The Fugitive starring Alvone Maybury

Eat dust Harrison Ford...

Introducing Alvone Maybury, the fugitive for the social media generation!

This week, this tiny little island made international news headlines. A quick google reveals pick-up in the UK's Metro, Daily Mail, and the BBC; the Times of Malta; India Times; France 24; The Sydney Morning Herald; Brisbane Times; the New Zealand Herald; Jamaica Times; New York Daily News; The Brunei Times; Zaire.com and maybe more.

As Bermuda reaches these dizzy heights of super stardom once in a blue moon I could not really ignore this story. And the reason was... "The Facebook Fugitive". 

It all began on Tuesday when Alvone Maybury, 24, being led to the Magistrates Court in Hamilton to face charges relating to a shooting last year gave officers the slip. Still handcuffed he made a run for it and escaped custody. That night he began to taunt the police by updating his Facebook page with cryptic messages about how he was enjoying his new found freedom and claims that he may turn himself in. Nearly a week later he has still evaded capture despite a full-scale manhunt (with 27 officers!!) including raids on the home of his ex-girlfriend and stop and searches.

The international interest seems to stem from the fact that Maybury is not only remaining at large on a 22-square mile island but he is also staying undetected despite his use of Faceboosh. Apparently there are legal issues with police getting access to the IP address he is using to make the updates, which could have lead to him being located within a few hundred metres. 

His escapades are nothing in comparison to previous Bermuda-based fugitives. Cocaine dealer, Giuseppe Roncari, was the island's longest standing escapee. Breaking out during a trip to the dentist, he wasn't captured again till 17 years later in the U.S. He sent the police a postcard from Italy at one point. The cheeky devil!

While some fugitives never made it off the island. Convicted murderer, Troy Shorter was on the run for 5 months until he was found in his Mother's basement. He broke out of prison and took the bus home, as you do, in 1991. 

Then there was Omari Gordon who evaded arrests for motoring offences for a year. He was eventually tracked down in sleepy Somerset toward the West end of the island following a public tip-off. 

So it could be a while yet before Maybury resurfaces, even with more than one officer assigned for each square mile of the island!

Cruise control

July is busy cruise season here in Bermy with 330,000 tourist due to arrive on zee island by gigantic liner this year. Given the population of around 67,000 you can imagine this makes quite a difference to the look and feel of the place in summer. Cruise passengers... you can spot them a mile off! Fanny packs, sun visors and t-shirts emblazoned with the last city they visited. 


The weekly new arrivals provided added complexities to going about your business in a major tourist destination... pavement traffic is significantly slower, you get asked to take people's picture a good few times during every trundle up Front Street and each bike trip becomes a kamikaze adventure of trying to avoid the white helmeted rental scooters as they steer out in front of you and stop randomly in the middle of the road. Crazy tourists! Being on the other side, I can now understand why all the locals in Magaluf, San Antonio, Malia etc. look so peeved to have you in town. 

Being a resident you also get to see the tourist facade going up and down. Have you ever wondered why everywhere you go on holiday there is always a night market and some kind of carnival event just when you happen to be in town. Here in Bermuda, we have Destination Dockyard, Harbour Nights and more,  all part of the Department of Tourism 'Sizzling Summer' programme. I've got to say though the facade carnival atmosphere is pretty convincing. Us expats hit front street for the Harbour Nights extravaganza on a number of occasions and the transformation is remarkable. Stalls selling the standard prints, shell necklaces, mugs etc. collections with a few local specialities - gombey dolls, shark oil hurricane measures and all sorts of goods based on the Bermuda triangle theme. I'll be picking up a few mementos before I leave no doubt. Where else can you get a triangular jigsaw puzzle?!


For Harbour Nights there is always so kind of grand finale, sometimes the bagpipe 'Beating the Retreat' and then one offs like the crazy 'High Heels' race. Some of you may remember the random pink flamingo fundraiser from my previous blog but I think this tops it... a running race for men in stilettos for, wait for it, a hospital charity. This year it ended with one competitor carried out on a stretcher with an arm in a sling and bandaged ankle...

Photos courtesy of www.bernews.com 


I suppose that's one way to create a business case for a new hospital on the island. Fill it with patients well in advance. 


Meanwhile as the tourists have been enjoying the island so have we expats. The last few weekends have been a blur of boat trips, watersports, beach parties... hence no blog entries in a while. Poor show but you gotta make hay when the sun is out. Despite not being a catholic or a protestant I appear to have developed some form of catholic guilt/protestant work ethic internal guilt syndrome for how good my weekends are. But what's a girl to do?!