Las Terrenas warning

lemunch · #1 03-08-2008, 06:49 AM

My girlfriend and I were held up at gunpoint two days ago in a house we had rented in Las Terrenas. We were living out of town, two kilometers down Abre Grande Road, in a small complex that supposedly had a 24-hour guard. The men entered through a window in the back of the house and held us up in the kitchen, then took us to the bedroom. They tried to tie me up but I wouldn't let them, then they pushed my girlfriend back on the on the bed with the gun in her mouth. They then went through all our things two or three times, seemingly taking their time. They somehow knew no one was coming.

When the man with the pistol opened the chamber to show me he had live rounds in the gun, the bullet fell out and he had to remove the clip to load it again. Right then we ran out the back door screaming for help. The guard was nowhere to be found, nor were all the maintenance workers who had been around before. The man with the pistol chased after us and fired at us 5 times. I saw the bullets hit the ground around us. We kept running to the landlord's house. Once there, the guard and maintenance men were unconcerned for some reason. We were screaming and they went about their business. We heard two more shots behind the neighbor's house and climbed a fence and kept running across a field. Then we heard one more and hid for a couple minutes then continued down the road to a construction site we had seen.

The police were kind but largely unhelpful. They found some of our things, nothing of value, on a road headed up into the mountains. But no one would go into the jungle where the thieves had gone. Now the matter seems to have been forgotten. We have not heard from the police or the landlord since. We lost 2 laptops worth $4,000 and $400 in cash plus watches, etc.

The objects and money are not important. What is is that everyone says there is no crime here and that this rarely happens. And yet everyone we have spoken too knows of this happening to someone - in the last year. These thieves were bold and took their time. We don't know what they would have done if we had not run. Maybe nothing. Maybe something awful. When we ran, they didn't just let us go and take our stuff. They chased after us and shot at us many times.

This was malicious, no doubt spurred by a ****ty political and economic situation. Nonetheless, it was malice and I think people moving here should know it exists and is acted upon often.

Adrian Bye · #2 03-08-2008, 06:59 AM

I've lived in Santiago for 6 years and never seen anything like this.

You said in previous posts your GF speaks proficient spanish. Is her spanish really that good? Surely the maintenance men and guards would have taken this very seriously.. I'm having trouble understanding why they wouldn't have responded instantly if they understood what was going on.

Celt202 · #3 03-08-2008, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adrianb

I've lived in Santiago for 6 years and never seen anything like this.

You said in previous posts your GF speaks proficient spanish. Is her spanish really that good? Surely the maintenance men and guards would have taken this very seriously.. I'm having trouble understanding why they wouldn't have responded instantly if they understood what was going on.

I'm not surprised that the maintenance men and guards could care less. I'd be surprised if they had acted heroically.

Most wachimen are window dressing.

lemunch · #4 03-08-2008, 07:27 AM

Maybe you have never had a gun pointed to your head. Any language is difficult in that situation. But perhaps the 5 shots fired 100 yards away would have been enough?

I understand that many people on this web site wish to downplay violence in the DR. But it would be irresponsible not to report this. I have reported the facts exactly as they took place. You draw whatever conclusions you want. I, in fact, like it here very much and wish this had never happened. But it did, and this account is not sensationalized in any way. If you want to take issue with that, then you can make up your own story.

Adrian Bye · #5 03-08-2008, 07:45 AM

I've only been to las terrenas once so i don't really know that part of the DR.

But I can tell you for 100% sure if I got shot at and told some people about it here (building security guard, others around), they would 100% take it seriously.

I have no interest in downplaying anything; I'm interested in the truth only and glad you told your story.

pelaut · #6 03-08-2008, 08:03 AM

"We were living out of town, two kilometers down Abre Grande Road, in a small complex that supposedly had a 24-hour guard. "

'complex' indicates other houses, other renters. What did they do?

You are correct in assuming the political/cultural situation enhances crime in the DR, but don't assume 'poverty', etc., is a root cause. The economy in the DR is the best I've seen it in 27 years. If anything, rising affluence, no matter how petty, permits the loss of social restraints fueled by affordable drugs.

pelaut · #7 03-08-2008, 08:15 AM

lemunch, not to worry. Your story is totally believeable. Let's hope they fired most of the shots in the air to keep you and anyone else around from coming back while they ransacked the house. That is Dominican.

BTW, for future reference, a "watchman" in the DR is very often just the guy you hire to sell tickets to theives.

Rocky · #8 03-08-2008, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemunch

I understand that many people on this web site wish to downplay violence in the DR. But it would be irresponsible not to report this.

The OP seems to think that we/DR1 downplay crimes and try to sweep them under the carpet, yet it is my opinion that we report them almost as much as the newspapers.
Considering that we/DR1 never professed to be a crime news rag, and that our members DO report virtually every crime we know of, I believe that the OP is was off base with that statement.
It's almost as if he/she would like to make us responsible for his/her false sense of security.
I don't know about you guys, but I ain't taking the blame and I don't see why DR1 should either.
Seems to me that in the last 6 months or so, there have been a multitude of posts about crime in Las Terrenas.
Perhaps the OP was a bit short on reading and a bit rich in imagination.

cocoleka · #9 03-08-2008, 09:15 AM

Dear Lemunch,

Thank you profusely for reporting this horrible event. I sincerely hope you and your girlfriend recover from this trauma and can put it behind you.

A question to you and everyone reading this:

If a watchman is not the answer in the DR, then how can we secure our homes and property? I need to know this since I am about to move near las Terrenas. Please give me your thoughts.

lemunch · #10 03-08-2008, 09:26 AM

Riiiight. I'm the girlfriend who speaks Spanish, and yelling 'los hombres tienen pistolas.' the neighbors were being somewhere between scared and corrupt and morons in the face of audible gunfire.