I can’t believe it’s been exactly a year since this happened.
Remember that one time our Airbnb got burglarized in the Dominican Republic and we got blackmailed and threatened with our lives? Yes, we also found knives on the scene.
I recounted it in my Youtube video when it first happened, but here’s a lowdown if you prefer to read it.
It was 4 in the morning. The sky had opened its floodgates, and I was awoken by the downpour. I dragged my ass up to bring in the clothes I’d put out to dry from earlier.
I flipped the switch on.
To my absolute horror, I noticed the front door was open.
“Had I forgotten to lock the door? Didn’t I double-check before I slept?”
The mess on the floor caught my fuzzy mind.
“Why’s my camera on the floor? And my bag of clothes?”
Something’s not right…
I dashed into the room and immediately woke Selassie up. Like a zombie rising from the grave, he bounced up, did a double take, and flew out of the bed.
Before I could really make sense of what was going on in that 5am frame of mind, he left me with the reverberating sounds of his knuckles punching the wall, foot kicking the door, and off he went.
As I shook, from a mix of fear or adrenaline pumping I don’t know, I began to take stock of what was missing.
The floor of our bedroom lay barren from what once sat our backpacks hours before. We were supposed to pack that morning and check out.
The sky was still dark, so I took my phone for the torch and headed outside to the patio to look for anything, something.
There lay a pile of discarded clothes, soaking wet from the rain, my wallet stripped bare except for the cards strewn haphazardly on the wet floor.
I try to seek consolation from the fact that my identity card and travel cards weren’t taken.
As the sky lightened, we started to discover more pieces of evidence and could piece together the story.
A pair of slippers on the patio. A knife. An open window.
They climbed in through the kitchen window which was unlocked because the lock was broken, came into our bedroom where we were sleeping, found the pile of belongings, grabbed it, tried to rummage in the dark, and unlocked the front door to flee. Along the way, they continued rummaging, discarding any clothes and non-valuable items.
If it were up to me, I’d have left it to the police who’d do their (shitty) job and have never found the culprits, much less the valuables that were stolen, because I’d have been too afraid to pursue the perpetrators on my own.
Him?
He went banging on every door in the vicinity at 5 in the morning to ask if they’d seen the thieves, and when he finally got intel that they stole the valuables to trade them for drugs, he went straight to the druglord’s den to ask if anyone had traded in his laptop and phone.
Climbing across a river that dried up.
With. Absolutely. No. Fear.
I mean, he could’ve gotten kidnapped, gang beaten, or even killed. Who knows what their deal was over on the other side?
Things got complicated when this person who gave the intel demanded a ransom for helping us locate our stolen belongings, otherwise he “knows where we stay and would come after us”.
As things heated up, I tried to film this altercation as part of the evidence if ever the case escalated. Selassie quickly pulled me back in the house away from this man’s sight, as there was a possibility he might be armed.
Shit just got real.
Of all of my travels in my life, I’d never come this close to a death threat.
That wasn’t all. Our Airbnb host whose sole job was to ensure her guests felt safe turned around and tried to convince us to pay this man off.
W.T.F?
Instead of making up for putting her guests in danger, she encouraged us to cower and give in. Has anybody forgotten we had our money stolen?
We hurriedly packed our belongings and phoned the police to escort us to the police station before Mr Intel does anything to us.
Recalling this episode in our year together still gives me goosebumps.
You can watch the full story on Youtube, which we recounted right after this crazy accident happened so the fear was still fresh in our blood.
I wish we had a clearer idea about the neighbourhood we stayed in, and I honestly don’t wish this upon anyone, especially if you’re in the Dominican Republic for a relaxing vacation, so here’s the Airbnb listing to NOT stay.
That said, I can’t stress more about the importance of having travel insurance.
I recently broke down the comparison between 2 strong nomad insurances, PassportCard Nomad and Safetywing, so feel free to give it a read.
Have you ever had such a scary incident happen to you while you were on holiday?
