More about crime in Boquete

[Lee Zeltzer]

There is very little crime in Boquete. In four years here I have never heard of a random assault on the streets in Boquete, not one.

In the past several months, since the comments made about burglaries, I have heard about two more in Las Trancas and one inside theft in another location.  A local group has posted a reward of $250 for information about those burglaries.  The word is out that if you commit a crime in Boquete there will be a price on your head and that seems to be helping to discourage problems. We now have out local equivalent of 911, 6477-6662 a free, donation supported, emergency number.

There will be a workshop by Alto al Crimen on July 17 at the BCP event center to help people reduce the risks to their homes and themselves. The community is taking action, the police have been very cooperative and have made recent arrests in the previous assault in Las Trancas and an a inside theft of coins in another house.

Crime in Boquete is going to happen, but it is rare and as long as the community acts intelligently it will be contained and criminals will go to jail.

This is not Panama City, nor is it Costa Rica, things are far worse in both locations.

[Karen Kennedy]

Thank you for being such great monitors on here. Now maybe there will be some pleasant blogs!!

[Jeff Simon]

We have lived in Boquete (5 minutes from town) for over four years and we consider it to be a VERY SAFE PLACE TO LIVE, with violent crime almost unheard of. The actual number of burglaries has been low but it gets blown out of proportion because each crime in reported multiple times on various Boquete internet sites. You do not hear about vandalism and everyone knows that the burglars are primarily after three things: cash, jewelry and laptop/notebook computers. If you do not have a laptop computer, do not keep large amounts of cash in your home and have a safety deposit box for your expensive jewelry (or very creative hiding places) you should not suffer a large loss, even if you are burglarized.

If a person takes logical steps to prevent crime, they are unlikely to be burglarized. Doing simple things like locking all your door and windows when you leave your home, and having a security system (can be purchased and installed for well under $500) can go a long way towards preventing being burglarized. There are many easy and inexpensive things that can be done to make your home a HARD TARGET. Just as an example, having security pins in all windows and sliding glass doors, makes it more difficult for them to be defeated. You can also have dead bolt locks on all exterior and interior doors and use security sticks to make it difficult for your exterior doors to be kicked in.

It also helps if your comings and goings are not highly predictable. In sum, if you use lots of common sense and take simple, inexpensive precautions, you drastically lower your chances of being victimized. You can also take steps to insure that if someone does break into your house, your loss will be minimal. Good luck out there!

[Richard Kongable]

Don't worry about Cindy coming to Boquete. This is just an alias for Klee Rogers, a Canadian with a negative Panamanian experience of his own making, who now lives in British Columbia. He's just yanking your chains, and will probably blog using numerous aliases like he does on Chiriqui_Libre and other Yahoo Groups. He even made a new group to complain about Volcan and Panama. He's a troll.

[Ken Thompson]

He had me fooled! I bet he is laughing unstoppably at all our comments. He has way too much time on his hands!

[Miguelito]

From now on, if a whiner gets on here just assume it is Klees..ignore the posting and lets all keep ourselves involved in more positive discussions.

[Stephane d'Ursel]

And don't forget the noise !
As i already told you, steel glasses (cup) work very well, as well as Corona bottles which split into pieces...bad for the bad guy if he is barefoot...

[Forrest Hawkins]

I missed the post about noise. It sounds like I would like to read it. Can someone point me to it?
Thanks.

[Keith Woolford]

Well said, Lee. Having travelled a fair bit in Central America, spending 10 years in C.R., and lots of time in Panama City, I feel Boquete, Panama is a great place to live safely and comfortably.

[Karen Kennedy]

Having lived here for three years we have to agree with you Keith 100%!!! Boquete is awesome! And Lee is right on, too!

[Ken Thompson]

Thank you Lee for the up beat message. For a while there, it seemed that places were being broken into one right after another. I am so glad that people are working together. Just an idea...do the police need people to help them pay for tires for their vehicles or other ways in which the community can help the police do their job? Does the government pay for these things or can the community thank them in some way that will be helpful to them?

Pattie from Oregon