Protecting your home in Costa Rica! (with crime on the rise 😖)

hey guys welcome to the channel this is Sarah Elena and today I'm very excited I have Rob radage here and if this is your first video of mine um we help people move to Costa Rica so we have a relocation program we take you step by step we hold your hands the whole process before during and after and you know one thing I like to do is connect people to good reputable sources in the community and especially when I see needs pop up or just something comes up that's people really seem to need help with so I love having these kind of interviews because I feel like I always learn something really new I get to meet someone um really incredible who does live down here in the country and then I get to introduce you to them as well so you can hear from them and their knowledge too which I think hey knowledge is power and today we're going to be talking about kind of home security in Costa Rica um because it has been on more hotter topic recently and I think people know I'm pretty honest like there can there can be home invasions down here just like anywhere in the world but I think it for me it's not something that will deter me from moving out of the country and you know I personally don't feel unsafe but I think it's always helpful to learn of what you can do to protect yourself preventative measures that you can take and even if you're not moving to Costa Rica you know maybe you can still use some of these tips wherever you are so yeah Rob is an expert in this field and one of my clients actually sent me his information said oh my gosh you have to talk to him he's amazing so I'm really thankful that you're here and that you're going to be sharing with us and I guess just maybe start off telling us about you and how you ended up down here and you know where you're living down there in the southern Zone and what kind of got you started down this I guess you've been in this field so I guess just give us a little bit of a background first yeah all right uh well thanks for having me on um it's exciting to be here and be able to share this with you um so my personal experience uh I have 20 years as a police officer in North America uh in Canada specifically um as a police officer I worked in a lot of investigative units one of them being the residential break and Enter unit which gave me the first real in-depth look that what's happening with people breaking into houses did a lot of investigative work in the criminal investigation Bureau I worked homicide missing person Bureau for a couple years in criminal intelligence you're working on organized crime on top of that I've got my my masters in public safety so I've got a pretty in-depth background on on law enforcement and security um so that brought us to um to why I'm here now so my family and I moved down to oh it's all about six months ago we're still kind of settling in and it's uh got its ups and downs um but um when people start finding out that you're a police officer and you have this sort of experience whenever there's an incident of crime uh my phone tends to beep um quite often with you know did you hear about this what do you think about this crime that happened um and the big question right now on everybody's mind is what can I do to you know make my house safer to or to make it safer for me and my family so um with that I decided you know there's probably a good way that I can share my expertise with with people and work with people that have existing homes and how to make those home safer or the design process people that are designing homes right now or building and what we can do to implement security strategies now and save yourself a lot of time and money in the end trying to retro fit your house after and personal safety I get a lot of those questions about how do you make yourself safer when you're out in public you're at the beach so let's uh that's what I'm here for now is to uh to try and help people um just feel safer with with where they're living yeah and and so you moved did you move in down here like with the goal to retire and then this just kind of came up and it sparked your interest um yeah we kind of moved down here with the uh the thought of um what's next you know after just over 20 years of policing um you know you you start thinking of the bigger picture of like okay you know I've got this expertise what what can I do with it uh and especially when you're not living in Canada you know what can my law enforcement background do for me um and how can it help because um you know you serve a community for for 20 odd years it kind of becomes ingrained in you of continuing to help people um whether you know you're carrying a badge or not that's something you you learn to do and it becomes a part of you so figured come down here and you know use my skills to uh to help everybody else absolutely and like I know we don't know each other too well like you know I do help people move but like my goal is I always want to give people like complete information I don't like sugar coating things like I'm not here to convince people to move to Costa Rica I just want if they're gonna do that I want them to like have that realistic expectation of what to expect so maybe you know obviously this is a topic that's coming up because I'm seeing in the in the groups that there has been an increase of crime what do you I know you know might the types of crime may vary from place to place but I guess what are you commonly seeing down there and or like that people are bringing to you as a concern uh I'd say the biggest concern right now uh in in the southern Zone that I'm seeing is an increase of um home robberies or it'll get referred to as home invasions or breaking editors um you know there's there's a difference a break and Enter is what happens when you're not home and someone comes into your space through whatever means and you know violates your personal space steals your stuff and leaves uh a robbery is a theft but with violence so somebody's home in the house and somebody comes and breaks into the house and takes control of you or whoever's in the house to then steal your stuff um there is um there is a lot of breaking enters happening there in houses um you know I was comparing some statistics provided by the local police force and crime is up 30 percent in um area from 2021 to 2022. so that's a pretty significant number and I'm not trying to say that to scare anybody but like you just said we've got to be realistic and crimes happening everywhere um you know we lived in a nice quiet part of Ontario and houses get broken