Someone Smashed My Car Window in Perth

     ADVICE TO ALL TOURISTS who are planning to visit Crawley Edge Boatshed or a.k.a the blue boat house, DO NOT leave any of your belongings in your car!!! Out of curiousity, I browsed through some forum and found out that a lot of tourists were victims of theft (similar to my case).

     I just came back from a vacation in Perth. I just can't wait to write a blog about my devastating encounter in Perth, Australia that somehow changed my impression of this known-to-be-very-safe-place. As I know, and also from Google, crime rates in Australia are very low, although very few travellers will be victims of crime, mostly pickpocketing, the most common dangers in Australia are natural hazards and dangerous animals.

     As I was going to travel around Margaret River Region where public transports are limited, I decided to rent a car for the whole trip from day 1 to end of my vacation, which included travelling around Perth city and Fremantle. I rent a MPV (Nissan Qashqai) from Thrifty and everything was fine until I reached Perth City.

     I went for a photo stop in Crawley Edge Boatshed and I parked in the housing area just across the road. We thought that it was a safe place to park as there were many other cars as well. Also, our belongings were all in the car boot, none was on the seats. Then, we spent around 40 minutes for queueing plus photo taking at Crawley Edge Boatshed. Seems like this is the only tourist attraction that required long queue for photos.

    Then, shit happened. We went back to our car realising the window at the back seat passenger side got smashed into pieces!! The passenger seat was brought forward, and my bag was gone!!! We were terrified, angry, my hands got sweaty and my heart was beating fast. However, to look at the good side, there weren't many valuable things inside my bag, and the other luggage and our hauls were still good. Besides, we bought car insurance from Thrifty as well, so we did not have to pay for the damage and we got to change to other car. Phewwww. We did not report to the police as well since we were going back the next day and we wanted to keep things simple. However, if you wanted to claim your loss from your travel insurance, you are required to file a police report.

It might look like we parked somewhere isolated in this photo, but actually there were many cars initially.

This is what happened to my car.

  In conclusion, 

  The messages that I want to deliver to all the tourists are:

1. Buy travel insurance.
2. Buy insurance for your car so that you don't have to pay a thing for the damages. Even if u did not run into same shit like I did, there is still possibility of damage by animals like kangaroo or whatsoever. 
3. Park near busy street or main road where other people can see. 
4. Never leave your belongings on the car seats or anywhere visible.
5. Do not underestimate things eventhough crime rates are low. Be alert at all times.

If someone broke your car window:

1. Take photos of the scene that show the damage done before you clean up or repair as evidence.
2. Contact your car rental agent. Most probably you would be asked to return your damaged car at the car rental return near Perth Airport Terminal 1 and change to a new car. ( not sure about the other agency)
3. File a police report and claim from your travel insurance.

     We did not expect this to happen in a safe country. A bit disappointing, but still, I wouldn't deny that most of the people we met there were friendly and helpful. As long as you pay attention to safety and be alert at all times, it is still a nice place to visit.