Frenchman robbed at
gunpoint in Pelican
PELICAN--A Frenchman questioned the police’s response to crimes after officers from the Simpson Bay station took several minutes to arrive at his Pelican Key home Tuesday night where he had been ambushed and robbed at gunpoint.
The thief had already run away with all of the off-premises consultant’s (OPC’s) US $2,000 salary and credit cards by the time police arrived about 15 minutes later, the victim told The Daily Herald. “If I take my car it takes me three minutes, it takes them quarter of an hour,” said the victim Wednesday.
The victim, a man identifying himself only as “Jeff,” was forced to the ground and then threatened with a handgun after answering a heavy knock at his door from his neighbour. The thief had held Jeff’s neighbour hostage with the gun after robbing his home, forcing the man to lead Jeff into the attack.
Jeff said the robber had fled on foot, but the police’s delayed arrival worried him. “I have lived here for eight years … and every day I am hearing more about [crimes] in Philipsburg [and elsewhere],” Jeff told this newspaper. “We need security on this island.”
He complained that police response to incidents on the island was unbalanced, citing his own arrest three times last year as a reported barker in Philipsburg. “I was arrested three times for selling scratch cards and being French,” he recalled of last year’s crackdown on OPCs said to be harassing visitors to St. Maarten’s Front Street shopping capital.
Jeff plans to leave the island in three weeks. “This is the second time I’ve been robbed this year. … The first time was in Maho,” he said. “Me, I’m just one guy, but I’m guessing there are thousands of these stories in Pelican.”
The resorts in Pelican Key – Atrium, La Vista, Pelican and Flamingo – are said not to have security and are often reported as being victims of crime.
A business owner declared two weeks ago that he would give up his business in St. Maarten because of the growing crime and congestion problems that were making it difficult for foreign investors to thrive.
