VANUATU – A female award-winning travel consultant and journalist was in her hotel room on the outskirts of Port Vila while asleep in the early hours of the morning when an intruder entered her room.

She told the Daily Post she was sleeping in her room around 1.00am when she woke to see a man in a ski mask standing over her bed.

“He was an intruder, he did not steal anything but had made his way to my bed,” the writer who wished to be referred to as “Katherine V” to protect her identity and profession said.

The tourist, with fear for her life, reacted instantly and fought him off with a kitchen knife to the point where she almost stabbed him in the throat as he tried to get away.

“He didn’t know I grew up on the south side of Chicago,” the woman said. “I’m tough as nails, he messed with the wrong tourist.”.

Despite her experience, what disgusted her more was the fact that she could not get any help from the police when trying to report the incident.

She called the police a couple of times but did not get any response, she said.

The morning after the intrusion, the hotel she was staying in called the police only to be told they had a flat tyre and could not turn up to the crime scene.

“Then the hotel called again but the police said they now wanted me to come into the police station, which I think is useless.

“If they’re too lazy to inspect the scene of the crime how do I know they’re not just going to throw my report in the trash.

“I’m on my way to the airport I’m not going to waste the last day of my holiday bowing to their bureaucracy.

“The police exist to serve the people not the other way around.”

The US national said she doesn’t believe her attacker was armed which was why he ran when she went at him with the kitchen knife.

“We fought at the front door, I was trying to get out of the room so I could get at him and he was pushing it back trying to keep me in.

“I must have had a mad adrenalin rush because I was able to get the door open against a grown man much bigger than me.

“And that’s when I saw his face in the porch light, or at least the part that wasn’t covered, I was up close so I got a good look at him and his eyes looked terrified because I was about to stab him in the throat, so he ran.

“I believe he’d been watching me for a while because he knew that I was alone, he knew exactly how to get in and out and he knew exactly where the bed was in the pitch black dark.

“He was about 150-160 centimetres tall, wore all black and a yellow knit ski mask.

“I got a really good look at him. He was fairly light skinned, or maybe some type of mixed race because he was not entirely dark skinned.

“I looked him dead in the eyes while I was fighting him off with the knife. His eyes were grey.

“I ended up taking my phone and the knife and knocking on a neighbour’s door and she let me in.

“I called a friend back in the US and had her on the line while I walked outside alone in the dark in case something else happened.”

Asked how the intruder entered, she said she purposely left her door ajar because a mother cat had brought her kittens inside due to the heavy rain.

“The resort seemed safe with the security, he wouldn’t have even known unless he’d been watching me.

“Just because the door is left open at a crack is not an invitation for invasion, so no the door was not locked but that doesn’t make him any less of a criminal.”

The American who has since left the country writes for a major publication in the US, said she was left with nothing good to write about Vanuatu after the incident.

“I was working on an article about Vanuatu but I’m not going to write about the incident in my hotel room because my mission as a travel writer is to inspire people to travel, not to scare them.”

Despite what she had seen of what Vanuatu has to offer to tourists, Katherine V said after the incident she does not know if she wants to write an article showcasing Vanuatu.

“Because if the police aren’t willing to protect the tourists, I don’t think this is a destination I can promote,”she said.

The woman added that the hotel she was staying was “fantastic, great people”, and they did have security but it is the police she was upset with and they’re the reason she doesn’t want to recommend tourists here.

“Tourists need to feel safe. I did not feel safe.

“I think the real failure here was the police. If they don’t investigate and prosecute people who do these things, what’s to stop them from doing it again?

“That’s the scary part. This guy is on the loose and the police couldn’t care less.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Post has sought comments from the Police Media without any response when going to press. - VDP