USVI-On-Line

Yo Troops. My staff, Lauren and her husband and the three kids had their car broken into at Salt Pond today.Took all the money and wallets. Lost all id's and credit cards. We're wiring them money now but any advice about flying back on Wed with no id's would be a help....God bless..Bill

WOW, Bill that is horrible!

So, in 1993, we were robbed in Cancun. All of our money and IDs were taken too. We went to the Police and then the US Consulate and did something so we could fly home.

It's a bit of a different world now though.

I'd have them call the airline for advice. Did they leave copies of their passports at home so someone can fax them to them?

Best of luck to them.

Bill,
Do they ahve any alterante forms of id in their house that someone can get? (passports? --anything with a picture?--if so get someone to fax a copy of that to them (via connections?) or scan and email it?
they shoudl get a copy of their police reprot and have that handy so that TSA and the airline know what to expect and they should also call the airline--wow that is a bummer......

That is horrible. Salt Pond is the place I read about cars being broken into the most.

There is a passport office on St. Thomas, but I cannot tell from their website whether they have the capability of issuing emergency replacement passports. I don't think so. I did find this on the State Department website:

If you are notified by a relative or friend that their U.S. passport has been lost/stolen, you may wish to contact Overseas Citizens Services, (202) 647-5225 at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. providing as much information about possible about the person's who needs passport services abroad.

I know STJ is not techincally "abroad" but maybe this office could at least point you in the right direction.

Wow....that really sucks. I would have them call the airlines asap. That way they can start getting all of their ducks in a row. What a crappy thing to have to spend your days on vacation doing. Like the others have stated....they should check and see what photo ID's they have at home and get them faxed. This is one of the main reason I hold on to our expired passports. I wish them luck.

1-877-487-2778

have them go to this site:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/lost/l ... tml#report

There are specific steps that will help. And for everyone else please make a photo copy of your id and passport id. It makes this process, God forbid, go smoother.

Everything will work out, it just is a huge inconvenience and unnerving. I am so sorry it happened to your party. I wish them well.

It's just a heartbreaker that things like this can happen.

Yo...Talked to the
Airlines, TSA, and Customs. They only need the police report to get through....God bless...Bill

Bill, great news! I'm sure they are very appreciative of your help and support!

Too late for this incident but a tip for the future:

Scan your passport and possibly your drivers license and email the scan/picture to yourself. You can even set up an "passport" folder in your mail so you know where exactly it is.

Then no matter where you are in the world you can pull up a picture of your passport....by accessing your email.

So glad this is all worked out without too much trouble. It was really bothering me that they might have had to spend days of their precious vacation trying to fix this.

liamsaunt wrote:That is horrible. Salt Pond is the place I read about cars being broken into the most.

Agreed. That parking area is the only place on STJ where we've seen things that elevated our security concerns to real world levels i.e. folks loitering about looking like they were looking for opportunities.

This is indeed unfortunate. I scan my ID and passport info and e-mail it as an attachment to my gmail account. That way if I have to I can pull it up from my iphone or any computer and it's relatively secure.

While I have never felt unsafe on STJ or had anything taken EVER, I am also as vigilant on vacay as I am at home NO MATTER WHERE I AM.

That means, passports get locked up in a safe at the villa as does any extra cash that I don't need that day. I only carry $100 on me at any time along with Drivers license, one credit card and check card.

Everything fits into a handy otterbox on a lanyard. And can go in the water with me if I choose. You can buy one at just about any dive shop on island.

Bill-- I'm so sorry this happened to your peeps.

This also reminds me to be cautious about people you know contacting you via e-mail saying that they had been robbed and needed you to wire money.

A while back our neighbor "sent us an e-mail" from her e-mail account stating that she was in London and was robbed and needed money right away. I responded to her and she responded back. Only it wasn't her! Someone had hijacked her account, read her e-mails and was pretending to be her.

I quickly figured out what happened (an internet search revealed this scam) but it was CREEPY.

So Bill I assumed that you actually spoke to your folks by phone and this was not an e-mail scam with similar circumstances.

Man things are complicated these days! Makes you want to take a vacation!

I am soooo happy that it will be fairly simply to get through TSA on return home. And good tips on scanning in the passports and ids...

I hope they can have a good rest of their vaca.

Wow, how awful. It was so packed at Salt Pond the last time we were there that we didn't stop. And I have heard of a few other thefts there as well. So glad to know the police report gets them thru. Hope they enjoy the rest of their trip! And Gromit, what a great idea about the email!!