jewelry, and there were a couple of pairs of earrings and a silver ring on the nightstand-they were not taken.

This is terrible to hear. Sorry you had to go through this.

Just to confirm - where you and the other victim on the ground floor or an upper floor? We always try to stay on an upper floor because we like the view. However, the way I see some Jamaicans climb the cliffs, makes me think that they can scale any building like Spiderman. I always try to lock the doors - even on a private balcony - but will be more vigilant from now on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gerryg123

Why do these people always steal from tourists???

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Well, that's obvious, Gerry. Why do they always creep around when people are sleeping? Someone is going to get killed one of these days and it might be the thief. Not that this is the case with you, Sadie, but no doubt tourists are being watched to see their comings and goings, who has been drinking too much, etc. Maybe in some instances, security is being paid off to "turn the other way." Would be nice to know where you stayed, so it doesn't happen to someone else. Sorry you had to go through this. Yuck!

We were on the third floor, and the hotel name is not important-this happened to them, too. Until we saw the videotape, my husband thought someone was in fact watching our room. It was random.