DATE: 2020-03-17
LOCATION: Dominican Republic – Luperon
EVENT: Burglary
HAND: 1
STOLEN ITEMS: Cash and jewelry
SECURED: Locked

DETAILS: 

Now on their second circumnavigation, Sergiy German and Dina Toporska arrived in Luperon on 17 March, 2020 planning to stay three days en-route to Panama. On their first night they were burgled.

On arrival they tied to a mooring buoy in the middle of the harbor at the east end of the bay approximately 20m from any other boats and went ashore to meet other cruisers and find out about the local area.

Sergiy continues, “We went to Wendy’s, met all the lovely cruisers and their friends there. We asked for advice on good local restaurants and local places, dinghy parking, safety of the place of course also. We always tend to ask locals such stuff and not a single person warned us (about security) or told us there had been a few cases of robbery in a row.”

That evening they went ashore with all the crew to a bar that was recommended to them by the local community (approximately from 7pm-10pm). They noted how dark this end of the bay was.

When they returned to the boat, they found it open. Immediately they went down below to find out what had happened.

The thief had broken into the boat via the companionway door. The boat had been turned upside down inside and all their cash (US dollars) had been stolen. All electronic devices had been left behind, but around US$5,000 in cash had gone.

Wet footprints on deck showed the shape of the bare footprint and size indicating it was a man that had come on board.

Sergiy immediately called the local police and posted about the robbery on Facebook. The next day it was expected that the police would come to their boat, to take fingerprints etc. but they didn’t come. So Sergiy went ashore and made an official report with all the authorities (the Navy/Commandante, the police and the tourist police). No forensics were conducted and at no time did any authorities come to the boat. Although Sergiy requested a copy of his report,  he never received one.

With the response he got on FB, Sergiy soon realised that in fact this was not the first yacht burglary in Luperon this year (in fact the CSSN report that it’s the 6th report of boarding/break-in from Luperon bay since the end of December 2019). 

Sergiy concludes, “Visiting so many countries in the last few years I believe 6 cases in less than three months for a small village is a really high risk. Cruisers who are thinking of coming to Luperon for just a couple of days, should be aware of this danger, because it looks like nobody puts any effort into finding the answers.”

Our thanks to Sergiy German and Dina Toporska for reporting this incident to Noonsite and CSSN.

CSSN NOTE: This is the 6th report of boarding/break-in from Luperon bay since December end 2019. Cruisers and the Navy have begun nighttime patrols.

• Incident report at https://safetyandsecuritynet.org/incident-2466-2/
• Video about the incident at https://youtu.be/EPd938FpV_g

Other Luperon Security Reports from CSSN:

• 2468 – 2020-03-16 – Dominican Republic – Luperon – Burglary
• 2449 – 2020-01-30 – Dominican Republic – Luperon – Burglary
• 2461 – 2020-02-27 – Dominican Republic – Luperon – Vandalism
• 2451 – 2020-02-03 – Dominican Republic – Luperon – Theft
• 2436 – 2019-12-29 – Dominican Republic – Luperon – Theft