Bayside Marketplace Warning

[ba1967]

My family and I just returned from a cruise on the Vista yesterday. We decided to book a late flight out of FLL, rent a car and explore Miami a little. It was a stormy day so we decided to just hang out a Bayside. I have to say it is a cool place with lots of shops for all ages, lots of open air eating/drinking places. I can see how on a beautiful day it would really be great watching the boats and beautiful water. Here was the problem. There was 6 of us. We rented a large SUV and drove down there. This is a very busy area right downtown with lots and lots of auto and feet traffic, even on a rainy day. There is paid parking in the median of the street. I mean quite a bit of parking maybe 2 or 3 lots of 50 spots. We paid, LOCKED our car and headed in for lunch. We arrived about 10 and left at 2. When we arrived back at the car the SUV door locked had been "Popped" and 3 backpacks had been taken. Car doors were actually locked again nicely for us. No luggage bothered just backpacks. Douchebag thief took our passports, laptop, apple watch, ipad, CPAP machine, 3 pairs of raybans and some really cool coins that my husband had researched for weeks and bought in Grand Cayman. This is just the items off the top of our heads, I'm sure as the days go by we will remember more.

 

We called the police and their response was well we will come fill out a police report for you but we may be there in 30 minutes or 3 hours just depending on when we get to it. We did wait 45 but knew we could not wait any longer because of our flight. We were also asked to call them back "when we left" so they could clear it .... :confused:. There was not any option to do it over the phone or complete anything on line. We did not expect for our items to be found but we felt like we needed a report for home owners for the items.

 

There was an older gentleman selling fruit and he told me there is a skinny white guy that has a cocaine habit that comes thru there all the time messing with cars.

 

Just a word of warning. The guy knew what he was doing, who he was targeting and he knew to grab backpacks because that's were we always put the "good things" that we want to keep with us. In hindsight we should have taken them in. But this was not a dark backstreet shady area. Just be aware of this cautionary tale for the next traveler.

[Ask4Jay]

Oh man, that is a bummer. Sorry it happened to you. Just the financial loss, the paper work hassle to replace your documents and the loss of your pictures. . .

[LHT28]

too bad you did not hide the backpacks or take them with you

My passports are always with me on my body

Why would you leave them in an unattended car ?

[mamagina]

Thanks for the warning and the head's up! Sorry this happened to to you. Terrible in the middle of the afternoon. It's a shame your vacation had to end that way. Ignore those who are saying you shouldn't have left the backpacks. Hindsight is 20/20!

 

 

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[ba1967]

As a matter of fact, the lot had an attendant. The backpacks were out of plain sight. We think the guy was watching and saw us get out and watched us. There was not anything in my post that made excuses or placed blamed. This was a warning to other people who might choose to visit this location. So before you get up on your high horse and want to preach to me keep it to yourself.

[Noxequifans]

It is a good warning for parking anywhere.

[4cats4me]

So sorry this happened to you, but it is valuable info for all who will be traveling to that area. Unfortunately, we are all victimized eventually. When we travel, I am always reluctant to stop anywhere When all our luggage is in the car. It has always been our practice to go from the airport directly to the hotel and vice versa and to not stop off for lunch if personal items are left in the car, unless we can view our car from the restaurant.

I hope you get some form of resolution.

 

 

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[eandj]

Sorry for your loss. And thank you for sharing your story.

A good warning too for those wanting to leave their cars parked downtown in some budget lot while gone cruising.

[Keith1010]

Sorry this happened and a reminder that things happen.

 

Also a good reminder to not keep items where they can be seen and to treat passports as valuables and not leave them in a vehicle.

 

Keith

[Tiggertastic]

A good warning to others. Bayside is so close to the port that it's easy to see if someone has luggage and makes it a target. It's a tough one where to put everything between leaving the ship and a late flight. We now stay overnight as 1 night stay gets us 2 days

 

 

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[Bkchero]

Sorry about your issues. Unfortunately this nonsense has always gone on in South Florida, not just downtown Miami. Tourist areas are targets and thieves are, unfortunately, plentiful.

[BlueHerons]

As a matter of fact, the lot had an attendant. The backpacks were out of plain sight. We think the guy was watching and saw us get out and watched us. There was not anything in my post that made excuses or placed blamed. This was a warning to other people who might choose to visit this location. So before you get up on your high horse and want to preach to me keep it to yourself.

 

This is why as locals we tell people that gated with an attendant doesn't matter because the attendant is usually in on it.

 

So sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately the cops don't care because they are busy dealing with gangs, human trafficking, murders, and drug trafficking.

[DogLover]

Any tourist area is vulnerable to such theft ... South Florida does has a disadvantage with all the cruise ship business. That being said, I disagree with the statement "the cops don't care." They care, but property crimes in any metropolitan area take second seat to other calls of priority. As the mom of a peace officer in South Florida, I know ... there are no simple answers.

 

The same type of crime happens here in AZ, bad people are everywhere. Tourist areas attract crime of opportunity. It stinks:(

 

Sorry you were victimized, ba1967.

 

Safe travels.

[awhcruiser]

I never leave anything valuable in the car whether it's locked or not!

too bad you did not hide the backpacks or take them with you

My passports are always with me on my body

Why would you leave them in an unattended car ?

[LHT28]

I never leave anything valuable in the car whether it's locked or not!

Exactly

 

especially passports

[Diver2014]

One of the reasons we moved from Miami is because it's just another big city now with lots of people and with that comes lots of crime, traffic, noise, etc. Not only should you not leave anything in your car around Bayside, I wouldn't leave a car near Bayside, period. The thugs prey on that area because of the tourists. I used to work in the building across from the Intercontinental and it got to where just walking around at lunchtime became a hassle with the street bums. It's a different city than it used to be.

[hollydog]

ba1967, we had a similar theft in Barcelona while waiting in Placa Catalunya for the airport bus. At 5 am it was just us tourists and lots of homeless people wandering around watching us. Someone swiped my daughter's backpack from our luggage pile while we were distracted. Didn't discover it till we were halfway to the airport. Fortunately she had her passport on her person. Upon returning home, we filed a claim with Travelguard and they were willing to accept a local police report, since obviously we hadn't called the Barcelona police. Travelguard reimbursed us for the backpack contents under the "stolen luggage" benefit of our travel insurance. We didn't bother with Homeowners insurance because of the deductible.