When I last rented in St. Maarten years ago, my local company recommended we always leave the windows down and put on a Club anti-theft device during the day.

I am so sorry. AND THANK YOU for the post. I was booking a trip there! I saw nothing on Tripadvisor. I am glad you are safe.

This is a 5-year old post. I think that Tripadvisor got into a lot of trouble with their local forum cliques deleting warning posts, and hopefully the policy has changed in practice. I was a first-hand observer of what was going on in the Costa Rica forum but they now allow warning posts after a string of rapes and murders along the Caribbean coast.

I've never understood why some people feel a need to post the "it happens everywhere" response. There are places where warning should be allowed to remain.

Thankfully Fodor's has never followed the "three community clicks and it's deleted without review" practice.

So sorry for your exp and thanks for sharing.