Breaking And Entering
More anecdotal evidence of the rising tide of crime in Bermuda.
The head of IT from our London office was in Bermuda this week. He'd barely arrived before his hotel room was broken into in the middle of the night (while he was in it) and a substantial amount of cash stolen. Worryingly, there appeared to be no signs of forced entry.
Although I still believe that overall crime is low in Bermuda, such robberies do seem to be becoming increasingly common. In most cases, it's only cash that's stolen. In this instance, despite removing a laptop from the room, the thief abandoned it outside the door after rifling through the case, and left the credit cards in my colleague's wallet untouched too.
Nonetheless, this is exactly the kind of crime that's likely to scare the tourists away and attract negative comments on the US State Department's website. Police and the Government need to do more to stop it before it gets any worse, both by encouraging hotels to tighten up on their security, and by more aggresively targeting the underlying causes of those thefts, often a drug habit.
The approach announced earlier this week in Sandys North is certainly not the way to go.
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What I personally find terribly amusing is that this is the exact thing that many Americans (mind you, I am American) will wave around in your face if you ask why they feel they need a gun in their house. (or perhaps hotel room in this case)
Even though nobody got hurt, maimed, or killed in this theft - they would feel that they would need to have something capable of killing the person that did it.
I am in no way saying that I somehow wish to be robbed of cash, but in many ways it is nearly quaint to my jaded American mind that so few people get hurt in these robberies.
As long as the problem isn't addressed with weapons and addressed at the root of the issue (as you say, very likely drugs to give someone the desperation and nerve to go into occupied residences and take just cash), then it seems this could be remedied over time.
Fortunately I think Bermuda has shown itself to be smart and sophisticated enough on the weapons side of thing that it doesn't run the risk of the craziness in the States on that regard.
Posted by Eric on 13.02.04 at 08:38
So sex is up in Bermuda--its about time we made more love !!!Its important to be invited so its a real problem all this breaking and entering--tisk tisk what has happened to Bermudian Manners
Posted by big bad wolf on 13.02.04 at 21:53
Hard to believe the police are capable of gatting a grip on crime when after 18 months they have not reached a conclusion in the investigation of a cop caught downloading child porn on a police computer. 18 months; you would have thought they'd learn after the Chalky White paedophilidiocy (where warning bells were also ignored). Shame on them.
Posted by Tiger Bay on 12.02.05 at 13:22
It sounds as if your colleage, had plenty of money limey, surely the need of the offender in question entitles him to the fruits of your co-workers labour.
Or is this one of those times, when the need of my fellow man should be ignored?
Posted by J Galt on 12.02.05 at 13:43