3916 – Assault in Martinique (France) – St. Anne
Incident Date: 2026-09-10 at 08:30
Event Type: Assault
Stolen Items: None
Secured: Does not apply
Source Type: 1st Hand Report
Incident Details: The non-French speaking captain of a yacht anchored in St. Anne, took his dinghy ashore at 0830HRS at the St. Anne dinghy dock to do laundry at a laundromat near the Carrefour grocery. Once things were well underway he left to do some grocery shopping and then returned to the laundromat. His laundry was still drying, so he waited. No one else was in the laundromat.
An older man entered the business and began yelling at him in French, then went to his car parked just outside the door, and retrieved a machete. He returned to the laundromat, blocking the doorway and continued yelling and pointing the machete at the cruiser’s head, standing only a meter away. Several CCTV cameras were evident in the laundromat. The cruiser did not understand why the man was agitated, and attempted to calm the man, without success.
Apparently hearing the commotion, two French speaking persons came into the laundry, briefly distracting the man with the machete, and the cruiser managed to slip out with his groceries, but without the laundry. He went to the nearby police station, and found no one there. After attempting to speak with other locals and expressing his desire to make a police report he understood it would take some time for the police to arrive, but they apparently made a call on his behalf. The cruiser took his groceries to the yacht and returned to meet the police and collect his laundry. He was met by some policemen near the laundromat. They could not speak english or take a report. A helpful person communicated that to take a report the police would require the cruiser to get the CCTV video from the French speaking owner of the laundromat, and to go to another police station. While they were standing there the man with machete passed by them in his car, and the cruiser pointed the car/man out, but the police showed no interest in doing anything at the time.
The cruiser went to the laundromat and retrieved his (now finished) laundry, then returned to his yacht. He plans to depart the anchorage in the next day or so.