Crime- Living in Costa Rica - What to Do About It

all right guys I've said it I don't know maybe a million times but when it comes to Crime getting robbed there is a big difference from actually traveling you know coming on vacation to Costa Rica then there is actually living here I would say living in Costa Rica you need to be even more hyper Vigilant than you do traveling here we're going to get into all of it all of it now if you just happen upon this video and you want a vacation in Costa Rica visit Costa Rica but you haven't really traveled around maybe you you know this is your first time out of your country uh and you want to have a safe trip you don't have to want to worry about your passport getting stolen I would recommend watching that video which I'll have the link to the description but this video is more about living here and dealing with the crime that is here and we're going to get to all of that in a minute hey guys I'm Michael Allen for travel Costa ricanow.com travel Costa ricanow.com is a travel agency to go to travel Costa ricanow.com fill out the four minute form and you'll be that much closer to Vacation of a lifetime but like you having best friends who live in Costa Rica who know Costa Rica totally hooking up your Costa Rica vacation hey if you haven't subscribed please do really helps and if you want to see videos as we put them up hit the notification Bell I'm telling you nobody's putting out these kind of videos I think you're going to hear some things you probably haven't heard before might even piss you off a little bit I'm not sure but man hit that notification Bell oh it's like that April Fools got some of you didn't I okay you know we've been hearing a lot you guys live in the United States have been hearing a lot about the crime and has usually it's pertaining to travel it you know it's level two or you know there's more drugs here uh blah blah blah but I just want to make a huge distinction again I think you can travel here with you know Common Sense and you're not going to have a problem have a great time living here is a different matter and you better be hyper Vigilant and there's definitely some things you need to know if you're thinking about living in Costa Rica so I for this video I want you to assume that crime is a rampant because I'm not debating this anymore with you for those people that go I mean I know the way that happened to me and Costa Rica is a cesspool of drugs and robberies okay yes you're right you're right so let's go with that I would put I would put forth a hypothesis that 98 of the things that happen as it pertains to getting robbed and crime even with living here don't have to happen they don't have to happen now yes there's always that just that small percentage of Randomness which is going to happen anywhere and I definitely don't want to victim victim shame but I do want a kind of victim responsibility a little bit so a lot of things just don't have to happen if you're walking home at three am in the morning and you're a little drunk you might get robbed if you didn't do that you wouldn't get robbed so kind of that kind of responsibility and that pertains to actually living here too now I would say every Gringo every Gringo that lives here um I would say has been let's say has had something taken at least once it could be lumber from your construction site you know dollar bill sitting on your counter uh you you know your phone bigger items maybe all kinds of stuff I would say almost every Green on that would include me I'm not pointing fingers but I can tell you that almost that everything that has happened to me has pretty much kind of been my fault to be honest I'm not going to get into all those stories because there's a few of them and it's easy to blame I can totally see why people go oh I got you know they took my money in Costa Rica or I lived in Costa Rica for two years and I got robbed three times that's a little easy to say and if you got robbed three times I bet I can find the reason you did tell you to be honest with you so I think unless you're going to take responsibility you know take a little bit of personal responsibility not that you should be getting robbed okay can we get off that premise but we live in the you know 2023 you know and Beyond society's changed so we're not going to change that we can only change what we do so you got to take some personal responsibility if you want things to change and the other thing the reason you're going to take personal responsibility here is because the police aren't going to do anything nothing zero okay do you think I'm just saying that is that hyperbole it is not I'm sure people that comment on this video go well I didn't agree with some of the stuff he was saying but he was right about the police now I've said this a million times too I actually like that now I know a lot of people you know that they're not you know we're not all the same right I have I got no problem with taking the Law into my own hands if I know the person that ripped me off I ain't calling nobody I got it but I get it some of you maybe you're older you know you don't do that or you're nice or whatever you want you know real Justice I get it I'm just not quite I'm not I'm not like that but if you are like that and you expect you know the police are going to be are working for you here and you're going to get Justice here by the police you will be sadly mistaken and extremely frustrated so that right out of the gate put the police not going to help not gonna help now here's in just a few of the things and now these connects really expand so one of the things who do you let in your house who is coming in your house that can be the maid that can be maybe you live alone like me and you know sometimes you help some people come over if you know what I mean um who are you associating with who are you associating with when you go out are you a drinker are you a drinker like me are you hanging out with baby some unsavory characters sometimes or some of these people uh becoming your friends are you making bad decisions when you're drinking or maybe you do a little drugs