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Theft happens everywhere to some degree! They took some cheap (Walmart) fishing poles and used shoes from me a while back. While I can understand the fishing poles…. I have no idea what some lowlife in CR thought he was going to do with size 13 shoes in Costa Rica…. perhaps he was going to use them as a boat to do some fishing with the poles!!!
BTW… Got it all back… the caretaker scared them off and they dumped the stuff on the side of the road! Too bad… I would have used it was a reason to buy some new shoes!!!
How many incidents of armed home invasions have you heard or read about in the outskirts of the San Ramon area, Maravilla? I don’t know the exact situation of your home location, but where I will build is so far off the beaten path, I can’t imagine how armed thieves would even see my place let alone transport themselves and their weapons to attack it. I am assuming this sort of thing happens in the cities and towns and especially around walled in concentrations of gringos, not out in the farming communities.
Armed thieves would have to scout the back roads in their cars looking for targets. It would be more efficient for them to simply focus their evil efforts where the wealth is concentrated.
You deplore TV and ownership of computers, but you DO have expensive jewelry. There is some sort of disparity in your philosphy of living the simple life. People don’t flaunt computers or TV’s in public but public display is the very purpose of jewelry.
It seems to me that the very first thing to get rid of would be jewelry. THEN, maybe the TV and computer…..If someone is so scared that they will ‘lose’ possessions and have to forgo the use of their computer and TV, why even consider moving to Costa Rica?
Yes, we were robbed of items in our garage, but we have in our small home two laptops plus an additional monitor which are on desks and easily visible. We have a small stereo system and a LCD TV. Good camera equipment, etc.
Realize, one must really think about the area you chose to live.Research…good idea. After conversations with the people I trust in my area, I know who to watch out for. So far, there are only a few locals, and they are older men who do not own guns, whose characters merit a wary attitude. Theyt aren’t dangerous. They are just not trustworthy. Outsiders would be the only candidates for armed robbery. I just don’t see any in my area.
I might get a hand gun some day and a wall for even more privacy. So we have less police protection in CR, far less than in Miami. So what? I still think we have far less crime in rural CR than in any part of Miami. And I keep computers and cameras at my Miami home. Why would I not do the same in CR?
Sprite — you have it ever so wrong. They DO come in cars and scout out locations. There were just three more robberies in Los Angeles Sur over the weekend. If there is a road to get to your property, someone will want to see how you are living and what you may have inside. Being away from other houses makes it easier for them to target you. Who is going to see them???? As for the TV, the reason I don’t have one is not because I’m afraid it will get stolen. I have so many other things to do besides sit in front of the TV, and I’m just sick of television. I like to watch movies, so I have a DVD player. As for the jewelry, I don’t even wear it here in the States. The pieces I have I inherited or acquired over 30 years and they are going in a safe deposit box in Costa Rica. I look at this stuff as a an investment, not something to be worn or flashed. I simply don’t have expensive gadgets anymore. Life is really so much simpler without them. It’s a hard concept to swallow when we’re told we must have an iphone, ipods, and this or that xbox or expensive toy. I have none of those things, and I don’t want them. But that’s me. I moved to CR to have a simple peasant life. As for not seeing any potential criminals in your area, you only THINK you know who they are or are not. We thought we knew too who were suspects, now we’re being told that the son of the owner of the finca down the road from us is a notorious ladrone. We’re also investigating the son of another finca owner who may have a drug problem and who lives in Palmares. If it’s him then he is traveling to rob us. I’ve put the word out that there is a reward for information — and if the OIJ won’t help me solve this, then I will rely on my network of locals to help me, and the guy who robbed my house will be ever so sorry that he chose me to rob.
Maravilla, how could anybody know what kind of operating procedures thieves are using in Costa Rica unless the police catch a good many of them and do a study. There isn’t anything available in the way of reliable stats or police studies. All we have are the anecdotal stories of locals and a the reports in the papers. Your neighborhood and indeed your house have been hit. For you, there is a severe crime wave and you have changed some things about how you safeguard your residence.
