I mentioned in passing in my Editorial yesterday concerning the petty crimes executed by teens that targeted the tourists on our beautiful beaches.

Our tourism industry is booming and the CaymanKind advertising campaign has proved to be a winner.

We pride ourselves on being one, if not, the safest place in the Caribbean.

However, it only takes one bad apple to destroy all the good ones. Recently we have more than one.

Tourists on our beaches are reporting local people are approaching them with advice.

They tell them and point to all the “good snorkeling” spots offshore and then steal their belongings.

Tourism Minister, Moses Kirkconnell, is reported in the Cayman Compass as saying, “Stealing personal items from people on the beach strikes at one of the core pillars of the Cayman Islands economy and cannot be tolerated. The Ministry of Tourism strongly condemns such thoughtless criminal acts which harm the good reputation of the Cayman Islands and undermine the efforts of thousands of people who are working hard on a daily basis to support our islands’ standing as a safe and welcoming vacation destination.”

He is correct.

What, though, is being done to stop it?

What initiatives are in the works now?

Warnings would be a start.

More police patrols.

It is an unfortunate fact now – here in the Cayman Islands tourists are more likely to experience petty crime than the more serious crime.

One might say, that’s good. Less serious crime.

It’s not.

Crime of any sort against our tourists is a huge deterrent for them not to visit our shores again.

Maybe preaching this message to our school leavers that the good living they can enjoy here will soon stop if they embark on a career of petty crime against our tourists.

Bad apples multiply very quickly. We must stop the rot now.