Posted on 06/12/2010 10:51:42 PM PDT by MamaDearest
Imagine a little slice of paradise. Sitting on the deck of a cruise ship, margarita in hand, as you glide through the Caribbean. Not a care in the world for a week, until you get home, and find while you were in paradise, burglars were in your home -- sent there by someone working for the cruise line who knew exactly when you'd be gone. Now, your stuff is, too.
That's what police in Palm Beach County say happened to at least 24 passengers of Miami based Royal Caribbean Cruise line. It's what they say two people -- one of them a cruise line employee -- did with a scheme to rip off cruisers while they were on the high seas.
Police say 38-year-old Bethsaida Sandoval, a vacation planner for Royal Caribbean with access to customer information, was arrested Thursday and charged with a host of burglary counts.
An arrest affidavit filed by investigators said Sandoval was seen on surveillance entering Royal Caribbean offices at about 1 a.m. several times in the past month, using her employee ID to get access to a computer where she would log in.
Police say they were told by Royal Caribbean security that Sandoval had no reason to be in the building, or logged into a computer, at that time. A background check found what police called "a history of theft and forgery."
When confronted by police, the arrest warrant states Sandoval admitted printing out the personal information of passengers who had worked with other vacation planners, which she took home and gave to her husband, who would go to the homes and burglarize them.
In some cases, she said, she used the Royal Caribbean computer system to organize lists of potential targets by geographical area and ship departure date.
Because Lopez and Sandoval knew when their victims would be in the middle of the ocean, it was a simple thing to strike when convenient.
"He would look to see if anyone was home, whether there were bars on the windows and suitable targets to come back to," explained Detective Anthony Johnson of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office.
Maidel and Rayner Diaz are now putting the bars on their windows and installing security cameras. They hope one day they'll be able to regain their sense of security after their home was burglarized while they were away cruising. "I mean they steal your peace of mind," said Maidel Diaz. "In my case, I have a baby and a nine year-old. They took away basically her innocence because she has trouble sleeping at night she has to sleep with us."
The Diaz family took a cruise with their relatives Victor and Yoandra Lopez. The Lopez family also found their home broken into and originally believed it was an insider with ties to the family. Now their surprised to find out the insider worked for Royal Caribbean.
"Thats why I'm shocked," said Yoandra Lopez, who used to work for Royal Caribbean. "Because they have very good you know procedure. I mean that person had to have some kind of clearance."
Sandoval said the burglaries had been taking place starting in November 2009. Sandoval told police she served as the driver for many of the the burglaries, and was there as her husband loaded their vehicle with stolen TV's, jewelry, and guns, which in many cases were taken back to Miami to be fenced.
According to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, Sandoval and her husband victimized 24 Royal Caribbean passengers in Palm Beach county. Sandoval and Lopez lived in Miami, and police say at least four people were burglarized in Miami-Dade and four in Broward county.
They believe all victims sailed from cruise ships leaving the Port of Miami or Port Everglades. Most were on the ships Majesty of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas.
John Lumsden of Boca Raton was one of those targets. CBS4 News spoke with him as he and his wife were about to set sail on a Royal Caribbean ship out of Miami Friday. "I was unbelievably shocked. I think when I trust information to them, they should take better care of it. There should be systems in place that protect individuals against this sort of thing."
Lumsden says he upgraded his security system, installed hurricane-proof windows and has made his home more burglar-proof.
Sandoval was booked into the Palm Beach jail Friday morning and ordered held on $70 thousand bond. Her boyfriend, Lopez, has been in the Broward County jail since June 1 on unrelated charges.
Royal Caribbean issued a statement Friday afternoon referring to Sandoval as a former employee, and said it had been working closely with police. They also say that they are re-examining their security policies.
"This is a situation involving a former employee who appears to have taken advantage of their position for personal gain," the company said in it's statement. "We regret this incident occurred and hope it does not overshadow the excellent work our more than 40,000 Royal Caribbean employees do every day."
We took the Alaska cruise on the Princess Line, several years ago.
All of the side trips were a blast, the food was excellent, the crew were super, we had a great time.
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