Backpack theft
November 6th | Author: Administrator I Love Seychelles
Snorkeling at Beau Vallon
Tuesday September 23rd, our 2nd day on Mahé. Good start of our honeymoon. In the morning we decided to go snorkeling just around the corner of the beach.
Surrounded by huge granite rocks we found the perfect place. Quickly we changed into our swimming suits and plunged into the warm water. Soon we found the first yellow, tropical fishes, and as we swam further we saw more and more beautiful fishes in all sorts of colours and the recovering coral (tsunami).
Backpack gone!
When we got back we discovered that one of our backpacks (with mobile phone) was gone. The other one with some money in it was still there. Also missing were some shorts and flip-flops. How annoying that was! Here we were in paradise, and the first snorkeling occassion leads to a stolen backpack 
Without 2 pair of flip-flops, 1 backpack with sunglasses (Chanel, ouch!) and mobile phone in it, shorts and shirt we walked back to our little beach house. There the owners noticed something had happened and after we explained it all, Marquise offered to drive us the Beau Vallon police station, because we needed to report it for our insurance. After a 5 minute drive we arrived at the local police station. After Marquise had explained what happened in Creole (extremely handy to have a local help you out), we officially reported the theft of our things.
Hello again
At the time we only reported it in order to get insurance money and had no hope on ever getting our belongings back. However during our lunch at the Baobab pizza place Marquise came to tell us that she had received a phone call from a police officer saying they might have discovered our backpack with contents again. So, there we went again to the police station. We were guided through a corridor, up the stairs (where are we going???) to a little room. And there in the middle of the room was… our backpack with everything still in it!
We learned that after our report the entire Beau Vallon police force went out to search the bushes around our snorkeling place. And there they found our things. The police officer told us proudly that he was actually the one who found the backpack. After writing a new statement that the Beau Vallon police found our things, we drove back with our reclaimed belongings.
A very interesting day with both disappointment and pleasant surprise.
Seychelles police
Of course this was only one single experience, but we found the local police to be very helpful and friendly. Tourism is extremely important for the Seychelles and when tourists are confronted with crime, they do everything they can to solve it.
In retrospect I think the backpack theft may actually have been a joke by someone (local or tourist), because everything in it was still there. Including a mobile phone and some very expensive sun glasses.
Anyway, we got it all back and had a very good experience with the local police and of course the owners of our accommodation who really helped us out a lot.
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Nice one!
I can testify that the Police have shaped up recently under pressure to perform.
Tourist crime is down quite significantly in Seychelles. On Praslin a couple years ago we had 145 thefts reported a month. Now over the last 4 months it has dropped to 6,12,9,10 per month and the Police in conjunction with the hoteliers are working to reduce these numbers as well.
My room in Berjaya Vallon was broken into just 2 days back and they took my GPS, Sony Cybershot and all the money (USD 2,500). The cops were pretty disintered on the first day till the CID got involved.
Pretty frustrated about the same.
Looks like the CID may get the stuff back and crack the case.
To be honest, now as I post this comment. Things ain’t going too good for the Seychelles.
I mean in terms of security ? This is a serious cause for concern. People say we’re safe, but that’s just word of mouth. Around the time the police manage to recover your back pack, I will agree we had a strong police force, but not anymore. Most cases remains pending or unsolvable.
I go to the Seychelles at least once every 2 months, my friends things got stolen out of her backpack last new years when we went for a swim at midnight. We invited some locals to come sit with a bunch of us and when we came out of the water her money was stolen out of her bag. This happens but at least that is the worst crime that will happen in the seychelles. We always go out clubbing at night and since we don’t have transport we usually hitchhike to and from where ever we go, people are very helpful and its probably the only country where you can do something like that. Its a beautiful place with the most beautiful people!
Actually Seychelles is no longer safe specially for tourism. There are several attacks on tourist and several theft on beaches, hotels, etc… it is believe that if the authorities sleeps on it, Seychelles may surpass South Africa as one of the most dangerous place in the world. However, the government doesn’t want to ruin Seychelles reputation, so many theft or attack incidents are gone UN-recorded. The police does not have the proper training and Equipment for helping them in their job, so much conduce our authorities are to spend for the future of Seychelles. For such a small island, it’s very much alarming. You might think it is safe to stay at a hotel that has security guard protection. But you are wrong, as it’s the security guards themselves that gives out information to the thieves. Problem most people are not honest, things is fast Changing in Seychelles. This year several lonely local ladies where raped by a serial rapist, description had been given to the police and till today no action has been taken. Be careful at Tequila Boom Discotheque,someone might just add something in your drinks, so be very careful with your drink at this place.