Liberia, CR - bag stolen
If you're in Liberia the next week or so and someone tries to sell you a blue women's Gregory 70 pack, or a t-shirt with Abe Lincoln sporting Wolverine blades, know that they were stolen! Just a warning to be more careful than we were - we left our car for 10 min while looking at a hotel and someone jimmied the back lock of our rental and took one of our bags. Make sure you get a hotel with secure parking if you're staying in the city, and make sure someone stays with the car at all times if you have valuables in it. And beware that the trunk doors of Suzuki Jimmies are apparently very easy to break into, because they have exterior lock panels that can be popped, as opposed to just a keyhole.Not trying to frighten anyone or badmouth Costa Ricans, just want our situation to provide that extra nudge to be careful with your belongings when you travel.
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Yeah Salamanca, I'm pretty sure that was the whole point of her message to fellow travelers. It certainly doesn't help a situation like that having people respond with information they were trying to provide in the first place and chastising them.And as to your other point, yes I absolutely would leave a bag in a locked car in America for 10 minutes. In broad daylight on a busy street, no one would have the balls or desperation to jimmy a lock on a car and steal valuables. Bystanders actually take action to stop this sort of thing.
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The mindset HAS to be that you leave nothing of interest visible- not a cheap pair of sunglasses or a few loose coins because it will cost a load more to repair the damage caused to the car by the break-in. I left a small bag once (although it was still mostly tucked away under a seat) because it had nothing more than a raggedy pair of flip-flops and a tatty sarong in it. Trouble is the broken window plus the two slashed tyres cost me a fortune!. After that I never once left a single item where it could be seen and I was never broken into again...4
bollygirl: what part of liberia did this happen? if you feel comfortable doing so, tell us the name of the hotel you were looking at and we'll know what part of town.i lived near liberia for a number of years and was in town many, many times. i have left stuff in my car while it was parked on the street and was never robbed. of course, i never left anything in view that had any value - which is also what i do when visiting the us.
it could be that you were targeted as tourists, of course.
also, a "good" thief can jimmy open a trunk or door and grab the stuff and be gone before bystanders can say..."Whaaa???" probably less than 10 seconds. not only that, but i'm a pretty big guy and i would not interfere in a robbery unless someone's life was threatened.
thanks for posting your experience. let's hope it will be a warning to others.
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At # 2 : that depends on where you live in the US. It is a vast and rather complex country with huge regional differences.No intention on my part to 'chastise the OP' but a lot of people seem to leave their normal caution and common sense behind, when travelling to Costa Rica. It all seems so laid back, pura vida! The same people would be a lot more careful when in vacationing in London or Amsterdam, for instance...it' s wise to be just as careful in Central America.
Boomer is absolutely right. Also, you should be aware that the criminal element recognizes the white Suzuki Jimmy from afar as it' s the most popular rental car, they target you as rich tourist. Sorry, but true.
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We were parked by the Copa de Oro. The irony being that we have traveled by chicken bus many times in CA, but did not transfer some of our caution on public transport to traveling by car. And I understood that I would be chastized for posting, which is why I wanted to do so in case there are other travelers out there who can learn from our misfortune. We get that we made a mistake. We just want to warn others not to make the same one.Also, both our hotel owner and the police were helpful and took the robbery seriously. We don't expect to recover the bag, but we are glad we filed a report all the same.
(And for the record, our Suzuki isn't white.)
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yeah, i know where that is. i do think you were targeted. i've parked in that area before and walked into the center of town and it's not a bad area.i'm really glad that you took the time to file a police report. i read all the time in the newspapers about thieves being found due to good information from victims. thank you for that.
and again, thanks for posting about your experience. i find that many people do not read older posts and so miss out on the 1000 posts telling people not to leave anything in their cars.
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Yeah, well done on filing the police report. Even notorious areas often get little police presence and when somebody important or connected becomes a victim and files an official investigation as to why there are so few police, the police can counter by showing that there are hardly any actual reports!.....it took years for Tamarindo to get an official slug of tourist police for this very reason....11
as a kind of side comment --- i have written several times about the improvement in the crime situation in costa rica. in today's newspapers, the results of a recently conducted poll of costa rican citizens shows that they are now more concerned about unemployment and job opportunities than crime, which is on the decrease. i attribute a lot of this improvement to mario zamora, the security minister. it isn't really obvious unless you put together all the bits and pieces, but his work with other countries to get supplies and money donated as well as prosecuting crooked cops, training more police, etc, has gone a long way towards improving the situation.