into there too um so it's it's a matter of um housing how's it being broken into are the targets of opportunity and what my goal is to work with people is to lessen yourself as a target of opportunity um and you know reduce the chances then of becoming a victim of one of these crimes so that's my goal down here is to help people figure that out yeah um so again I guess what would be some of the things that I guess what are I know you probably talked about this with a lot of people but now it's good that other people get to hear I guess for anywhere in the world or here in Costa Rica because I think it's interesting that you also do teach people you know like um personal defense or what did you say you like uh just how to also be safe as your own person when you're out yes what are some of the big top things that you would recommend in this then for someone to help them feel more safe um so if we're talking residential security um it's um you know whether you live in the mountains or you live in Bahia in a neighborhood there's a lot of things you can do that you know or Simple Solutions some of them you know just for a couple bucks and some of them into the tens of thousands of dollars if you want to so take that route of you know upgrading your windows and your doors um some of the very simple things that we can do to our house is exterior lighting majority of the braking enters that are happening are happening between 9 pm and midnight um I'd say three quarters of the of the break-in editors in the houses are happening between those hours so having good uh exterior lighting on your house motion sensor lighting is a huge deterrent for people wanting to get onto your property because if they're lit up and everybody else can see them then they're just going to keep moving on to the next house and again you can go to a local ferreteria hardware store and pick yourself up some motion sensor solar powered lighting minimal cost easy to install and it's kind of the first step with protecting your home is is making sure that everybody can see it so then maybe what are some things that say I could make a house an easy target I know sometimes we talk about like things that you can do but or yeah like what makes what is kind of the perfect ideal situation that makes your house an easy target um so easy targets are um you know people that leave um products on your lawn like you know you've got kids bikes on the lawn you've got surfboards leaning up against the side of the house anything that's visible from the roadway um that can draw some as attention as they walk by um you know just um perimeter security like having a fence you know uh one of these you know beautiful bamboo fences that provide lots of privacy from the street also provide someone the opportunity to be on your property and not be seen from anybody else driving by so if you are in a Bahia where you've got lots of neighbors around um you know a private yard is beautiful because you can you know you know go outside and relax and not worry about who's looking at you but if somebody does come onto your property then nobody else can see that so it's finding that balance of you know having a beautiful property and lots of privacy but you know making not making yourself an easy target by blocking access from everybody else walking by um so you know not keeping things out um or you know I was driving through Bahia last week in obeda and here's some you know a beautiful um six foot fence and right in front of the fence was a bin for your garbage so that's great you know Garbage Collection comes once a week but somebody can also climb up onto that bin and jump over the fence that is now only three feet tall from the top of that bin um or you drive by and you see ladders you know at the side of a house um all you're doing is making it nice and easy for somebody to get into your house by giving them the tools to do that um another big suggestion when people are designing the exterior of the house I love the look of a rock garden you know having big beautiful rocks around the exterior of your house uh less weeds less maintenance but what you're doing is providing somebody a tool to smash your window break through a door um and it's free for them to just grab it from your garden and use it to get in your house well that would be a bummer you go in and see that like yeah they're like oh no my nice rock that I painted yeah that's not good okay yeah good good point about the fence you're like like why have something that tall if you're just giving somebody something that they can just jump over it with yeah exactly um so it's you know it's when I work with people um to do property inspections or audits on their property to check the security that's some of the things I go over I start at the road and I go from the road right into the middle of the house and identify all those features that um people just don't think about in their average state but you know having been a police officer for 20 years and specifically working with you know residential breaking Enders and um the best part about that job was getting to interview suspects that we had arrested and finding out their motivation for doing it and how they did it and why they did it and a lot of times the answer is the answer was um you know it was a target of opportunity I was driving by I was walking by and I saw a window open or you know uh the gate was unlocked um or didn't look like anybody was home and that's it it's simple enough to get in after that that's interesting and I know it's like could be like speculation where I know it sounds like you've had communication with the police scenario do they I mean when I lived down there I remember more hearing about that oh it was because it was a lonely isolated house on top of the mountain um like do you do they have an idea as to why things have been rising in the area and you know because and more even in the neighborhood setting um from what I gather uh any of the residential breaking editors happening in um kind of the more densely populated residential areas like Bahia um you know it's more Target of opportunity you know we've got eight houses in this one area um doesn't look like anybody's home I know there was a couple houses hit around Christmas time in a area in oil where there's you can stand on the driveway and I can see 20 front doors so everybody was out for dinner and you know the thieves managed to get into I think eight or nine houses that night because um the houses were easy to gain access into and nobody was home um the incidences that are happening in the mountain um you know