or whatever it is you do now you don't have to do the drinking or the drugs you know but again who are you letting in your house um who are you trusting who are you trusting just to who you who you uh telling your personal stuff to um are you one of those people that you're just super nice and it's kind of easy almost hard not to take advantage of you are you one of those people if you are you got to recognize that fact do you flan do you flaunt your money your lifestyle you flaunt when you go to the after you go to the ATM or you like it the bar going yeah I got some money for tonight and of course flipping all the 20s or something so some of those things those are huge especially the ones who you let in your house because we're going to get into it in a a minute but I would say most of the stuff that happens is is is inside job stuff but um so who who's ripping you off what's going to happen if you actually live here who's coming in your house who's doing it so here where I live on the opportunity this is a tourist town we do have uh there's definitely the whole crack thing is on the rise here a little bit with the onslaught of uh of the pandemic and all that definitely more people a little bit out of work you see the Riff Raff a little bit more you know we have a more than a few after hours clubs so sometimes you got random druggies crackheads drunks Roman three in the morning they're out of their head and they just you know if your door was unlocked they would come in you know what I mean those guys and there's I'm saying again they're not around every corner but remember for this video they're around every corner they're around every quarter so those are those are the people you know they're around so you got to watch for those just drunks and drug addicts because they're just out of their head and they just don't care they they can be looking at a an alarm system and I'm still coming in your house type of type of person now like I said a lot of it's inside job stuff but not how you necessarily think of an inside job an inside job could be a very trusted made a very trusted you you know she's been cleaning your house you like her she's like family but you know she's in conversation with their family and she goes oh I love working for Michael he's so nice he's got such nice stuff he's got this you know his nice house man he's got a cool safe too man I don't know you know just people could just be talking then all of a sudden it's a friend's cousin sister's brother hears it and it's like hey man that's Gringo what's his name Michael we should check out that house so when I say inside job I'm not necessarily saying the maid I'm saying maybe it's an associative associate of a friend of another friend that heard some stuff about you saw you at the ATM saw you at the saw you at the bar talking [ __ ] you know it can happen that kind of way too so that's what I mean when I say Inside Job again and also that party atmosphere you know um you're out and about you know a lot of things get let's just go with this a lot of things can happen at two in the morning you know you're around you are in the element if you weren't in that element if you were home sleeping you wouldn't have that story not again not saying you should be ripped off so uh and then that whole there is I and I do I've have heard a couple of these stories there is that following people home waiting for you to get home thing so yes that that does happen I I know it does I had had friends that that has happened to so those are kind of the main ones not saying there's not others those would be the the main thing now we're going to take a little hike outside I'm gonna go over some of the things that you should be thinking about doing to help yourself because you know there's a thief around every corner in Costa Rica okay you know we're high tech here so we're not even going to edit this we're just gonna going outside I want to show you a few things hey let's get off my mug though jeez all right you guys gonna be proud of me proud of me the first thing you're going to want to do is secure your home check these out I just got this and I got one on that door as well outside security gate double locks now I didn't really get these because I was afraid of somebody really breaking in I just have some really cheap ass doors you could literally probably just crash this door by putting your fist to it so um that's why I got those uh I don't have motion lights but all my neighbors have been here quite a long time these people here leave on their backlight here these people leave on their light so I don't have to leave on my light obviously you should think about cameras and again the more you have to protect the more you might want to think about having I do not have cameras I've been thinking about getting one now again I don't I don't really have I don't really have anything and since I live kind of I'm not flashy obviously I ride around an orange bike most people know about me with my little white t-shirts and stuff so um they're like that Gringo don't get nothing and and actually I don't at least not enough to really take your time to break in uh you'd also want to think about your border your perimeter now you can see I've got some that's barbed wire there pretty high thing right there but there's a house on the other side I've got actually a high wall there going up because there's another apartment place there now a lot of people that have you know have a lot nicer houses they I think it's hibiscus they use but they'll crisscross hibiscus and it'll be a natural big fence where they'll put things with thorns out there or they'll just kind of privatize their property which is uh you definitely would want to do if you have a nicer place and most people with nicer places uh do now I since I live in the back here which I really like most people don't want to venture into unknown territory if they're going to break in they usually would pick a um well not always I guess but I just feel like they don't really want to go somewhere like in the back where they're uncomfortable all right um you should know about