A 69-year-old grandmother spent several days in the infamous Bahamian Fox Hill Prison after she was arrested for bringing a gun on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
On December 2, Mary Robinson forgot to leave her pistol in her car before she went through security in Port Everglades. Troublingly, port security did not detect the gun, allowing Robinson to board Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas with the weapon.
Later in the day, Bahamian authorities were alerted of a passenger with a gun and boarded the cruise ship at Prince George Wharf in Nassau, according to a police report. Once onboard, Robinson was identified and subsequently arrested after being found in possession of a loaded gun (a black Kel-Tec .380 pistol) in her purse.
Robinson’s attorney, Bjorn Ferguson, told PEOPLE that firearm possession charges in the Bahamas have sentencing penalties of one to ten years and that he was able to negotiate an $8,000 fine instead of prison time.
Robinson did not pay the fine the day of the hearing, so she went to Fox Hill Prison for five to six days, according to Ferguson. In 2020, the U.S. State Department described conditions at Fox Hill Prison as harsh and degrading citing overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate medical care, and treatment that falls below international human-rights standards.
Robinson paid the fine and was released on December 8 thanks in large part to her granddaughter, Graci Exendine, who started a GoFundMe that has raised over $12,000.
Exendine writes about her grandmother, “She went on a cruise for her adopted son Johnny’s 12th birthday. She is 69 years old and on her trips she usually bring some kind of protection but usually leaves it in the car since you aren’t allowed to bring it on the ship. Well accidentally she didn’t leave it and it was found in her bag when they checked at the Bahamas and she was arrested. She has a court date for tomorrow but if she is fined and released, I have to come up with $10,000 to pay her fine or she will go to the Bahamas prison.”
Bahamian officials have a history of apprehending American tourists and giving them the choice of prison time or a fine. Typically, the shakedown involves petty marijuana charges with a fine of several hundred to a thousand dollars or a couple months in jail. A gun charge in a foreign country is serious in nature but it’s unsurprising Robinson was let off with a hefty fine.
The question is how grandmother Robinson’s firearm managed to get through security in Port Everglades and onto the Royal Caribbean cruise ship. One explanation may be that security is handled by the respective cruise lines, in this case, Royal Caribbean, which has not issued a statement despite several publications requesting for comments.
The popular Royal Caribbean Blog reported that earlier this year, a guest on the Oasis of the Seas was arrested in Aruba for attempting to board the ship with a firearm.
Have a comment or question? Please leave one below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.