Tourist couple traumatised by
armed theft in French Quarter
ORIENT BAY--American couple Joe and Mildred Ciolino described in harrowing detail on Tuesday, how they had been threatened with a serrated knife, punched and kicked before being robbed of their valuables on Monday, while trying to find the way back to their hotel in Orient Bay following a tour of the island in their rental car.
The couple realised they were lost when they ended up in Rue des Salines in French Quarter, not far from the Bayside Riding Stables on the Le Galion side. They asked a local couple in a small white car for directions, and the man and the woman agreed to help and offered to get into the rental car’s back seats to guide them.
“The man was sitting behind me and the woman behind my wife. He put this serrated knife to my throat, and ordered me to hand over everything,” Ciolino related. “The woman assaulted my wife and took a watch and the gold necklace I had just bought for her birthday.”
Then they took our car and left us stranded. I was kicked in the abdomen. Now my wife is so traumatised by the incident she can’t come out of the hotel or go anywhere. She will not come back to this island. That’s for sure.”
The couple arrived on June 21 and are due to leave June 29. They had previously visited the island 25 years ago.
“We were too trusting to let them get into our car,” admitted Ciolino who was treated for an inch and a half long cut on his throat. “We just want to say to the public, and other tourists, don’t do something stupid like that. We trust people, and they looked like an average local couple. They spoke English and French. I also believe that we were being followed by this small white car, possibly from Philipsburg. They may even have been watching us shop for jewellery.”
Ciolino said the Gendarmerie had retrieved the rental car and some items like books, sandals, sunglasses, but no valuables or credit cards.
“When I get back I’ll have to go through all that inconvenience of replacing the driver’s license and credit cards etc, replacing traveller’s cheques,” he said.
The couple gave a description of their assailants in the report. The man was described as black, between 29-31 years old, wearing sunglasses, 1.80metres in height, short black hair, long face, wearing navy blue pants and white jacket with buttons.
The woman was described as being of the same age, black, 1.73 metres, large figure, braided black hair with beads.
