Robberies

We have lived here now for over 20 years & as long as you take precautions it is a safe area.
But this last week alone there have been 4 House Robberies in Calle De Santander within 50 Meters of each other.
The robbers either enter through the wooden front doors by digging the Metal grills out of the wall & then smashing through the wood Doors, Or where strong metal security doors are fitted they enter through the windows by removing the metal Grills, i think they must use Car Jacks as they are removed quite quietly, & then just lifting the Roller shutters up & forcing the glass windows.
They must use transport to take away TV's etc & i would guess they would use a team of 3, one as a driver to drop 2 off, 2 to break in & then in the daytime one watches the front gate out of the front windows while the other ransacks the place, bagging up the loot.
My neighbour opposite me was only shopping for a short time & when she came back she unlocked her gates to drive her car in, She must have been seen by the robbers as they abandoned bags of loot & were gone, as was all her Jewelry etc.
They probably phoned the driver to pick them up.
As nobody was seen lurking outside or any parked nearby cars, their driver probably just drove around untill called back.
This last part is conjecture, but i cannot see how else they could do it, walking down the road with a Tv or even parking a strange car outside your neighbours house would look suspicious.
Would it not be an idea to have a thread on this site to report robberies & suspicious vehicles.
Lastly the Rojales Police phone No' did not work!!! I had to phone 112, but the Girl was very good & quickly found someone who spoke English, the Police however took some time to call, probably due to the amount of local Robberies.

Ive put this on before, sorry to repeat myself and be fussy (again) but these are burglars and burglaries not robbers and robberies.

I'm just wondering if having high garden walls are counter productive as it doesn't really slow the Robbers/Burglars/Thieves much as they just jump over it, but then gives them cover to force the grills open and sort the gate lock from the inside.

linkwater wrote:I'm just wondering if having high garden walls are counter productive as it doesn't really slow the Robbers/Burglars/Thieves much as they just jump over it, but then gives them cover to force the grills open and sort the gate lock from the inside.

I've often wondered this but it's hard to tell. With walls there may possibly be less opportunist burglaries as the thieves can't just walk around looking into those properties for an open door/ grill or window but for a planned burglary it coukd be an ideal cover.
Sorry to hear this and it may be just coincidence but the last few weeks in our area of the UK (Surrey,near London) I have heard of a few break-ins, 2 of them were our friends houses and one of them said that 4 houses either side were targeted on blatant nightime burglaries while the owners were sleeping. This pattern of break-ins is rare in the areas around us in the UK as this kind of thing is usually few and far between. Our two sets of friends, who live in different areas around us, both separately mentioned one possible link and that was building work going on around them. There does seem to be more building work for extentions these days than ever before.
Thanks for sharing, wobblypete. It is very worrying. This burglary does sound well planned!
I have put this topic into the Safety and Security forum and any topics like this can be accessed in that forum from the home page with the most recent at the top. If we put them all onto one topic they could get lost amongst the others.
Here's the safety security forum link:
safety-security-information-and-property-in-spain-hints-and-tips-f78/

They do say nothing will stop the most determined thief but a burglar alarm may have helped in this instance as at least they would not have entered as 'quietly'.

Jan

There is a very active Neighbourhood watch in the area where many crimes are reported. They have a facebook page and meeting in Quesada. I am a coordinator for our urbanization and I know that they would be very interested in having more.
https://www.facebook.com/Rojales-Neighbourhood-Watch-

It is always advised that you ring 112, not the police. You will get better service that way as they will assign the best people to assist. Don`t forget we have National Police, The Guardia Civil and also the Policia Local.... ringing 112 with ensure they put you through to the correct place.

The 112 number is to be used not just as an emergency number as in the UK, but for many other things, abandoned cars and, grass fires etc...

mondo wrote:There is a very active Neighbourhood watch in the area where many crimes are reported. They have a facebook page and meeting in Quesada. I am a coordinator for our urbanization and I know that they would be very interested in having more.
https://www.facebook.com/Rojales-Neighbourhood-Watch-

It is always advised that you ring 112, not the police. You will get better service that way as they will assign the best people to assist. Don`t forget we have National Police, The Guardia Civil and also the Policia Local.... ringing 112 with ensure they put you through to the correct place.

The 112 number is to be used not just as an emergency number as in the UK, but for many other things, abandoned cars and, grass fires etc...

if the people Burgled didn't have centrally connected Alarms I do think it is a Deterrent. I don't think the Police would get there quick enough but it's got to help. Always ring 112. Did it years ago when the house next door was being broken into during th night and the Guardia came quickly in an unmarked car. The Burglars knew we had rumbled them and scarpered before the police came but they didn't get in. Put pegs on the bottom of the shutters to stop them being pushed up. Try it.
We put a dummy Alarm Box on our first place and it's still there 19 years later.
I know people are watched. It's too much of a coincidence. Easier these days with Mobile phones as well.
It's always been blamed on Builders but who knows?u

If it's the roller type shutters there are strong clip in 'locks' that can be bought at Ferreteria stores. They look like large bulldog clips and work very well without keys as a secondary defence on the window shutters.

Good grills, window locks and shutter blind locks make good deterrents (as well as the obvious things like alarms) as the longer and harder it is for them to get in has got to help and could even make them give up.

Jan

Hola

With security in mind I have recently been looking for extra locks for our patio window, shutter and grill. We had the front door replaced with a PVC door as a matter of course and extra security when we bought the apartment nearly two years ago.

We have an upstairs apartment and hope that no one would try to jump up and over but I know from past experience that a break in is very upsetting and wouldnt want to be another statistic.

As I have been looking for extra locks I got confused and never bought anything - it would be helpful if more information or photos of locks used or found to do the job as 'it say's on the tin' would be very helpful, I find that there are too many to choose from. Any help would be much appreciated.

One other question - grills - is it adviseable to drill more bolts to anchor the thing to the wall - a jack has been mentioned in forcing them, so reinforcing the grill, would this slow them down ?

Lolly

Johnprattatlocrispin wrote:Ive put this on before, sorry to repeat myself and be fussy (again) but these are burglars and burglaries not robbers and robberies.

I know what i call them & it's neither Robbers or Burglars!

I used the term "Robbers" as Readers with poor English of which i believe there are many are more likely to understand the term