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Union…. Spoken like a true victim! Thank God for folks like yourself that have given up the battle without a fight! It takes the pressure off us the rest of us! As long as there’s easy pickings out there to be had like yourself the chance that I’ll have a problem are reduced! 🙂
Remember… much like wild animals… thieves look for the easy meal… the one without risk nor that much work involved. When you make it more difficult they look elsewhere (ie YOUR house!) Having been well trained and experienced with firearms and their use in difficult situations… I’ll take my chances! Remember… I’m on my home tuff… the bad guy is the visiting team!
I’ll say it again! Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society’s understanding… try to be a little less understanding and tolerant! Might just make a difference!
Edited on Dec 13, 2008 19:27
Imxploring…Union is actually on the right track…what do you think will happen if all the homeowners got guns? Will the robbers be defeated and suddenly become upstanding citizens? After hearing the stories of this forum the robbers seem pretty intent on robbing you by whatever means necessary…So my point is if all the homeowners have guns, the only choice for the criminals is to get guns as well. I am struggling to see how that is going to make things better.
Saratica- gated or non-gated? how long have you lived in CR and what has been your experience with crime?
I am really surprized at all the gringo gun-slingers here in CR & equally surprized that you think guns are the answer to the robo problemo aqui…since most of it happens when you’re not at home or most of you would get yourselves shot! btw, imxploring, an intruder is the aggressor & the one who’s awake = i’d have to bet on the caldron having the upper hand becuz if you were at home, you’d probably be asleep = you’d be taken ‘off guard’ = these guys are so sneaky/good, they’d find that loaded gun you have before you could grab it & guess who’d get shot?! after all your ‘big talk’, i hate to say it, but you’d deserve it too!
i don’t log onto this site very often but when i do, it seems that the same few people practically live on here, but i can’t tell whether some of you actually live in CR? those who’ve been ‘talking thru their hats’ about all the ‘sure-fire’ solutions to the security problems here & going so far as to blame the victums for bringing & hanging out w/the bad guys; not making good decisions; blah blah blah…well, did that ‘rocking chair’ analysis make you feel better or more secure yourselves?? like most of the gringos i’ve met here, you sound like a bunch of know-it-all blow-hards!
all i know is that if you were to actually become one of the innocent victums you’re accusing of bringing IT ALL on themselves + been thru the horror of your dogs being poisoned (much worse than multiple robberies btw), you’d have that caretaker of yours put that familiar ‘se vende’ sign on the property you supposedly own, post haste!
in my own defense, IF people w/malo intentions LOOK/ACT like criminals, they wouldn’t get away w/much for very long, would they? it’s dificil enough to figure out who to trust in your own culture, much less one that’s todo differente, correcto? from my observations of who gets lucky & who doesn’t, i’ve also found that knowing who to trust is KEY…however, not knowing, doesn’t make you a dope or indicate that you’re on dope! when you come here cold, it’s a daily exercise to discern who to believe/trust/listen to for advice; who to hire, etc. & unless you have a built-in support system when you arrive, it’s pretty much impossible to tell who you can & can’t trust. if you haven’t been taken here a few times (at the very least), that would tell me that you don’t really live here!
i could shoot down all the points you tried to make but don’t have time & all i can say to you is that if any of this does happen to you, you’ll be eating your insensitive, harshly judgemental words.
once it has happened to YOU, it really doesn’t come down to your ‘stuff’ being taken, it’s that YOU’VE been taken/invaded & you’re never the same = all you can think about is ‘who done it’ (which one of the people you trusted was really a low life?) & your ‘home’ is no longer a place where you feel any tranquilo = what you end up really losing is your PEACE of mind & FREEDOM of everyday living.
i would like to hear how the people, who have been thru any of these life-changing traumas/tragedies, FEEL afterwards…NOW???? and what you’re doing about those feelings, other than increasing your security…do you ever feel really secure again or the ‘joy’ again of living in a country that’s so beautiful after the dark side has invaded ud y su casa?
Nice to see you post here, Saratica. I read your blogs.
You refer to the presence in CR of people who are competent con artists, who will make a good impression and take you for eveything they can steal. I suspect you are answering my post further up wherein I state that I trust the people with whom I have had business dealings based on their behavior. If there are no laws to protect people from con artists, then there is little protection from losing your “camisa” short of simply not doing business at all.At some point, you have to rely on and trust others. Period. We can’t all be lawyers and doctors and police at once. You have to trust some of these people to be honest and to do their jobs. We all, everyone of us, rely to a great degree on the system in which we live and upon our judgement, however flawed either may be. What I am trying to say is that caution is always advised UP TO A POINT. Crossing that point is where fear and mistrust begin to take over your life and make it miserable. I am glad you have finally decided to stay in Costa Rica. You have apparently conquered your own fears enough to make your life there a positive one. Congrats.