dogs they do not they're scared of dogs here man they are scared of dogs they don't like them so a dog's always going to be a good a bet um know your neighbor you may you don't have to hang out necessarily but you should know your neighbors they should know when you're leaving you should probably notify them when you're leaving um and if you've got like one of those nicer places I would probably say you should get a house sitter somebody that can watch your house or at least a neighbor that can really be hyper Vigilant in watching yourself uh or watching your house for you but again if you're going to be gone for a long period of time um I definitely think about a house sitter I think I got my bars painted too I still have an ugly house but I did get my bars painted here in the front so I feel pretty good about that now I would never I wouldn't really get a house sitter because once I double lock these you know you're just not going to come in here and break in again this is a little cheap Tico house most people wouldn't I think take the time they're probably thinking and they're thinking correctly there's not a whole lot in here maybe a computer and they always tend to steal little things that they can carry real quick even TVs aren't that big to steal here anymore it would be something little like jewelry or stuff like that now I've always been I'm gonna I think I've said this before never gone anywhere without this now I've never okay I've been I've been carrying a knife for years I've never pulled the knife all right so there's a big difference I'm a machete guy so this is by my door I would have no problem cutting off somebody's hand um so I think what was I gonna say I think the other thing is you've got to have you know I would have no problem now some people I've been asked this a lot of times like what about guns can I get a gun down there I actually know you can't I mean guns are really difficult it's possible but uh you can't actually just bring them in now I again like the reason I don't care about the police that much and you might and I would definitely not tell you to do this if I had a lot if I had a large property a an expensive property will say I would get a gun and no it probably wouldn't be legal I would just get a gun because I'm not going out on my knees if you know what I mean so um I would get a gun again I'm not telling you to do that I'm just saying what I do but the other thing is you know it's just maybe an aura also of how uh how you are too you know again if you're just you know you invite all the you know the riff raff in your house and they just know you as a nice person or maybe you're a pushover um I just I think I've always had like an aura around me that I'm not a I'm older now I don't wanna I don't wanna tussle you know I don't really want to tussle but I think people think probably right rightfully so that it might be a might have at least one screw loose and they might be uh uh asking for a little bit more than they bargained for I wouldn't again I just wouldn't go I wouldn't go out with you know on my knees I guess we're gonna say so but I think if you do all those things bars on your windows motion lights cameras a secure border a dog you know know your neighbor use a house center you know and you know what if you really got some money in property maybe you get a fake safe maybe you have two safes have one safe and when they open it there's a bunch of old books in there and you just say these are just collectors items these are worth this is my passion this is what I have and then you have another safe with all your real valuables in it there's all kinds of ways you shouldn't you shouldn't get your valuables even if even at gunpoint you know if they came in your house and you didn't have the dog you didn't have anything you could at least have a fake you know uh like fake books or fake baseball cards that go yeah these are worth thousands you know they take them and then your other stuff is hidden even better in another uh hidden safe or something so there's a lot of things you can do and again if you do all these things or even most of these things it's just not gonna happen it might happen by like I said that person come in your house and maybe you what it normally let in but there's you know and then they go in your bathroom and they take your cologne yes that kind of stuff I can accept that that's cool you can take Michael load if you want so what I would love to hear is man um oh and you could also if you've really got a big house you know put your safe room in to a Jody Foster or whatever that movie was called so you know there's a lot of ways that it just doesn't have to happen and if you've got one of the big houses I would say it's going to either be inside job stuff or somebody following you home or waiting for you home because they know um they know what you have or they know who you are or if you lead they know who you are and they know you're gone those are probably the biggest things to watch out for you got to be Super Hyper Vigilant so please man leave your comments what did I miss what don't you agree with whatever you want to do please comment because I think it helps everybody because there's really not there's really not a person around every corner though I might have been lying about that anyway guys I'm Michael Allen tropicana.com peace guys hope it helps if you're thinking about living or traveling anywhere you should always do your homework and research it and if it's Costa Rica I'm gonna see my videos ciao

Channel: Travel Costa Rica NOW

Views: 7,025

Keywords: Costa Rica, living in Costa Rica, living abroad, living overseas, international living, expats in Costa Rica, expat life, Travel Costa Rica Now, michael alan, crime, crime prevention, bars on the windows, barbed wire, common sense, how to protect yourself, alarm system, cameras, police in Costa Rica, personal responsibility, travel in Costa Rica, relocation retreat, seminar, relocation tour, friends and neighbors, house sitting

Id: lF5oPV_mu-E

Length: 18min 46sec (1126 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 08 2023