Robbery in St. Thomas
 

Someone I know heard on the news that a couple was robbed at a restaurant in St. Thomas last week. Has anyone heard about this and do you know which restaurant it took place at? Thanks!

I didn't hear about it but I don't always get the paper. You can look here to see if you find the story.

http://sts.onepaper.com/

There has always been a relatively high crime problem i.e. robberies and muggings in proportion to the population in the downtown area after dark. The streets roll-up at 6-6:30 and only the restaurants and fast food places are open when you would go after 7PM at this time of year and it is dark.We had to stay at the Holiday Inn-in town (not because we wanted to but it was only an overnight stay and Emerald Beach was booked). I would expect the resorts like the Ritz or similar resort complexes have no greater crime than any other island in the U.S.V.I.'s.

Why did you not ask that someone you know where they heard it?
I don't know of any robbery, at any restaurant, in St Thomas lately. I read both local papers as well as the online paper mentioned above, plus I believe I am in the know when these things happen. I know that a few weeks ago there were some armed robberies at a couple of St Croix restaurants. Nothing has been reported lately on any island.

RL

RonUSVI; I was not addressing the specific robbery but the stated warnings from the Holiday Inn management itself, our travel agent who has specialized in the Caribbean for 11 years and a timeshare owner who spends 6 weeks a year (3 two week visits a year for the past 4 years) on St. Thomas

The person I know that heard the report on the news (on a Philadelphia news channel) didn't catch which restaurant.

Well, it's odd that a Philadelphia news channel heard about it & I couldn't find it in the online newspapers & Ron never heard about it either. Sure you have the right island? There are parts of Philadelphia you better not be in after dark either.

meljoy: I think the bottomline here is, without any further information other than your acquaintance told you what they think they heard on your local news channel, and no indication in St. Thomas' local news sources, it probably is a case of mistaken information. Carrybean: You are so right. I don't know of one urban/commercial city or town which can boast of not having a "questionable" zone or can say nothing ever happens. Besides, did everyone forget the romantic side of this? Charlotte Amalie was always "the" pirate hang-out in the Caribbean. You all need to keep your eyes open for any lurking swashbucklers. ;)

I live in Philly, and did see the same news story on the local news.... it was St Croix, not St Thomas.
The news story mentioned the couple was attacked within a time period of several robberies in St Croix over a few week period-maybe the same RonUSVI mentioned.

I don’t recall the restaurant being mentioned.

Sorry forgot to add this, the only reason why it was a news story in Philly, the couple was from Wilmington DE.- part of the local viewing audience.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...amp;id=4781582

That's a shame it happened to that couple but it was on St. Croix & the title of this post will stay as "Robbery in St. Thomas."

StanKase I was not addressing anything you said. Can't imagine why you think so. I was addressing the OP. I suppose for folks like you next time I will be more specific.
I think my point to meljoy was that when you hear something from someone who heard it and didn't tell you specifics, try looking for the news report first, that's all. These are sensitive issues.

RL

I'm sorry...but this story makes no sense to me. Why would the victim in this story be injured the way he has described if all were told to "hit the floor"? Did he and his bride run for it? Who knows.

These brazen robbery attempts happen all over the Caribbean and elsewhere, for that matter. No island is immune and STX is no less safer than STT or STJ as these incidents are concerned.

It was indeed St Croix. The establishments were Bogey's, Cane Bay Beach Bar and Sprat Net. Swiping items from rental cars is one irritating thing, but guns over dinner in tourist-oriented restaurants is really going to scare the trade away. Rather smacks of biting the hand that feeds, unless economic benefit from tourism does not trickle through the local economy much at all.

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.co...me?id=17599780

http://scuba.meetup.com/111/boards/v...thread=2428802

Not to change the subject but thought you may find this interesting:

While staying at the Atlantis a few years ago, a local told us about a great native restaurant. We always like to try the "real" stuff so a group of us went. The restaurant was somewhere in town.

We pulled up to the door and there was a man and dog standing outside. An employee met us at the door. The restaurant was a great mom & pop type place with excellent native food. The meal was our favorite meal of the entire trip. We were the only tourists there, everyone else were natives. A short time after ordering we saw our taxi driver come in to eat - had picked up his girlfriend. We said hi to him and he said he would take us back to the Atlantis.

As we were leaving, we realized why the employee had met us at the door. He walked to the door with us to unlock the door so we could leave. They keep the doors locked and only unlock them to let people in and out!! We also realized the man and dog out front were a guard and a rottweiler.

Dang, had never experienced that before. Do not care for the Bahamas but if I was there again I would go back to that restaurant - great native food.

Just read the article kindly posted by LornaD, and I agree, it is horrible for the tourism industry which St. Croix depends upon quite heavily ever since the cruise ships stopped going there and other major businesses have pulled out. I hope the local government jumps on this immediately because it can be really damaging. The U.S. Virgin Islands will have a new hand at the helm soon. Hopefully, Governor-elect DeJongh will put his businessman's thinking cap on and come up with some creative solutions to tackling crime and economic issues which are inextricably intertwined. Any thoughts from our local posters?

I'm hoping he can do a better job than our current governor but that shouldn't be too difficult. ;) I don't know what St. Croix would do if Hess Oil ever pulled out. This kind of thing really hurts there or anywhere it happens & since it's a US territory, the news doesn't get suppressed. It's just a shame.