Thread: Security and taking care of your passport and things

Hey guys I read that people have had problems with theft and its mostly the cleaning crew so I was wondering where do you guys keep your passports and other very important items to make sure they are safe. Is there a lockbox in the room that for sure the cleaning crew can't access or do you guys put them in safety boxes at the bank?

Originally Posted by davidaugust2009

during my 2.5 years on the rock and 1 year living in the dorms i don't personally know anyone who had electronics/laptops taken. i've only heard stories. the consensus was their roomates left the door open and someone came in.

you can put your trashcan in front of your door to avoid room service. i did this during term 4 every now and then. never had an issue with the maid wanting to clean my room. all my maids have been straight up decent. never had an incident with them.

luckily i had 2 roomates who were sonicers. one time a cleaning lady (not ours) opened the door with a key. my roomate walked out thinking it was me. she solicited him for money. some sort of church fundraiser. we thought this was strange. why not knock?

if you stay over break be extra careful. most of the security is gone and locals are known to roam the hallways. one of my buddies went back to his dorm only to find an entire family rummaging through his stuff.

This is just unbelievable. How this is not stopped by officials I dont know. I would be furious if anything went missing...from a laptop to a water filter. Stuff is not easily replaced on the island.

So what you're telling me is to take my valuables and cross my fingers. I imagine if you catch someone in the act and react physically...you would be deported. I can't wait to get this started and over with ( living on the island)

your most important item should be the laptop. that you carry back and forth. keep the receipt. that's all they want to see. if you left your laptop in school and happen to have a picky customs agent who doesn't think you're good looking enough they'll rummage your stuff to find something to tax. everything else other than your phone can go missing/moldy. that should be your mentality.

Everything on the island rusts and breaks eventually, especially if you are living off campus somewhere near the ocean where it's windy. Things get stolen/taken but it's mostly crimes of oppertunity. Some common sense and simple precautions will go a long way.

Don't leave your stuff un-attended when in taylor, don't leave your bookbag laying around without someone to keep an eye on it, don't leave valuable things out in the open while you're out of the dorm. It can be as simple as putting your laptop under a pile of clothes in the closet or taking it with you when you're going to leave taylor to go grab some lunch. In the end everyone loses something or something break. Rarely something gets stolen. When you bring things to the island have the mentality that you won't be bringing them back home and you'll be fine and not lose too much sleep when something does go missing.

I had my bookbag snagged when I left it outside while taking an exam. I was on my ipad studying and reading through notes outside of the exam venue. Maybe someone saw me put the ipad in the bookbag, who knows. The thing is I took all of my expensive stuff out before hand and locked it up somewhere so the only thing the person got was a bookbag and a bunch of notes/charts I wasn't going to need anymore. Most likely it was just some random person who saw an unattended bag and snagged it when no one was paying attention. It was annoying sure but not the end of the world. For the most part people are fairly honest and nice but some people don't have much and think that students are good targets. Just keep aware of what's going on and keep your stuff out of sight and most likely no one will take it.

So this really sounds like people are lacking common sense......I don't know which side is true...... people that claim Grenada is a Mad Max type of world with roaming bandits..... or the ones that claim it's simple as apple pie: lock your doors, don't leave valuables out in open, and keep items within reach.

Reminds of my undergrad, when there was a robbery situation where students left their dorm room unlocked, came back with most of their things gone. A lot of people blame the locals, even though they didn't take necessary precautions. Regardless, I'm broke only thing I have of value is laptop and phone. So not to worried......

that horro story someone said about walking into their room to see a family stealing their stuff, well what are you allowed to do in that situation? Yell and Scream at them or can you grab them and throw them out? Are there cops on campus to call, do these crazy thieves carry weapons on them? kinda freaking me out with some of y'all stories. Yeah you say common sense protect your stuff but people should not be stealing regardless and if these are desperate people who steal i wonder if they are carrying stuff that could be used to hurt us?

Mostly people carry around machetes. It's pretty common to see people walking down the streets carrying them. Now that those two sentences probably freaked everyone out the machetes are used to clear brush, and such by many of the workers. You can get them in the hardware store pretty easily.

On a more serious note all the second hand accounts of people getting robbed and such that I heard of mostly involved them getting held up with machetes. On the bright side I have not heard of a single incident where anyone was injured or killed during a robbery. Mostly they got their stuff taken and that was it. The scariest ones I heard of were ones where people broke into people's home while they were home through an open window/door/etc...and held them up and took all their stuff. I also had some people tell me they carried around pocket knives and that worked as a good deterent from robbers, since they did not want confrontations. But I guess it takes a certain kind of personality to pull that off. On campus only crimes of opertunity occur as far as I know. SGU is pretty open and publishes reported, verified and investigated, incidents. I am not 100% sure where that information is but it's in some safety news letter or something as far as I remember.

To anyone who is afraid of something bad happening of them while they are on the island. If you are living on campus, not walking around by yourself while drunk at 3 am, and use your common sense 99% of the time you will be fine. Of campus if you have a good landlord who invested in security (fences, dogs, lights at night etc..) you will also be fine. I left my door open while living off campus all the time and nothing bad every happened. My landlords owned really scary territorial dogs who went nuts when a car pulled into a drive way or a person who they didn't know stumbled upon the property. There is of course a 1% chance that something bad will happen but I don't think it's any greater than someone trying to mug a person who is coming home at night from a bar.

As for cops on campus, yes the campus has it's own security that even goes to students who are living of campus if needed. Painting people who steal as desperate people is a bit of a hyperbole. Yes some Grenadians don't have a lot, most do the best they can with the little they have, and even share it when someone really needs their help. The ones that do steal do not want to go to jail for hurting someone that's why they use scare tactics and commit crimes of opportunity. Most Grenadians do not take kindly to thieves and the ones I talked to about the issue expressed concern, and disgust.

I don't think it's right if this thread paints Grenada in a negative light where everyone is a thief and highway robbery is common. Yes crimes happen, students are targets, and some of the things that happen are quite scary. But at the same time for every 1 person who had something taken or been wronged by a local there are at least 10 people who will try to help out students who are in trouble, having a broken down car/scooter, or needing to track down some item that's hard to come by, all for no charge. So let's not blow things out of proportion and keep an honest perspective on the situation.

he frisked them and asked questions. not really sure how they got in. either the door was left open or they had a duplicate key. all keys can be duplicated at the local hardware store. the family said students often leave their stuff out when they don't want it/move off the island. make sense as the school tells you to store everything in your closet even though you'll have the same room next term. so basically practice safe habits like not leaving anything super valuable behind and you'll be fine. out of 100 students I KNOW living in the dorms i would say 98 had 0 issues. then there are stories of people i don't know. talked about that already... money in a sock/laptop in the library/laptop in the room/iphone left unattended

off campus is another thing as there is....... variable security. you'll find out. with off campus don't put your stuff within reaching distance of a fishing pole. always lock all doors and windows. one of my good friends lost a laptop because it was close to a window. i lost my cologne,money, and some laundry detergent. depending on your landlord various people can have access. in my case they had to do maintenance, internet, cleaning.... so lots of activity. out of 100 living off campus i'd say 93 had 0 issues with theft. most of the issues were landlord related

overall it's pretty safe at the rock..... given the lack of security just practice caution and hope for the best

Doesnt sound any worse then Oakland, Compton, and other low income areas in the US.

Agreed. But the difference I'd not is that we are not citizens in this country. If someone breaks into my house in the states and I catch them. I can hit them with a baseball bat. If I did this on a rock, I'd probably be deported.

But thanks for all the stories and words of precaution. Not many posts emphasize this. It is all how to get housing and what to bring.