Cruise lines hit back after tourist robbery

By TANEKA THOMPSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

tthompson@tribunemedia.net

THREE cruise lines have suspended their tours in BASH's Earth Village since 18 cruise ship passengers were robbed at gunpoint during a Segway tour of the site last Friday.

BASH Executive Director Terry Miller estimates the robbery will cost the nature retreat and Caribbean Segway Tours about $50,000 in lost revenue and security costs.

Disney Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines have suspended their tours with Caribbean Segway Tours, Mr Miller said. Representatives from Disney Tours were scheduled for a horseback riding tour in Earth Village the day of the robbery with a view of adding the destination to their onshore tours. Mr Miller said the cruise line abandoned the proposition after the robbery.

Meantime, a person closely associated with Caribbean Segway Tours continues to help police in their investigations into the armed robbery. At a press conference held at nature retreat yesterday, BASH executive director Terry Miller said he suspects the robbery might have been an inside job.

He plans to install video cameras throughout the site and may station security officers throughout the forest while tours are going on. He also wants Government to erect a fence to close off the forest's perimeter which borders a nearby Government subdivision to block off the property's exits.

All tours throughout Earth Village's forest have been put on hold until the suspects are caught and security measures are in place at the site.

The company is also striving to meet cruise security guidelines as dictated by the cruise lines in order to hold onto their business.

A spokesperson from Caribbean Segway Tours said the company will not comment until the police investigation is completed.

Meantime, bad press about the incident continues to spread like wildfire on the Internet.

One of the victims, Charlotte Ashfield, said the incident has left her scarred; she sought medical care upon her return home and is on medication to calm her anxiety from the attack.

The 62-year-old retired public servant from Northern Ireland first thought the two bandits were actors in a Bahamian pirate themed skit. However, reality set in when a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line passenger was dragged from her Segway, pushed into a ditch and cursed at by the shotgun toting robbers, she claimed.

"I looked up at one stage and he pointed the gun at me and told me to get down b****. The gun was then discharged in the ground beside my body. I don't know if he was a poor (shooter) or just trying to scare me.

"I was, and still am, traumatised. The loss of material items are unimportant when we realise there could so easily have been loss of life," she said, adding that she has no plans to return to the Bahamas.

The visitors, who were passengers on the Disney and Royal Caribbean cruise lines, were part of two separate groups touring the Bahamas Association for Social Health's (BASH) Earth Village in the former Perpall Tract Wellfield area when they were robbed at about 1pm.

The men tied up the Bahamian tour guide with the first group and ordered them to the ground before robbing them of money, passports, cell phones, credit cards and personal items. During the robbery, a second group of visitors approached and were also held up.

Mr Miller said, should the passengers accept, he would be willing to offer a complementary tour of the site to the victims.

Published On:Thursday, November 26, 2009