Attempted Car Jacking exiting Puerto Plata Airport

[ElvisNYC]

I have lived here in the DR for 4 years now and have never, ever seen anything like this for something so insignificant.

Carjackings do happen during daylight:

http://www.dr1.com/forums/372844-post75.html

Car jackings have been happening in SD and Santiago a lot (it even happens in front of Colinas Mall in Santiago), but car jackers don't use passolas - which the OP described he saw.

Besides, with a car jacking and if the thieves didn't care about getting caught or anyone seeing it, and it clearly states that there were 7 of them and clearly outnumber the people in the car (and if they each had weapons as car jackers obviously use/carry them, it could've turned bad for the OP), that car would have been stolen - but it wasn't !

That's a busy highway, and it's clear that making an attempted car jacking with so many people (7) and using different methods of transportation ( bikes and passolas) is not the norm.

 

[Chip]

Car jackings have been happening in SD and Santiago a lot (it even happens in front of Colinas Mall in Santiago), but car jackers don't use passolas - which the OP described he saw.

Besides, with a car jacking and if the thieves didn't care about getting caught or anyone seeing it, and it clearly states that there were 7 of them and clearly outnumber the people in the car (and if they each had weapons as car jackers obviously use/carry them, it could've turned bad for the OP), that car would have been stolen - but it wasn't !

That's a busy highway, and it's clear that making an attempted car jacking with so many people (7) and using different methods of transportation ( bikes and passolas) is not the norm.

As far as using pasolas, there is always a first time. I'm of the opinion that they were tring to get windeguy out of his car or were ready to pull a gun when another car scared them off.

Besides it makes no sense and is ludicrous to suggest that all the commotion was caused by a beep of the horn. What is a little surprising is that so many people think it's possible that something like a small beep of the horn could cause the locals to get so visibly upset and yet it's not possible that the locals might try a carjacking during daylight with scooters.

 

[ElvisNYC]

As far as using pasolas, there is always a first time. I'm of the opinion that they were tring to get windeguy out of his car or were ready to pull a gun when another car scared them off.

Besides it makes no sense and is ludicrous to suggest that all the commotion was caused by a beep of the horn. What is a little surprising is that so many people think it's possible that something like a small beep of the horn could cause the locals to get so visibly upset and yet it's not possible that the locals might try a carjacking during daylight with scooters.

Since we weren't there, we only can speculate that it was
1- beeping the horn and tiguere didn't like it (cause tiguere might be crazy and wanted to intimidate him - caused hima good laugh with his buddies)
2- POP Boy said that someone hit a girl on a passola, and tigueres were angry
3- Local motoconcho and pasola union guys intimating local/expats picking up passengers at the airport
4 - ????

Like I said, it's not the norm to do a car jacking on a pasola. I doubt they would be scared of another car passing by - it's a busy highway and you will be exposed anyway to the hundreds of guagas, conchos, taxis, carros passing by) , and it's 7 guys and car jackers are always armed ( you need to be).

 

[Malibook]

Please keep in mind also that my reason for posting this was to make others aware of such a potential situation. I am not the type to seek my 15 minutes of fame from such a situation. I am on this board to try and help other avoid problems here.

I think your post is very helpful regardless of what their motive was.

Sh!t does happen and it is good for people to be reminded to always be alert, even in a supposedly safe location.

 

[Adrian Bye]

Besides it makes no sense and is ludicrous to suggest that all the commotion was caused by a beep of the horn.

And I think advice like yours for "treat every situation like this as a carjacking" is incredibly dangerous. This could have turned into a shootout on the airport.

FYI: You've been here 4 years, I've been here almost 9 years and Hillbilly has been here 40 years. We both disagree with you.

People with guns, particularly non dominicans: PLEASE be very very careful around situations like this because YOU are likely to be the person to turn a cultural misunderstanding into something which gets many people killed including yourself.

 

[Chip]

And I think advice like yours for "treat every situation like this as a carjacking" is incredibly dangerous. This could have turned into a shootout on the airport.

FYI: You've been here 4 years, I've been here almost 9 years and Hillbilly has been here 40 years. We both disagree with you.

People with guns, particularly non dominicans: PLEASE be very very careful around situations like this because YOU are likely to be the person to turn a cultural misunderstanding into something which gets many people killed including yourself.

Thanks for assuming so much Adrian! When I said take necessary precautions that can mean many things, like being ready to act. Since I don't have a gun, in my case I would be ready to accelarate forward in my jeep depending on how threatening the actions were.

As far as you being here more time than me, kudos. I also know Luis and I his respect his opinion but I disagree.

 

[rsg]

glad everything turned out o.k for you windguy, the only thing i think you did wrong was waiting there while they surrounded and pounded on your car.
You would have been much wiser to just run over those idiots with your vehicle then to risk the danger of engageing in a gun battle with 7 criminals.You could create more problems then you could ecer imagine by shooting someone in the DR..The best advise is to just run them over and dont stop..

 

[windeguy]

I am not sure how that would have gone if I just blasted through with my car

glad everything turned out o.k for you windguy, the only thing i think you did wrong was waiting there while they surrounded and pounded on your car.
You would have been much wiser to just run over those idiots with your vehicle then to risk the danger of engageing in a gun battle with 7 criminals.You could create more problems then you could ecer imagine by shooting someone in the DR..The best advise is to just run them over and dont stop..

