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I completely agree with David on this one.
I have been here 2 years. I came alone as a 66 year old woman and have had two robberies – a borrowed GPS system I left in my car (which wasn’t at all prudent) and my garden hose left outside near the street. I live in a small rural area outside a large city, San Isidro de El General – in a Tico house that looks the same as all my neighbors. I do have a fence to keep my dogs in – and they are also wonderful deterrents to any potential crime. Ticos, in general, do not want to approach a large dog. My sweet German Shepherd is protective by her appearance.
I feel more safe here than I have ever felt in the United States cities – and I lived in Seattle, Wa and near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Be prudent, lock your doors, get a big dog and enjoy this mostly wonderful country with its mostly wonderful people.
My advice. Plan on NEVER leaving your property unattended.
Nearly everyone I know has been ripped off. Ticos and gringos alike.
Due to the lack of law enforcement and the inability for teachers to ” correct” them, there are many youth in this country that are raging idiots.They use the $500 rule to their advantage.[quote=”bushito”]Please stay where you are,it is havean,noone ask you to leave your country.ticos hate people like you.jm[/quote]
nice english pal something tells me your spanish is not much better…….maybe you can come and clean my toilets?
I’ll pay you no problem, need a job? I’ll bet yes.We moved here in 2004. Crime has increased most recently with the worldwide worsening of the economy. That being said, my partner was robbed at an ATM once, now they have a guard. The house is in a non-gated community but the neighbors pay a guard service. I have not been a victim of robbery except from someone I thought I knewand that was a camera that “disappeared” from the house. So I agree with the advice of being prudent and careful at all times. I walk in Central San Jose almost daily and have never been threatened or assaulted. If I walk at night it is down the well lit pedestrian mall and I walk with purpose. Tourists with open maps and cameras can be targets. I only wear a simple necklace from the beach, no flashy jewelry. So as many have said, would they do it again, knowing the safety “situation”, yes, certainly.
I am Canadian from Toronto and have been living in Costa Rica for 4 years before needing to return to Toronto. I do not live in a gated community and I have never been the victim of crime. I have returned to Toronto a year ago and left the building virtually empty for a year. We have not had a break-in. By the way, we live in Alajuela near the airport. Even though we had rented our place to a Canadian, who against our agreement, had left the garage door open while they went out (for 2 hours at a time), we still didn’t have a break-in. However, you must take precautions. In our case we pay a guard to drive past our house about every half hour to ensure that all is well – that is how we know that the garage had been left open for 2 hours plus.
No doubt, there are plenty of thefts of convenience. If you leave a purse in your car, especially with the window open, don’t be surprised to see it running down the street. Take necessary precautions and all is well.Just like everyone has said, no matter where you live in the would you must be aware of your surroundings. I live about a six or 7 hour drive from you in Canada and I CAN”T WAIT to move to Costa Rica. We bought property there a few years ago and have been there several times and have had no issues with crime. We plan on moving there within a few years. What is stopping me from going right now? As I am only 34 I need to make sure by businesses here are running well and making enough money to support us while we live there. My daughter is 12 so I need to make the right decision about which one of the great schools there she will be attending. Also we all need to learn some Spanish. I feel no matter who you are and where you live, if you are moving to another country, you should have at least a good base of the language they speak. So within a year or two we will be there and I can’t wait.
We have been talking about general street crimes.
How about organized crime in partnership with local corrupt municipalities?
Day to day crime is mostly taken care of by being aware and careful.
How do you deal with organized crime working with corrupt municipalities?
How do you hold on to your land and sanity, when these people have an in with every one from the mayor to the forestry division?
The very same people who killed Max Dalton over a land dispute years ago.
Which resulted in a travelers advisory to the whole southern pacific zone.
They are still doing all that they can to get all the land possible.
This it would seem would be easier to fix than regular street crime.
These people hurt all of Costa Rica when they cut down large numbers of trees,
and corrupt the local municipalities with their ill-gotten money.
