Bill Humpal is a 55 year old married man, has been in sales for over 30 years. After winning a sales incentive trip to the Bahamas, Bill stayed at a time share resort on the south side of one of the islands called New Providence Island, where he stayed in a luxurious three bedroom condo. With all the extra space around, Bill called his sister Nancy to come stay in this beautiful area near Nassau; without hesitating, she agreed. The next day, they decided to rent a car to do some touring of the island.
While he was getting the rental car, the lady at the rental car company was asking more than what was needed. “She was asking a lot of questions about where we were going, what kind of watch I was wearing, where are you staying, etc. I didn’t think anything of it. I was very naïve, young, and stupid.” He told her that they were going to Lyfke Beach that beautiful mid-afternoon.
As they drove to the beach and got out to admire the scenery, they noticed it was an empty beach and over in the distance were some beautiful homes, but they were surrounded by barbwire fences. A moment later a car started coming toward them down the road, but soon turned around and left. Then the nightmare began.
Bill and Nancy saw two guys running toward them. Bill said, “One had a black ski mask on, the other had a hooded sweatshirt on and had the hood tied up so that only his eyes were seen. The man with the hood had a gun which I later found out was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.” The first thing the two guys did was put the gun to Bill’s head and said, “Give me all your cash and jewelry or I’ll blow you away.”
Bill cried, “You can have everything we have, just don’t kill us.”
Then they threw Bill to the ground, the guy with the gun put his foot on Bill’s neck, and said, “Don’t you do anything or I’ll blow you away mon.” They followed by doing the same to Nancy. “This could be the end of my life. My whole life was flashing before me.” Bill thought in his head. They took about $60 cash, a Rolex, a gold ring, jewelry, Nancy’s purse, and the car keys.
“We were scared shitless.”
After telling Bill and Nancy to get in the water, fully clothed, they quickly ran off to their car. “That was the last we saw of them and our things.” Bill says.
Then another car drove down, stopped behind the rental car, and a man that looked like Mr. T got out and said, “Something wrong?” At first Bill was still in shock and didn’t know if they could trust him. But they decided to go with him to the police station. Unfortunately the police weren’t helpful at all.
All Bill and Nancy wanted to do was leave the island, but they had no money left. They contacted the US embassy of Nassau to try to get any help if possible. The embassy gave them $40 to leave the island, but asked if they could send them $40 back when they got to the US. Bill’s reply was, “yeah right.”
When they finally made it back, Bill and Nancy decided they wanted to warn people of the horrific event and decided to publish their story in the local newspaper in hopes that it won’t happen to anyone else. When asked if he would ever go back, he instantaneously said, “never.”
Overall the cash and jewelry weren’t significant, the fact that they lived was. Nothing is more precious in life than life itself. Even though Bill’s work can take him to wonderful places around the world, if he needed to go back to the Bahamas, he would quit.