Thievery & Security Guards

[fightingirish]

It's been quite a month. I had an apartment break-in (in a nice Santo Domingo neighborhood) about three weeks ago and a vehicle stolen yesterday (from a parking lot in an even nicer neighborhood).

In BOTH instances Im convinced the "guachiman" or security guard was involved. I had to miss work and go through hell a few weeks ago, going from police station to police station to "fiscalia", to report and pursue the home break-in. Police walking around with pistols stuck into their waist bands because they are too poor / poorly organized to afford holsters, shouting in incomphrensible ghetto spanish. Long all-day waits for sargeants and fiscals to arrive. Urine-stinking jail cells around the corner. The prospect of the thief being released and waiting behind some dark tree.

Now I have to go through the process again for the vehicle on Monday morning. I have to pick up the thief and transport him to the fiscalia myself, "denounce" him and have him put in jail for who knows how long. (The guy who broke into my apt was out in a few days). Then I have to somehow get the security company to acknowledge their responsibility for the complicity of their employee in the theft.

It's a nightmare.

And spare me the "It happens in NY, too" posts.... I lived there.

I guess the moral of the story -- dont trust the security guard.

[Robert]

Sorry to hear about your problems

Usually the security guard is the first person the police detain in these types of crimes, that's because they are often the culprits.

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by fightingirish

I have to pick up the thief and transport him to the fiscalia myself, "denounce" him and have him put in jail for who knows how long.

Empathies. Are you picking up the police to accompany the thief as well? If not you need friends in the car..............or at least request thief is cuffed. Friends of ours were expected to transport the perp who attacked their daughter, in the same car as the daughter! They naturally refused but still had to pay guagua fares for police & perp to get them to Court. After Court they were expected to take perp to jail! They didn't have to because Bushbaby took control & bundled police & perp in the back of his vehicle........

If you don't feel happy about transporting your thief for security reasons you can refuse. You'll probably have to pay fares etc. but that's better than a stressful journey.

[snowbird44]

O....M....G...! Is this for real? you have to transport your own Perp? They may as well have no police!!!

[arturo]

Originally Posted by Robert

Sorry to hear about your problems

Usually the security guard is the first person the police detain in these types of crimes, that's because they are often the culprits.

The phone center was robbed just before the guachiman arrived for work late. The cashier girl was drugged with what police thought might have been ether. She still works there, the guachiman does not.

Sometimes the guachimen are found bound and gagged. I am making no representations about any guachiman's guilt or innocence, but the statistics are highly suspicious.

[Chirimoya]

A recent incident was described to me - several homes in a guarded complex were broken into at the same time. No attempts were made to break into the many unoccupied units. This was in broad daylight - late weekday morning - and the guards "saw nothing". Draw your own conclusions.

Sorry to hear about your mensis horribilis, fightingirish.

[manunut]

Originally Posted by fightingirish

It's been quite a month. I had an apartment break-in (in a nice Santo Domingo neighborhood) about three weeks ago and a vehicle stolen yesterday (from a parking lot in an even nicer neighborhood).

In BOTH instances Im convinced the "guachiman" or security guard was involved. I had to miss work and go through hell a few weeks ago, going from police station to police station to "fiscalia", to report and pursue the home break-in. Police walking around with pistols stuck into their waist bands because they are too poor / poorly organized to afford holsters, shouting in incomphrensible ghetto spanish. Long all-day waits for sargeants and fiscals to arrive. Urine-stinking jail cells around the corner. The prospect of the thief being released and waiting behind some dark tree.

Now I have to go through the process again for the vehicle on Monday morning. I have to pick up the thief and transport him to the fiscalia myself, "denounce" him and have him put in jail for who knows how long. (The guy who broke into my apt was out in a few days). Then I have to somehow get the security company to acknowledge their responsibility for the complicity of their employee in the theft.

It's a nightmare.

And spare me the "It happens in NY, too" posts.... I lived there.

I guess the moral of the story -- dont trust the security guard.

this type of thin has happened to a lot of people(gringos,here)."sometimes"the cops,like the *ob get their % from the theft.sad but true.
brit friend of mine had his biz broken into twice in the space of 3 days.
in this case the watchi man dident get shopped.(he was just sleeping......?)
so he remained employed,as he was watching 2 other biz's at the same time.
so rather thn shop him he kept his job but my bud did/doesent have to pay him for"WATCHING"untill the amount of what was stolen equals the cost of what was ripped off!O.M.G.!
my advise is write this bull.chit off and get yerself a personal s.guard.
sounds to me like the cops want you to do their job,and YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET RECOMPENSED OR JUSTICE.
maybe.....just drop it and get a barring order that the guy cant come within
1km of yer property?

[mikeyone]

Difficult for Apartments, but worth the dog food ..

[Hillbilly]

Sorry to hear about your experiences. I think that the frustration and feeling of impotence just grinds into your psyche...yes, we've been hit a few times....and we caught two and pretty much think we know who the other one was.

Funny thing, when we got rid of our 'guachiman" the thievery stopped...

If you catch a thief, hit him a few times with a baseball bat, and tell the police he was trying to escape....

With tens of thousands of people out of jobs, we here in Santiago are expecting more and more of this type of thievery.

Dogs, yappy dogs...and perhaps a really BIG one as backup..

HB

[fightingirish]

Thanks for the notes of sympathy. The post alone helped me vent.

Im sure there are posters more deserving of sympathy, like that poor guy who was hog-tied with a pistol in his face.

But yeah, it's frustrating and yesterday certainly had me thinking of buying a one way ticket. Ireland anyone? Scotland, maybe?