they're a lot more rare than the Bahia related breaking enters uh but what draws people up to the mountain is um you know bigger Target value so in Bahia you might get some jewelry you might get some money maybe some alcohol but when you go up into the mountains bigger houses worth a lot more money people generally have better you know Electronics in the house leave more cash in the house fancier jewelry um and um you know what I've noticed as well is some of the targets uh or the the people being targeted by the the thieves are um you know sometimes asking not asking for it but advertising how wealthy they are um or um not doing anything to really protect themselves from this happening to them just thinking that because I live in a tropical country you know I I'm gonna be fine here and unfortunately that's a misunderstanding in any country Costa Rica or anywhere in the world um you know you never really need to let your guard completely down because um you know where you've got low income nestled next to high income there's always going to be crime because right now if they could just kind of maybe take a quick little look around them maybe they're at their house like what are some things that they should be looking at so okay like I guess looking at the quality of their doors um maybe the type of gate that they have or what I know that what you do is it sounds like and maybe explain your process more in depth it sounds like you go in Thoroughly and you do look at it from that lens of being able to identify all the little things and I'm sure there's so many little things that you know we couldn't even cover on this call that someone could do but if someone was watching this and maybe had a concern what are some quick things that they could take a look around and look at and maybe when when do you think it would be appropriate for someone to reach out to someone like you for that for that Consulting because I mean I have a daughter so for me like having kids is something that would make me say okay well this would definitely be worth you know having the time of someone taking that looking at it from their perspective yeah and I think that's the biggest Factor um that draws people to call me is I've got a family and I want them to be safe so what can I do to make them safe um so you know sitting in the main living area of your house you can look around um you know are your windows secure so if you're not home and you've closed your window how easy is it to get into those windows do you have a secondary security system in place like some people take you know a piece of wood and they stick it in the frame of the window um it's acceptable um but it depends on the quality of the windows I know some of the the break-ins that happened in ohuch all in the residential area um poor quality Windows they didn't fit in the frame properly and even with a secondary tool to secure the window they were still able to just slide the window out completely wow so it's things that you know as you're either building or retrofitting a house it's investing a little more money on better quality windows that you know are going to be secure um front door the same if you think about your front door on your house you know you've got um the handle and the knob and there's a plunger that that sticks into a strike plate on the frame of your your door well those screws holding that strike plate in are about 3 8 of an inch to half an inch in length that is really all that is holding your door from being forced open and that's number one um method of entry in residential breaking enters in North America is through the front door because it is the easiest uh it's generally the quietest because one one kick of a door is a lot quieter than uh the breaking of glass so you know increasing the even the length of screws in that strike plate increasing the length of the strike plate you know as opposed to the little three inch plate that the Builder supplies or the manufacturer supplies getting a strike plate that's 12 inches in length and putting multiple screws in it that will screw into the frame of your house is right there something it'll cost you a couple dollars and will increase the security of your front door tenfold so as I'm doing my my walkthroughs it's it's things like that that you point out to people um you know what side of the door your hinges on if your hinges are exterior hinges it's simple enough for somebody to be able to pull the pin on the hinge and pull your door right off the frame no matter how many locks you have on it someone's going to be able to get into that so um you know and as you're sitting inside your house you know what do you see do you go out to the the store and leave your laptop on the table um to leave anything of value that's not just a you know your plasma TV um out in the open so that if somebody's walking by um you know are they going to walk up and are they going to look in your window and go oh you know Sarah's left you know the keys to her car right there on the you know on the kitchen table and be able to get into your house and get it because at that point it'd be worth just smashing the window jumping into grabbing your keys and getting out so it's little things like that that we don't think of because if we're never a victim of crime where it's never happened to us then we always think that it's never going to happen to us but there's a potential no matter where you're in the world that it could happen so um so that's what I what I do is I as I do a walk through with with um with homeowners is um pointing out all those little things that the average person doesn't think about but the criminal element does think about because that's their only job is what can I do um you know you've developed security systems how can they circumvent security systems um what they're seeing happening right now in this area the thieves have a device that can capture your signal from your car key so if you get to the beach and you press the lock button on your remote your remote sends a signal to the car that tells it to lock the doors the thieves here have the technology with the device to interrupt that signal so they can capture that signal that's passing through the air and when you walk away you know to go jump in the ocean they can use their their phone or whatever device they've used to capture that to then unlock your car doors take whatever they want out of your car close it back up and they can lock it and make it look like they were never there that way it doesn't attract any attention there's no windows getting broken there's there's nothing