Curaçao is a pretty safe place! But there is a big problem on the island with car parts theft.
There’s a gang of professional thieves roaming the city center at night, on the lookout for specific cars, mostly new Kia cars, that they steal parts from. These guys are seasoned pros, stealing on order. They climb over locked fences, break into cars without the alarm going off, and strip the bumper, headlights, radiator and other parts in a few minutes, leaving thousands of dollars in damages. The image you see on the right is from one of our cars that was stripped in the middle of the night, leaving us with $15.000 of damages that took months to repair. These guys operate in the city center of Willemstad in the middle of the night, and the police has no means to stop them.
After a lot of deliberation, we changed our policy accordingly:
For now, WE DO NOT ALLOW OUR NEW KIA CARS TO BE PARKED OVERNIGHT unattended in the red zone below.
This area covers mostly the entire neighborhood of Otrobanda, Punda, Pietermaai and Scharloo. It perfectly fine to visit these areas, and we recommend you do! But do not park in this zone between 11.00 pm and 6.00 am unattended, not even behind a locked gate where the car can be seen from the road. Attended parking lots are fine.
If do you decide to ignore these rules, and a new Kia car is broken into or damaged while you parked unattended in the zone that is painted red below, we will hold you liabable for damages, including the loss of income.
This policy does not apply to other brand cars (for now), and our budget lines of cars, which are older cars. We hope this is but a temporary measure until the government takes action.
If you booked a new car, and you intend to stay in this red zone, contact us, and see if we can work something out, and perhaps switch you to another car!