There are people on this site, David McMurray and Scott, for example, who say they have never been robbed. I can’t say with certainty they one day will be robbed just as I can’t say with certainty that I will one day be robbed in CR. All any of us have to go on are some common sense conclusions and opinions of locals as to who the thieves tend to be and where they are likely to operate. And those are just guesses.
In other words, the only statistics that really matter are the ones that I keep of my personal experience. The only behavior and life style that matters are my own. Until and unless I become a victim of crime there, my personal stats say crime does not exist in the Canton of Naranjo, Costa Rica for people who behave exactly as I do where I do it. Until and unless I become a victim of crime, my behavior and low level of anxiety about crime will not change.
I agree with you Sprite. Same thing goes about this recession. Until and unless I become unemployed, my behavior and low level of anxiety about a recession will not change.
Nah…..can’t compare those two.
There is plenty of statistical evidence to support the case that the economy is a huge problem for nearly everyone. The world economic crisis is everywhere. You should be able to see the hard times coming at you like a t mack truck.
But crime in Costa Rica? Specifically, what percentage of Costa Rican homes are affected by crime? Is there ANY reliable study on this matter? Everyone I know personally in the States has experinced some form of crime. That is not only anecdotal, but there is specific statistical evidence of just how much crime there is in the US. Not so for Costa Rica.
I was being sarcastic Sprite. I thought your statement, “Until and unless I become a victimof crime, my behavior and low level of anxiety about crime will not change,” to be naive and absurd.
Do you really need a study on the matter, to convince you of the obvious?
Edited on Jan 02, 2009 11:19
There is a Tico lawyer close to our neighborhood who noticed a black car parked near his house. More than once. He approached the occupants and saw that they had a shovel and some gunnysacks in their car. They claimed that they were getting some good dirt. HUH? Next day the lawyer was robbed of a brand new mitre saw. Definitely the perps in the black car were casing the neighborhood. That’s what they do. They drive down the calle publica and look at our houses. The thieves don’t necessarily have to be your immediate neighbors. Thieves have cars. Thieves watch gringos driving their nice cars. They figure out where they live. This isn’t brain surgery at all. I did everything right, Sprite. I chose a neighborhood away from the city where we have more cows than people. We’re in the campo but I have neighbors close by. I put in an alarm system. We have an armed guard. We watch every car that passes by on the calle publica. We know our Tico neighbors. I keep a low profile. The Ticos like and respect me. I don’t flash anything. But I still got robbed. Why? Because they could! If youi’re waiting for the study to come out, good luck. You can take all the precautions you want but if someone decides you’re their target, nothing, and I do mean nothing will stop them from getting in. I was so convinced this wouldn’t happen to me. Boy, am I singing a different tune today.
Maravilla, Sorry to hear of your loss. What aggravation. It isn’t the stuff itself, it’s the feeling of powerlessness to affect a change in your favor that grates upon you.. You’re on the right track though… the heck with TV! I notice you didn’t mention them robbing your books!
Robbing books??? HAHAHAHA I doubt seriously anyone would steal the kind of stuff I read, which is mostly historical and philosophical stuff, oh, and Norman Mailer! As for TV, I went 5-1/2 months without seeing any television at all earlier this year. I was content with my movies, books, gardening, etc. When I came back to the States and had to endure my husband’s addiction to the boob tube, my anxiety levels went up, I felt bombarded by negative information, I was appalled at the stupidity of some of the primetime programs that are so popular so I am literally counting the days where I will once again be without this annoying instrument of propaganda and brainwashing!!! It’s like an addiction for some people. They think they can’t live without the constant information stream, but I feel as those I’ve been liberated when I have no TV. My husband said he wanted one for his bedroom in Costa Rica. I told him he could put one there if he wanted, but he would first have to build his own house!! jejeje
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