that draws anybody else's attention to your car other than some random person just opening a car pulling out a backpack and walking away wow I did not know that one that's crazy yeah you know again it's not um I'm not trying to create a an air of fear with anybody because it's right now in Canada it's even worse the technology that they've got um you don't even need to press the button if your key fob is by your front door the thieves can capture that signal from the key fob and steal your car within seconds so they haven't caught up to that down here which is fortunate and there's ways that we can protect ourselves from that as well that are super simple um you know and um it's things that we discuss and when I'm conducting the inspections people but I then provide a written report after that says you know here's my recommendations and here's where you can find a lot of these things um and a lot of it are super easy to find um you know maybe not so much on the coast but a quick trip into San Jose you can generally find a lot of things that that I recommend no that's super helpful and I've had have had some people say like oh I could just get a security system that solves that but you know I do hear if you know electricity can be cut so then How's that gonna work you know yeah yep at a security system is great um the problem we have down here is the monitoring of security systems um for uh Osa are the closest city with a monitoring station is San Ysidro so that's an hour and 15 minutes from oh so if your alarm goes off it's going to take somebody at least an hour and 15 minutes to drive to your house to see what the problem is um so it's not the most practical um you know in this area at this point anyways there's rumors that security companies are coming into the area um I haven't seen anything yet but again people are talking about it um but having a home security system with an audible alarm so that if somebody you know opens your door or breaks your window it sets off an audible alarm that alerts your neighbors then you're great you know and it attracts attention and as long as it's not happening every day then it turns into the point of cried wolf and the neighbors just stop looking when your alarm is going off because you couldn't get your code in fast enough to shut it off but it's definitely something I recommend it's not going to hurt you but like you mentioned if if you know if it's one of our many power outages that we have down here or if it's um you know uh yeah an in-depth or a knowledgeable Thief who knows how to interrupt your power supply to your house in order to gain access then um but there's there's ways that we can alleviate that too with battery backups solar powered battery backup systems which is one of the big things they recommend for people installing video security or home security systems so that if either it is a power failure or your power is cut you know you still have power to the important things like video monitoring internet connection and uh audible alarm so things that things that we cover when you know as we're as we're going through houses trying to make them more secure absolutely and and I understand what you're saying before is like I know you're not saying this to try to scare anyone and like I said my perspective is that like well things happen and then you know there's the Facebook groups and this happened and that happened and people are all commenting and you might get in that mode well just like with any topic and you're in fear and you're going oh my God oh my gosh what if we're not safe what about my kid you know you could start spiraling so that's why I think it's so important to at least talk about these things to let people know that there is something that you can do to obviously be a good deterrent I mean it sounds like you have a lot of solutions I mean you've already pointed out various different things here on this call so I can only imagine like how more in depth you can get when you're actually looking at someone's home and I understand that you also can do a report for someone who's going to build a home so that certain features can already be built into that and I think that's fantastic so that's why I do like to talk about these like these topics because yeah we don't have to be in fear but there's obviously some very simple things that you can do and then some more advanced things that you can do and I think that that's like where you can kind of take your power back in that um absolutely and I think the um the biggest feature of any um you know safety report is you're really just giving yourself peace of mind and that's what you know I'm trying to tell people is um you know you don't need to hire security to stand by your front door at night but you take a couple simple steps to make your house more secure and then you will sleep better at night knowing that you know your house is was less easy than it was yesterday to get into because I get a lot of those Panic calls you know when after these home invasion properties are happening of you know oh my God what do I do you know do I need to build a Panic Room in my house and I don't think anybody needs to go to the Head extreme um you know unless that's in your budget and that's something you feel comfortable with then absolutely but um just being able to do a couple simple things that makes your house more secure that you know will let you and your family sleep better at night or you know if you happen to you know you're out doing a consultation and your kids are home that you'll feel better knowing that they're going to be safer with you being out of the house exactly and I guess there's one more thing I'd like to touch on um before we finish up was just kind of that personal safety like while you're around you know a lot of people come down on vacation and they're having a great time and a lot of crime is petty crime crime of opportunity they left uh yeah but I saw it I saw a story about the guy left the bag that you can't cut through on a tree so they just cut the tree down I'm sorry yeah no I read that too I'm like wow not surprising um but but what would you say are some of the ways that you can keep your body you know your body safe like you know I'll tell our clients like I said don't go and walk around a beach where there's no people like stick I know it's nice to go walk off on your own or but you know there are some things that you shouldn't do and some people do move here or they come on vacation and maybe some of that Common Sense kind of leaves them because they are you know stunned by all the beauty everywhere