St Lucia Cruise Ship Tour Bus Robbery

[rbrugler]

My SIL sent me an article about a recent ship tour bus that was held up in St Lucia. 50 passengers were robbed. Does anyone know the details of this?

[Aplmac]

Scroll down this page...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1796346&page=2

 

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[CruisinCindy]

Yes, there's a thread about it on the Celebrity boards. It was a ship excursion from the Eclipse on St. Lucia, where the entire busload of passengers was robbed by three gunmen. They did not hurt anyone, just took money and jewelry, but one lady was reported to have fallen and broke/ hurt her leg.

[KirkNC]

Yes, there's a thread about it on the Celebrity boards. It was a ship excursion from the Eclipse on St. Lucia, where the entire busload of passengers was robbed by three gunmen. They did not hurt anyone, just took money and jewelry, but one lady was reported to have fallen and broke/ hurt her leg.

 

That is pretty brazen, I hope every one is ok. Wonder how the cruise line will react.

[ibcnusoon]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-st-lucia-masked-bandits-rob-bus-load-of-cruise-ship-passengers-on-sightseeing-trip/2013/04/14/e2b2cb1c-a553-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_story.html

 

50 sightseers on the bus, 3 gunman.

 

in another report:

 

The passengers who were robbed were touring via either the Celebrity-sponsored "Breathtaking Soufriere and Warm Mineral Baths" or the "Land and Sea to the Pitons" shore excursions when they were robbed. Two separate tour groups were traveling on one motorcoach.

[ibcnusoon]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5312

 

April 14, 2013

 

Celebrity Cruise Passengers Robbed at Gunpoint in St. Lucia

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Update, 12:56 p.m. EDT: Celebrity Cruises has confirmed that 55 passengers and two crew members from Celebrity Eclipse were robbed at gunpoint on Friday, April 12 while in St. Lucia. No one was injured during the robbery.

 

Passengers were visiting the Botanical Gardens in Soufriere at the time of the robbery and were on two Celebrity-sponsored shore excursions, "Breathtaking Soufriere and Warm Mineral Baths" and "Land and Sea to the Pitons," both of which were traveling on the same bus.

 

"The affected guests have been contacted by our Guest Care Team to offer assistance, if necessary," a Celebrity spokeswoman told Cruise Critic. "We are thankful that none of our guests were injured in this unfortunate event, and will continue to provide them any support they may need."

 

The incident was reported to the local police, who are investigating the incident. The cruise line is "monitoring the safety situation in St. Lucia."

 

(12:10 p.m. EDT) -- Passengers on a Celebrity Cruises-sponsored shore excursion in St. Lucia were robbed at gunpoint according to reports from Cruise Critic members currently sailing aboard Celebrity Eclipse.

 

Details are scant as we await word directly from Celebrity, but Host Andy e-mailed us from the ship and Arizona Cruz Chic posted about it on the Cruise Critic forum.

 

"We are on the Eclipse," Arizona Cruz Chic wrote. "Yesterday we were ported in St. Lucia. One of the ship tours was robbed at gun point by 3 masked gunmen. We're not on the tour, but friends were. They said one woman fell and broke her leg; no one else was injured. All their money and jewelry were taken."

 

Host Andy also mentioned reports of a woman breaking her leg and said officers and crew on the ship have not mentioned the incident to passengers. There's "a lot of buzz" among the passengers, though, he added.

 

Celebrity Eclipse is in the middle of a 14-night Caribbean cruise. St. Lucia was the fourth port of call.

[reedprincess]

3 men are in custody. One was arrested Sat. after having bragged to friends and the police were told; that one has confessed both verbally and in a full written report, and helped lead police to the other 2 men. Some items and a small portion of cash was recovered. 13 people from the overall bus were robbed, inside the botanical gardens - the gunman did not hold up the whole bus. Pretty swift police work, and as always, very dumb criminals.

http://www.dbstvstlucia.com/newsvids

http://www.htsstlucia.org/2013_News/April/HTS_News_April_15th_2013.htm#new

Hope that sets some minds at ease - crime here does happen, as anywhere, and we generally catch the criminals very swiftly, as opposed to other areas.

All the best - enjoy your future cruises!

[Anubi]

3 men are in custody. One was arrested Sat. after having bragged to friends and the police were told; that one has confessed both verbally and in a full written report, and helped lead police to the other 2 men. Some items and a small portion of cash was recovered. 13 people from the overall bus were robbed, inside the botanical gardens - the gunman did not hold up the whole bus. Pretty swift police work, and as always, very dumb criminals.

http://www.dbstvstlucia.com/newsvids

http://www.htsstlucia.org/2013_News/April/HTS_News_April_15th_2013.htm#new

Hope that sets some minds at ease - crime here does happen, as anywhere, and we generally catch the criminals very swiftly, as opposed to other areas.

All the best - enjoy your future cruises!

 

Thanks for posting this. :)

[Keith1010]

Unfortunately these types of things can happen around the world.

 

Keith

[MarleneAm]

Unfortunately these types of things can happen around the world.

Yes, but if you already live in a large American city, you do not want to go on vacation to be a sitting duck for armed robbery on a ship excursion. To my knowledge, this same thing has also happened in Jamaica and St Kitts. Any other islands this happened in?

[Gilligan777]

This is why I go to Bermuda, over and over again. We ran into trouble on some of the other islands, Ocho Rio for instance...do not get off the ship!

[Karysa]

Probably a stupid ? but here it goes. Did the robbers demand credit cards and cameras or cash and jewelery only.

 

Many people feel more comfortable on cruiseline sponsored tours but since they tend to be larger they are big targets for thieves.

[ibcnusoon]

I could see it happen in Belize. We took a bus ride out to the Guatemala border to climb the ruins. They had armed guards at the ruins.

[artypharty]

This is why I go to Bermuda, over and over again. We ran into trouble on some of the other islands, Ocho Rio for instance...do not get off the ship!

 

 

WOW! All the things I'd have missed seeing and experiencing if I had this attitude... I've loved every city and port I've visited. Always vigilant and always a good time. :)