Burglary on JVD

I just read this on Trip Advisor. Just a reminder to lock up the boat when you go to shore. Also, keep at eye out for your neighbors.

Trip Advisor:
Not a question, merely facts. We just returned yesterday March 9, 2020 from a bareboat catamaran 12 day trip. On Sunday evening March 1, 2020 while on shore at Foxys, our boat was broken into and robbed. The robbers got approximately $5000 in cash, 5 cell phones, a GoPro, RayBan sunglasses, assorted faux jewelry. We called the police when we returned to the boat at 1130 PM, they came and took our report, took photographs, and fingerprints the following morning. We have not heard one word from the police of Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke since. (Not that we expected to) Apparently, another cat was broken into that very same evening in the same mooring field. I am simply putting this out there to notify EVERYONE PLEASE BE AWARE! Watch out for your fellow boat neighbors! It's a shame as we have traveled through the BVI on charter boats previously and never had one single issue. This has left us with a bad taste of the BVI. Be careful friends

Based on my experience with a Robbery in the BVI don’t expect any action from the police. I suspect the locals on Jost will know in days who is responsible. No action will be taken in all probability. The robbery we experienced led to 2 years of no travel to the BVI when in the past we spent 4 to 6 weeks a year there. We spend a ton of money each week. Big loss for the economy.
Was the boat locked and well lit? Perhaps it’s time that all charter companies put a decent quality safe onboard.
G

Really sucks. Was the boat locked and lit?

No idea if it was locked or lit, I copied and pasted the story from Trip Advisor.

I had the same thing happen on Tortola...police showed up and took finger prints, just for looks I'm sure, then I went to the station to file a report. That was about 6 or 7 years ago...still havent heard anything haha. Only difference was, it was at night and we were sleeping on the boat when it happened.

"the FBI defines robbery as “taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.”
The boat crime would be burglary even under English law.
This nomenclature does not lessen the terrible effect of the criminal act described but does change the punishment if they find the thieves.

This happened a few months ago on Jost the people reported the incident to Road Town Police, I contacted the Tourist board directly and they caught the 2 people so perhaps they are out on bail and this needs to be looked into.

You are correct, this was the title on Trip Advisor, so I followed along.. I've edited my post.

Thanks

we don't mind mooring in slightly rough water, we don't mind anchoring with an anchor alarm on, we don't mind snorkelling down to checking a mooring buoy; BUT , if we've got to start sleeping with one eye open for fear of being robbed then we won't come, period; so whoever the locals and local Police are they better start getting on top of this sort of thing or it'll start costing a lot of people.

On Sunday, March 1, 2020 there was an event at Foxy's "Reggae on the Beach" singers Maxi Priest and Skinny Fabulous performed. There was a large crowd of people coming from Tortola and the USVI. Point being there were a lot of people around who don't live on Jost. So very unfortunate this happened.

Great Harbor has always had a crime problem compared to other anchorages in the BVI.

Not sure why you would leave $5000 in cash on a boat. When I leave the boat we squirrel away the cash in places that only a squirrel would remember.

Sounds like these poor folks left their stuff out in the open. Most burglars are more of the grab and go type. Not the search the nooks and crannies type.

For sure. It was their fault they were robbed.

We were on a bareboat charter back in November, and there wasn't a cabin key on the boat. When we asked about it during checkout, they tried to to find one. Eventually they told us to "just hide your valuables". We did just that and never had a problem.
While some may say that the robbery victims might have been careless, I do disagree that it was their fault that they were robbed!

You do realize that virtually all boats cannot be secured with cabin key. Most hatches can be opened from outside. Also the locks are lightweight and most can be broken without much effort.

I believe a safe big enough to hold a laptop and a few other items would be beneficial, but without that, keep valuables out of sight or with you.

Yikes! We were at Great Harbor the same night. And it is interesting that we were discussing how Foxy’s specifically and Great Harbor in general seem to have lost the old “island vibe”. Feels more like a frat party in there. And we saw numerous fast boats coming in and out of the harbor all afternoon and evening.

Hi just checking as I have time on my hand trying to stay free from the virus. I have experienced 2 such breakins on past bareboat charters in the BVI. This included a one time break-in while spending an evening also at foxy's. The Police were called in both instances, the first 6 years ago , the second 2 years ago. In both instances the thieves rifled whatever valuables they could from our cabin. Never heard back from the police. I know next time not to travel with many valuables. I will keep my credit card and cash on my person and not take any jewelry.

I would hope that if the thieves were not apprehended by the police that the locals would "police" this issue themselves. At least when I was a kid growing up down there that is the way it was. The police didn't do much but the locals "policed" their own and wouldn't allow for things like this to continue to happen due to the impact on tourism. Times have definitely changed but I would hope that a small island like Jost would be continuing in this tradition of "policing."