My car was surrounded within seconds of the car in front of me leaving for the main highway and the moto blocking my way a foot from my bumper. The entire incident from that point probably took less than 20 seconds.

I was seriously considering that option, but I could not tell how far I would have made it after running over a moto with rider that was horizontal to my path and about 1 foot from my front bumper. The question in my mind was would my car continue to go or just get hung up. My thought was to slowly accelerate to push him out of the way, while trying to give him a chance to move. Luckily, it didn't come to that.

ElvisNY - if the fellow on the moto whom I actually beeped at said nothing at all and showed no outward sign of emotion, how do you think it was because I beeped at him? I think your options 2, 3 or assault and robbery are possible.

 

[Chip]

I just talked to a local police officer who works at the Cuartel de Gurabo, Carretera Turistica close to my house here in Santiago. In his opinion this was a botched carjacking as he said the method is in common use, whereby someone on a motorbike will block the path of a car, and then suddenly people will come from nowhere and surround the car and take it. He says it happens during the day as well. He furthermore said nobody on a bike would block a vehicle this way and then have other people cause a commotion unless they were up to no good because they would be taking the real chance of getting run over if the driver felt threatened. He also told me if it happened to me to run the guy over, as that is what he would do.

Anyway, I've posted my opinions and my hope is people will be ready for such circumstances and act accordingly. In my case depending on the situation and who was in my car(like my family) I might run for it or just give it to them. However, being ready mentally is important imo and just assuming that someone blocking the path of your vehicle and all of a sudden having all these people rush your car and have one of them bang on the window and yell is just a reaction to something you did could be dangerous.

Windeguy, the officer did say it would be worth it to contact the local cuartel and let them know about it as they could send more patrols in the area. I know we have a lot of corrupt police here but there are still some that give a damn.

ciao

 

[IslandDreaming]

By the time you all get done, this will turn into an attempt to kidnap Windeguy, send him to Manchuria for 7 years, brainwash him and return him to Honduras as Manuel Zelaya

 

[ramesses]

I guess we will never know if this is becoming a problem as is seems people do not report anything to the police in the DR.

 

[domilinguist]

I posted a thread similar to this one a few months ago about an experience I had as a single woman driving alone at night. Certain DR1 readers wrote some really not very nice responses to my experience. I think it is important to keep people informed about these experiences and to make them aware of the dangers out there for drivers.

 

[Chip]

By the time you all get done, this will turn into an attempt to kidnap Windeguy, send him to Manchuria for 7 years, brainwash him and return him to Honduras as Manuel Zelaya

No doubt he would be better received and would do a better job for sure. aranoid:

ya me fui.

 

[windeguy]

I called to reach the manager of the POP airport. He will be back in the office on Friday. His secretary will let airport security know what happened and inform the manager upon his return.

Chip, unfortunately there are people everywhere that wish to create their own reality.

 

[SantiagoDR]

We need a jury trial on this matter !!!!!

Ok Mike (Windeguy), lets bring this to a close, time for a .......

Trial by Jury
by your
DR1 Peers
- - - - -
But that will always result in a
Hung Jury!


lol
​

Don Don

 

[windeguy]

Indeed Senior Don Don!!

By the way, after I described the situation to the manager of airport's secretary, she said she would have just driven over the person blocking me if she was placed in such a position of danger.

 

[DOMINCAN JOE]

If you do not report it to the police they will not no there is crime by the airport

 

[Adrian Bye]

The only way we'll know for sure is if we get more stories like this.

At this point a lot of people have seen this thread so we'll surely hear about it. And thats the most important thing.

 

[Lambada]

Please keep in mind also that my reason for posting this was to make others aware of such a potential situation. I am not the type to seek my 15 minutes of fame from such a situation. I am on this board to try and help other avoid problems here.

I hope the second guessing by some doesn't put you off making others aware in future (not that I'm wishing you a second incident of this type :cheeky. Knowing both you & your wife as I do, knowing how laid back & non-hysterical both of you are, knowing how switched on you are to your surroundings, I am frankly amazed that the debate over 'what this was' is still going on. But then......I also know that I'm hearing more about incidents of robbery of drivers, day & night, recently, and not always reported either to the police or in the papers. And those of us who do hear about it don't necessarily post it here, because if it didn't happen to us personally, then there is the issue of verification.

I'm a great believer in informed, trained intuition - my gut will tell me if the situation is potentially dangerous & like you, I don't over-react. I'm also fair at sussing out people (probably why my circle of real friends is.......limited ). You felt this situation was potentially dangerous - that's good enough for me. But I wouldn't say that about people I don't personally know. In their case, I probably wouldn't say anything at all.

 

[corvetteguy]

Carjacking

I was in the car when this happened. I was flying in from Miami and Windeguy picked me up. We were the first car out of the airport from that flight. As we approached the main hyway. There was a vehicle stopped talking to a guy on his motto. Windeguy honked and the guy didn't move. Then we were surrounded by at least 7 individuals on 4 motto's, one on each side, front and rear. They were banging on the jeep to stop and open the door. Windeguy went for his 9mm and never rolled down the window. The guy in front moved just enought that Windeguy put the pedal to the metal and got the hell out of there. For those of you who think this was a "Welcomming Committee", your dead wrong. This was an organized attempt at something (Who Knows). It was a frightful experience to be sure. This is my first post and I hope my last on this type of experience!!!

BEWARE!!!!!