Recently we had a guest of ours burglarized, and they lost many things including their passport. Although this was a terrible incident, I felt an obligation to discuss this on our blog and do my best to help future guests to avoid a similar situation.
The popular type of crimes in Belize changes based on where you visit. In Belize City, you will hear and read about a shooting once a month but here on Caye Caulker that type of crime is so rare that you will never hear about such a situation.
The crimes here on the island are much more "crimes of opportunity" and with the number of visitors that come to this little piece of paradise, there are opportunities.
Try to remember that a local here in Belize averages $400 per month. With incomes like that, it is not surprising crimes of opportunity occurs.
So let me go over the crimes we see the most here on Caye Caulker
Bicycle's Stolen
The best form of transportation on Caye Caulker is the bicycle. Everyone in our family has a bike here on the island, and we supply a bike to each guest that stay with us.
Bikes are so popular because a 10-minute ride can get you anywhere on the island you want to go. Although many people use a golf cart, we have found (for many reasons) that there is no purpose to own one and many reasons to own a bike.
Since we moved here (a year ago) we have had three bikes stolen. These have been a mixture of our own and guests. All bikes that were taken were left unlocked, hence the opportunity.
There have also been many bikes stolen from restaurants and bars on the island. Again in every occurrence the bikes were left unlocked.
Do you see a pattern?
We tell all of our guests a simple rule we live by...
If your but is not on the bike, then it should be locked.
Door Checks
There has been a rash of door checks on the island over the last few months. The bad guy comes up to a house/hotel/restaurant and checks all the doors. If they find, one of the doors unlocked they slip in and take anything handy.
These thieves are looking for cash, but they often end up grabbing passports and credit cards also. Sometimes the identification can be recovered (the bad guys really can't do much with those) but often it ends up in a trash can somewhere on the island.
Again, we tell all of our guests that all doors should be locked if they are in bed or if they are out. We also have some general rules we suggest.
Never give your key to anyone - We've had guests give their key's to non-guests before and next thing you know stuff is missing.
Lock your ID and passports up in the safe we provide in the rooms - Once you are on the island, you would only need an ID or passport if you wanted to rent a golf cart.
Keep your jewelry in the safe - Staying low-key is always a good idea when you travel and here is no exception.
Don't flash too much cash - We have never heard of anyone being mugged on the island (it just isn't that kind of place) but why run the risk? Carry with you a $100 in Belize cash and leave the rest back in your room's safe.
The last thing we suggest is to use common sense. I know it is easy to forget (when you visit paradise) that there are bad guys but try to remember that those people are everywhere.