Mullet Bay of Thieves - Robbed by Local Woman
Posted by:
maryann
(---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: May 20, 2007 05:17PM
I’ve been visiting SXM since 1994. I have never run into a problem but on Saturday May 12, 2007 I was robbed on the beach at Mullet Bay by a local woman who mingled among the crowd with a young boy. They appeared to be just another family at the beach for the afternoon. People were seated on either side of me and the beach was full of visitors as well as local families. At bout 2:30 PM I packed my beach bag and went to rinse my feet. I was within sight of my chair and the local woman was standing along the shore. As I started out of the water, she ran to my chair grabbed all of my things and ran off towards the trees with the boy. I yelled stop her she is taking my bag. Several men tried to catch up with her but she had a car and driver waiting on the dirt road. They took off to the left, toward the French side. The thief had run off with, a small amount of cash, my rental car keys, my prescription eye glasses, key to my room, and rented cell phone. Some kindly tourists drove me to my car rental company, Unity. Michael and Joseph were as always wonderful. They immediately provided me with a new car.
I went to the Police sub station at Simpson Bay to report the incident. That experience was one for the books. A man in uniform scratched a few notes on a torn piece of paper, and then told me I had to talk to a detective. There are no detectives available at the sub station. They are in Phillipsburg. I was standing there, covered with sand, no money, no ID and he expected me to go find a detective in Phillipsburg. He then said something about having a detective contact me as he sent me on my way. At that point, he had not asked me for my name or what was taken from me. Only after I said to him, excuse me don't you want to know my name? He replied, oh yes realizing he had forgotten to ask.
Thankfully, a detective did contact me that evening. He said he would file a report. Then on Monday May 14 I found out via tourists who were on Mullet Bay the day of the incident that the thief was identified by two local witnesses who work on the beach. I spent several days trying to reach the police to provide the additional the information. I was informed the detective was off for 2 days and no one else would take the info, because it was his case. The day he was to return to work was a government holiday, so no luck reaching anyone. After a week of waiting I finally saw the detective again on Friday May 18. He informed me that the name of the woman was provided by witnesses on May 14 but she had not yet been questioned or arrested. I left SXM on May 19, my week of vacation quite not as expected.
I have heard many complaints about the lack of police presence and careless handling of issues. Now I have seen first hand that the Dutch Police are far from being what they need to be. Tourism is the number one business in SXM. Local business people shake their heads in disgust at the lack of security on the beaches and other areas frequented by SXM’s number one revenue source. It makes me sad to realize that non caring attitude within the government and the lack of support for victims of crime is dragging down the economy and hurting the many good hard working people like the beach vendors on Mullet Bay.
