francousteau
Contributor
My wife & I, plus her parents made plans to stay at Marazul Dive Resort (which is down the street from All West and right next door to El Rancho Sabrino). Plans were made back in October '09 for a 3br bungalow, in a gated facility, facing the water. We got there about 6pm and were met by the "manager", who looked a little shady. He showed us to our bungalow and we went inside. There was a safe on the wall but he said it didn't work and not to worry because there hasn't been a robbery there and that he'd take full responsibility if anything happened. With a lot of apprehension we unloaded the car into the bungalow. After a nice dinner at Sol Food, we went back to the bungalow for an uneventful 1st night. Next day over to Kalki for a couple of dives, while the wife and her mom stayed on the beach of Kura Hulanda and rented lounges. (Oh, this was after tossing a dead rat over the cliff wall that was outside our door back at the bungalow.) Went to bed that night with my ipod on the table next to the head of the bed so that I could look at the time if I woke up in the night. The next morning I went to check the time and my ipod wasn't there. After questioning my wife and looking on the floor & under the bed for the ipod, I went out to the LR to have a look. I found my ipod case, minus the ipod and yelled it to my wife. She came out to the LR and checked her waterproof case and her money was gone (only $ and not CC's). Her parents checked their things and the mothers cash was taken too. Apparently, the thief came into the BR's & took stuff out into the LR to root through before leaving. However, everything was nicely zipped back up and closed so as to give an appearance that nothing was really amiss. Now the kicker is that I went around and checked all of the doors AFTER we noticed the robbery and ALL of the windows/doors were locked. Hmmmm . . . . inside job maybe??? Someone had to have a key in order for that to happen. I saw one of the neighbor/owners outside and went to speak with her about our robbery. She was extremely shocked and very helpful and went to phone the police and the "manager". The police arrived and did nothing (as I expected) and said very little, took very little notes and left. The "manager" showed up about 9:30 a.m. with 2 of his thugs and wanted to come in and have a look around. I prevented them from doing this (thought they wanted to see what they missed) and then a big shout-down went on between me and one of the thugs. After this, we decided it was not safe for us to remain and contacted our neighbor/owner friend again about our decision to leave. She called her friends at Lagun Blou (over on the cliff of Playa Lagun) and Sunshine to see if there was any room for us. Sunshine's place was rented, but she called Lewis at All West, who was also booked. Finally the friends at Lagun Blou called back and there was a rental next to them that we could have for the remainder of the week. Turned out to be an excellent rental with security camera's, locked gate and a very respectable manager.
What we learned, besides not renting a place w/o a safe, is to move all valuables into the BR at night and lock the BR door. Seems like it should've been thought of, but we didn't and now encourage anyone travelling there to do likewise. Our neighbor/owner friend at Marazul even had her safe pulled off the wall one time.
Now, I just want to publicly thank Sunshine for all of her help and kindness during this (she even came over to Lagun Blou to make sure we were ok). Sunshine, you were fantastic to us and it would have been much more difficult without you, Dorothy & Author, Pierre & Maureen and Lewis. Lewis, from All West, was helpful in getting after the local police to get our police report back to us before we left the island. So thank you very much Lewis!!
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What we learned, besides not renting a place w/o a safe, is to move all valuables into the BR at night and lock the BR door. Seems like it should've been thought of, but we didn't and now encourage anyone travelling there to do likewise. Our neighbor/owner friend at Marazul even had her safe pulled off the wall one time.
Now, I just want to publicly thank Sunshine for all of her help and kindness during this (she even came over to Lagun Blou to make sure we were ok). Sunshine, you were fantastic to us and it would have been much more difficult without you, Dorothy & Author, Pierre & Maureen and Lewis. Lewis, from All West, was helpful in getting after the local police to get our police report back to us before we left the island. So thank you very much Lewis!!
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