[News Boquete] Report to the Community, April 16 and current cases in Boquete

We hope that you all will be able to attend the April 16, Alto al Crimen Report to the Community at the BCP theater, 10:30AM. In addition to recapping the crime situation and discussing our plans for the coming year, we hope to give you the inside story of the murder investigation in Volcan, in which cooperation between Boquete and Volcan played a key role. 

For more information about Fundacion Alto al Crimen, how to protect your own property and how to help support our work, please visit http://www.altoalcrimen.org.

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After a quiet season, in the last weeks we have experienced at least three break ins. In order to prevent this from happening to others in the community, it is important that we review the circumstances of each. In particular, IF YOU ARE A RENTER you need to understand that you are the primary target for burglars and need to take precautions.

In each of the three cases, the burglar(s) entered during the day while the residents were out of the house. Items taken include computers, small electronics, jewelry and relatively small TVs. In all three cases, the houses had two or more blind and vulnerable sides with no neighbors or visibility from the street, which is where the burglars entered. In each case the Boquete Hot Line was called and the police responded promptly.

1) In Volcancito, the house of Rich and Jullie Cacianti was entered in the afternoon while they were shopping in David. Since they had been burglarized before, they had installed double-key deadbolts on all interior rooms. However, that day the door to the office and bedroom had been left open. The burglar tried several outside doors and windows, but all were pinned and secure. Finally, he forced open the window to the office and thereby gained access to the main house and bedroom. In the bedroom, he flipped the mattress over and found a stash of valuable jewelry. All the drawers in the office and bedroom were rifled, but none in the kitchen, nor were bookcases disturbed. 

2) In the Oriana neighborhood, a renter by the name of Roxie came home to find that a burglar had entered an open sliding door, took the TV, laptop computer and small jewelry. An iPad, printer and other electronics was ignored. Once again, he looked under the mattress and emptied out packed suitcases. This rental house is at the end of the street on the canyon, has no fences, no working security systems, no neighbors on three sides, an easy escape route along the canyon and is readily visible from a neighborhood that is not part of the development. It has been burglarized four times before this, a fact that was never revealed to the renter by the owner or manager.  

3) On March 23rd, another renter family returned to their house in the lower Palo Alto area to find their house had been burglarized. In this case, it seems the burglar entered with a key, then broke out a window shutter to exit with the goods and make it appear that it had been a forced entry. Again, this rental house has no fencing (important to prevent burglars from LEAVING with your goods just as much as preventing entry). The crime occurred while the neighbors on the other side were home, but the burglars had an easy escape route across the unfenced yard to the overgrown area on the blind side, rather than being forced to exit through the driveway in full view of the neighbors. 

So the takeaways for all of us are:

- Check out your house - does it have blind sides where someone could enter or leave unobserved? A video camera mounted high (where it can't easily be disabled) and/or extra fortifications are in order as deterrents in these areas. 

- IF YOU ARE A RENTER - Like renters all over the world, the FIRST THING you do after moving in is to change all the locks. A rental house will have an unknown number of key sets floating around among workers, real estate agents, former tenants etc. You do not EVER want strangers walking into your house with a key when you are not home. 

- Again, if you are a renter, remember that you are still responsible for the security of your rental home. Many people say what the heck, it's just a temporary rental. Then all their stuff disappears. Security should be a primary consideration for your selection of a rental property. Remember, you are the main target for bad guys since most permanent residents have protected their houses and rental houses are typically under-protected.

- Finally, understand where the burglars look for valuables - they always check the drawers in the office and bedroom first and UNDER YOUR MATTRESS. Then they (like the police) check your toilet tank and freezer, which is where some misguided morons keep their illegal drugs.  As a hint - they never look in kitchen cabinets (burglars are always guys - they may take beer out of the fridge) nor do they investigate book cases. 

At Alto al Crimen, we believe that prevention is by far the cheapest and most effective way to stop crime. As a substantial number of Boquete residents have beefed up their deterrence with video cameras, security lights and other visible and invisible measures, we have watched the crime rate fall until the percentages have shifted to favor the residents over the criminals. It is up to all of us, especially newcomers, to take action to make your property undesirable for burglars, which in turn makes the entire community safer. For tips on what to do, visit http://www.altoalcrimen.org. 

See you on April 16!

The Alto al Crimen Team

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