Edited on Dec 14, 2008 04:58
I believe that how people deal with the dark side of life is part of the decsion making process that determines whether they live happily ever after or not. It appears you are still struggling with that dark side. I wish you the best in resolving this personal challenge. It;s something we all have to do sooner or later.
I also believe that good decision making has to do with paying attention to probablitlity rather than possibility. I don’t care about anecdotal evidence of the rare robbery committed against people who live in the country and who lead simple, honest lives. Until those crimes become a major statistic, it is not useful as far as making a decision about living in CR.
bjallen… So I’m guessing the answer is to leave the doors open… don’t resist and allow the bad guys to take anything they want? Is that really an answer to the problem? And if so, wouldn’t that in itself be a much BIGGER incentive to encourage bad guys to continue their ways? As well as breed a whole bunch more that see this way of life as an easy vocation?
I for one will take my chances with defending myself and my home. As for blaming the victim… that’s not the case… but as we all know folks that make the choice to live a lifestyle with questionable associations and values are ALWAYS more likely to be the victim of those they call “friends”.
I guess we all have our own values and opinions on the topic… mine works for me. I hope yours works for you. Personal choices about safety and the security of our homes is something many of us take very seriously. It’s not as simple as owning a firearm or installing an alarm. It’s something we all need to be aware of each day, as you would ANYWHERE in the world. We all have our own way of looking at things… and in many ways those judgements define our future. Part of my enjoyment in enjoying CR is the fact that my mind is quite clear on my feelings on this topic, and always has been.
Edited on Dec 14, 2008 05:27
blackjackds… Not every homeowner needs a gun… most would be more of a problem in owning/using one! But if you were a bad guy and had the choice of two homes to break into… which homeowner would you rather confront? The laid back tolerant gringo or the gun owning homeowner that has made it very obvious he’ll use whatever force is needed to defend himself?
Bad guys are like water… they take the path of least resistance!
Well, we live here, with no nearby neighbors with the exception of our worker in the midst of a very large property, and we were sleeping at the time our home was robbed. I had woken up, when I heard our dogs bark, and, stupidly I guess, went outside to see why. The area where they standing was next to an area where there was some sheets of ‘zin’ to cut the wind from a small garden area. It was also the same place where our goat had been eating some of the hedge earlier in the day. So, I thought, it was probably the goat, again.
So, the four dogs took off.I went back inside and back to sleep. The next morning I look outside the front door and there was one of the dogs. Dead. I screamed for my husband and he ran out and round the back where we found another one. Dead. We looked for the other 2 and they wouldn’t approach the house. Eventually, we found that another one had also been poisoned, but he survived. One was unharmed.
Anyway, the thief has been in our laundry area right outside our bedroom window, where he took a ‘crap’ if you will pardon my expression, and then moved to the adjoining garage and stole a few thousand dollars worth of tools and some other stuff. He went through a truck, and moved a lawn chair onto the grass, and I guess he sat there for a while.
We later found, he had left a bag of clothes in the bushes…? Maybe, what he had stolen earlier, elsewhere.
So, as you asked, bjallen, what do we feel now is? As I stated in my lost post “looking for our three dogs as there is no sign of them, and this is very unusual, so we have to go with our ‘gut feelings'”, so the answer is “it really doesn’t come down to your ‘stuff’ being taken, it’s that YOU’VE been taken/invaded & you’re never the same”.
Just as you stated.
We think it was the same person who stopped by to speak with some tile installers, just a few days previously.