I have heard stories, and can tell my own.
Who in the government of Costa Rica, can fix this black mark on an otherwise beautiful country?
Disorganized crime is one thing, organized crime is another.
I would think that both would be a priority, with organized crime of this sort being the easiest and quickest to eliminate. How do you get the “real” government of Costa Rica to take action?
❓[quote=”DavidCMurray”]” How do you get the “real” government of Costa Rica to take action?”
Well, what’s your solution?[/quote]
I sure wish I had one, or two.
Prevention is the cure! #1 Do your home work enough so that you are able to steer clear of bad situations.
I had my tire slashed while stopped at traffic light, and noticed the person do it. Fortunately I had heard about the scam where this guys partners stop to “help” change the tire. So I drove as far away as I could down the highway and into the driveway of a automotive shop. Between the shop and the highway I changed the tire, with all the doors locked on the rental car. No one approached me. Yes driving on the flat tire thrashed it, but with a knife hole in the side wall it didn’t matter.
I will never stop at that light in the right lane again.
Prevention #1 learn about the most common scams, then be aware and use common sense. There are sections on crime in guide books read them.
As far as the organized crime solution goes, I don’t know. It would seem that the main government would have an interest in cleaning up this type of crime, as it hurts all of Costa Rica. Tarnishing the good/safe name that Costa Rica has. My solution, since I failed at the #1 solution of prevention, is to get this situation into the courts, where hopefully these people don’t have any influence. Beyond that I don’t know. These people are greedy, selfish, have money, and don’t care about all the other people who live in Costa Rica… so now who is the “gringo”?
American Embassy might be a place to find out who to talk to? Eyes and ears open!!!
“Take care” in the fullest sense!
Almost “pura vida”:shock:On a Saturday morning with no imminent chores, I started thinking about crime in Costa Rica and how it causes some degree of anxiety in current and future visitors and residents [me included]. So I did a bit of web searching, and came up with some interesting statistics [acknowledging that statistics can show what you want them to show].
For Costa Rica, the homcide rate was 8.5 per 100,000 people in 2007 [the most recent year shown]. The source is:
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/costa-rica [under Gun Death?number of homicides, any method]
My comparison is to U.S. cities with populations over 250,000, for the year 2009, for “murder and non-negligent manslaughter”. The source is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate. The numbers, given as ‘per 1000’ were extrapolated to ‘per 100,000. So, these cities in 2009 had a higher murder rate than Costa Rica in 2007:
Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati,Columbus,Dallas, Fresno,Greensboro(NC), Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville(FL), Kansas City, Long Beach(CA), Louisville(KY), Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Newark, Oakland(CA), Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Stockton(CA), Toledo, Tulsa, WashingtonDC.
Some surprises:
–the most dangerous U.S. city is New Orleans (52 per 100,000)
–New York (6) is less dangerous than Costa Rica (8.5)
I suspect for 2009 Costa Rica might be a bit higher, mostly because of the uptick in drug violence, but still, it’s preferable than many urban areas in the U.S. Is there any major point? No, but information for the curious.If you are worried about crime, do not move to the U.S. I live part-time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; know to tourist as The City of Brotherly Love. However, we who live in Philadelphia, call it Killadelphia, with three or four murders, a day. I live part-time in a gated community in Guancaste, with 24 hour armed guard protection, home alarm and neighbors with several dogs. I am also retired military, with combat experience. I feel much safer for myself and my wife in Costa Rica. Petty theft, is the crime of choice in Costa Rica, and home invasions in isolated instances. In short, Costa Rica is safer than the U.S. and Canada.
We are checking into retirement in Costa Rica but do not wanted to live in a gated community. We would like to live in the cooler areas of the country and not on the coast.
In choosing a area to live that has reasonable rent and a reputation of fairly safe what towns would anyone recomend to us to check out. Also what would we do if we left for a couple weeks to prevent a robbery…Thanks for any information
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