so what would you say are some of the top things that someone should keep in mind each day as they're living day to day anywhere and especially here right uh I think the biggest thing would be before you walk out that door you know you do a head to toe scan of of what you're wearing um you know do you need to walk around with a big fancy you know Rolex watch on probably not um fancy jewelry again um and if it's sentimental value then you gotta factor that into you do I really need to wear it you know I'm going to walk the beach at Sunrise or Sunset do I really need to have my fanciest of clothes with me um I uh purchased one of those lock boxes for your car they hook onto your car yeah you put a number code in it I stick my you know stick my key in it um you know living here compared to being on vacation um I don't need to walk the beach with my phone anymore to take pictures of the sunrise or the sunset or you know the the waves or maybe you see dolphins um so if I go to walk the beach I literally have nothing in my pockets um you know wearing a pair of board shorts you're not hiding anything in it so if somebody does approach you and want to take anything from you there's nothing that they're going to take and you know if you do want to carry your wallet on you um you know leave the kit leave the cash somewhere safe in your house you don't need to walk around the beach or Bahia with a big wad full of money because if you lose it it's it's not coming back um so it's it's really you know before you decide to go out is what do I really need with me and what can be left behind um I know there was uh some of my wife's jewelry that we sent home with family because there's just no need to have it here and if my house does get broken into you know then it's not going to get stolen because it's not here it's back with family in Canada where you know not that it's not could get stolen from their house in Canada but you know it's likely not going to happen so um yeah just be aware of your surroundings you know trust your guts I I used to tell people that in policing all the time of you know people that you know were walking through the parking lot of the mall and they get robbed um you know it's like oh I had a bad feeling but I decided to keep walking anyways it's like well you should have just trusted you got you know you you walked into a situation where you didn't feel safe don't push it just turn around and walk back out again um letting other people know where you are is important as well if you're going for a walk in the mountains or walk along the beach just letting people know pets are a big bonus to have down here dogs especially um you know not everyone's gonna bring their dogs down or white dogs just for security reasons but they act as a general deterrent to be a victim of crime is you know um having a pet that's not just a lap dog that's gonna you know lick the the suspect but um yeah yeah just having a presence of another animal uh helps and um you know if you want to go for a walk on the beach invite a friend you know and two people um is a is a less of a target for a single suspect than just one absolutely or you know around where I live like I could go walk okay there's Taco Beach or over here in playaaramosa I mean there's my palermosa there's there's a lot of there's usually people around so yeah especially in hako I mean that is a good spot to you know walk where the people are around you know you know absolutely yeah yeah you don't need to you know explore the unchartered territories just yeah stick with stick with the crowds and your chances of not being a victim are increased exactly so well I want to be respectful of your time and I know that you know obviously this topic could go on for a long time and they're it's just good to know that there are things small steps that people can take with their home with just their General awareness of what's around them and what's on them and you know what they're doing with themselves here in the country that I think hopefully can you know well knowledge is power so absolutely for anyone who would like to get in touch with Rob you can send me an email at sarahlena.com that's the best way to get in touch with me and then I can connect you directly to him and you know he can talk more about his process and what can you you could expect you know so if if you are feeling like you would want someone to consult actually so I know you are down in the southern zone are you able to do like a virtual consultation with someone if they were to take detailed photo and video of their home because you know this is an issue all that people of all over Costa Rica could be interested in or I don't know maybe you're willing to travel is that something that you've ever that would be possible um yeah virtual is always an option uh especially with the new builds uh because um there's nothing to physically see yet but I can work with uh plans I've got a bit of a construction background as well so I understand the building plans when I'm reading them and so if I can get plans and material lists to see what kind of product is being used I can do a virtual consult for a new build and point out you know best place to have cameras best place to put lighting perimeter security interior Security Solutions so that's super easy for an existing house yeah um I can travel and I can also do it virtually and then either way still provide a report and follow up with what people can do to secure their house a little better oh good well this was super nice talking to you and just a reminder anybody else who would like to talk to Rob feel free to reach out to me I'll just connect you to him via email directly and you guys can just take it from there and I think that you know this is something that's concerning you and you are looking for that peace of mind then why not you know I think it could be it'd be a really good thing and so I hope people appreciate the information and you know I appreciate you sharing today those tips I mean I definitely learned something and I do appreciate you taking out your time and and doing this yeah thank you so much for having me it's great all righty and for anybody looking to move to Costa Rica you've probably seen that thing going around the bottom of your screen feel free to go to my website you can always book a call we can chat about your move and see where things go from there well thanks again ciao

Channel: Sarah Elena

Views: 8,697

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Id: gD7hc1e1UFg

Length: 34min 25sec (2065 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023