And BYW, it seems he was hiding behind the zin, so I guess he wasn’t out for blood, that time.There is no doubt that some of the people who have been robbed/violated, etc. are suffering, understandably, from PTSD. It would be the normal reaction, and were it to happen to me, I know I would be a mental wreck for quite a while. I’ve been held up at gunpoint in Manhattan. My response at the time was complete outrage and after the perp liberated us of $400 which he said he needed for some heroin, I then told him to get the hell away from us and go get a hotshot, all the while he was pointing a gun at my head! I was really mad because he was making us late for a Stevie Nicks concert! It didn’t hit me until many days later that I could’ve been killed for having such a smart mouth, and it was then that I had a meltdown. And now, my neighbor in CR is having a similar reaction to having all his doors jimmied, while he was home and asleep. Coupled with a few other items, he has decided to sell his house and go back to gringolandia. As for the suggestion that two of the victims were partly to blame, that was not my assessment but rather what the cops told my neighbors. if you are having hookers brought to your house, I do believe that you have put yourself and your neighbors at risk. There would be no reason for a hooker to be in our neighborhood otherwise; we are a peaceful lot of baby boomers and most of us (except the one jackass) live very quiet, boring lives. There is a marriage between hookers and drug dealers so nobody can tell me that having the one doesn’t invite the other, so yes, who you choose to bring into your house definitely plays a part in putting you at risk. If I were courting crack dealers and having them deliver dope to my house, and then later I got robbed, would anyone be surprised. Beyond that, taking all the precautions we can is the only sane thing to do, but even that isn’t a guarantee. Oh and we got robbed in New Jersey once; perp did the same thing — pooped in the kitchen. What’s THAT all about, except the biggest violation there is! For the two of you who had your dogs poisoned, for me that would be far worse than losing everything I own. I can’t even imagine what that must feel like, but it’s happened to two of my neighbors in CR as well, and they were heartbroken and sick. But I don’t want to own a gun so I will have to do whatever else I can to protect myself. My neighbors no longer leave their dogs outside at night. And most of the other neighbors have put bars on the windows and those of us who refuse to do that put in alarm systems. We’ve also had ICE install lights on the poles at the top of our road. Bye-bye nighttime in the campo! The place will be lit up like a cheap amusement park, but there will be no place for ladrones to hid under the cover of darkness. Besides, they usually hit when there is bad weather i.e., high winds, horizontal rain, and mucho neblina! the noise from those things will drown out screams, alarm sirens, and a gunshot. But home invasions are up in Denver, too, so there you go. Who is really safe anywhere these days?
Hi sprite, I was actually answering blackjackds’ query about “Is it cheaper to go through a realtor online or find someone in town when you get there?” At some point you do have to rely on others. I’m just suggesting that when that time comes, you’ve done your homework and chosen someone who has at the very least proven themselves to someone else, particularly in Costa Rica where there are no legal protections whatsoever against making a bad choice.
Even you “trust the people with whom I have had business dealings based on their behavior.” There’s some experience guiding your choices. That’s all I’m suggesting. Go with your gut, just don’t go on gut alone. Gather information first. Too many people have written me over the years lamenting having trusted the nice taxi driver or real estate person they met online (and sometimes communicated with for months) or at the bar… blah blah blah.
In Key West, I was a buyer’s agent for all of my 12 years actively working that market. With extremely rare exceptions, buying real estate is an emotional event. Even when buying for investment or speculation. Signals from the gut get messed up in the process. An unethical salesperson will use that to his or her advantage.
Blackjackds, you probably know this, but you will often find the same property listed several places for different prices. Since there is no MLS here and a seller can (and does) list his property with everyone wearing a “Hi, I sell Costa Rica real estate” cap, many sellers just say “here’s what I want, put your commission on top.” Some salespeople – I know this will be hard to believe – tack on exorbitant amounts… and they get it from uninformed buyers. Another of the reasons why, if you pick a salesperson by the seat of your pants “when you get into town”, you are likely to get burned.
To answer your questions: we live in a house, not gated, at the end of the road with almost no neighbors, in Escazú. We had a thwarted break-in which prompted us to get razor wire. The same day, my good friend in Key West had a break in at her house (where she is forbidden to have razor wire by the Hysterical, er, Historical Committee) and they stole everything. I was robbed in Los Angeles in the late ’70s and felt totally traumatized. But I got over it. You get over it eventually. Having someone poison my dogs would be VERY hard to get over, though.
We’re here, not going anywhere. If the right property came along, we would buy it. That’s how long we plan to be here. Pura vida!
We use our gun as a deterrent. We shoot it into the lawn once every couple of months. Nice loud noise. Everyone knows we have a gun. I’m not looking to shoot anyone, nor is my husband or two 6′ tall teen boys. But as someone pointed out, ladrones are basically lazy (or else they’d have productive lives) and want the path of least resistance. Our house, with the bars, razor wire, dogs, gun, lights, alarm (top of the line, wirelessly notifies the alarm company who has been very responsive) and the fact that we work at home and are there all day everyday… if anyone is watching the house, looking for a good time to rob us, they will move on to an easier target. We are just too much trouble. (knock wood)
We take our firearms outside to practice as well, and try to hit the target! The dogs hate the noise and go home.
Nois, noise and more noise!Imxploring…I am not trying to say that not having guns is the best answer, I am saying its a better answer than having guns. Better law enforcement and tougher penalties is probably a better idea than both. I am guessing you are an American and probably a republican so you love your guns but having guns to defend ourselves has increased the violent crime rate in America so I don’t know why you are advocating the exact same thing in costa rica.
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