Since the 1970s Peace
Corps Costa Rica has published a magazine called La Cadena, which means the
chain in English. The news, stories, photos, poems, recipes, etc. are submitted
by staff members and volunteers around the country. I’ve had the pleasure of
working as an editor for this tri-annual publication throughout the past year. Our
August issue —my final as editor— included a story I wrote called La Pata
Chancho. It's not a cheerful story, but perhaps you could take away a thing or two about keeping
you and your stuff safe.
We laughed our way home from community English class, recapping a
hilariously funny lesson plan on diagnosing health problems. Megon, two Tico 24
volunteers and I each took turns playing the “sick patient” while our
students played “doctor” and diagnosed us. It was a great start to the PCV
visit weekend.
Then, as I unlocked the front door to our apartment and went to go
unlock the back door, everything changed. Chunks of wall on the floor. Door ajar.
Heart in my throat. Uh-oh. Bad news. All laughter stops. PCV visit spoiled.
A clean safety and security record that had lasted exactly one year,
eight months and 23 days, ended on June 29, 2012, when someone broke into our
apartment with a pata chancho (crow bar) and cleaned us out. Computers.
Cell phones. iPad. Money. Credit cards. Tennis shoes. Purse. Everything of
value.
This isn’t a sob story, or a story to scare the daylights out of you.
This is a story of a lesson learned. I think the more we feel integrated into
our communities the more we tend to let our guard down. It’s only natural,
right? The more we know people, the more we trust them. The truth, however, is
that no matter where you live in the world, or how long you have lived there,
if you own things that people would want for themselves, then consider yourself
a target for theft.
During pre-service training, our safety and security sessions covered
a lot of useful information on being street smart, you know, stuff like holding
your bag close to your side, keeping your cell phone hidden, keeping your
wallet in your front pocket, staying awake on the bus and keeping your bag
close instead of using the baggage rack. What I don’t remember is getting tips
on how to keep you and your stuff safe if you leave your host family and move
out on your own.
If you’ve never had your house broken into, I truly hope it never
happens to you. It’s an awful feeling that doesn’t just go away. It changes
you. Not only do you feel angry but also violated by the fact that someone was
in your house, rummaging through your things and taking whatever they wanted.
You see people on the street and you wonder if they did it. You hear chisme from neighbors about who they
think did it. You loose faith in the local police and OIJ. Worst of all, you no
longer have that trust in your community you worked so hard to build.
So how do you keep your belongings safe in your home, apartment or
bedroom? I’m hardly the expert, but here are some tips you could keep in mind:
• A house with celosias
(removable rectangular window panes) is an easy target and an easy break in.
Many people in our community tell stories about robbers entering their houses
through their celosias at night while they were sleeping. It’s just way too
easy.
Consider getting bars placed on windows with celosias (this can be
pricey) or look for a different house or bedroom.
• If you plan to move, keep in mind the quality of doors as you look
for places. We have wood-frame doors at the front and back of our apartment,
each equipped with single deadbolt locks. We always felt safe with those locks
until someone used a pata chancho to
break in. A metal-frame exterior door is probably your safest option. But if
that’s not possible, you could get your landlord to install a picaporte (sliding lock) that’s drilled
into the wall, not the wood frame.
• Keep your electronics — computer, iPod, iPad, camera, hard drives,
etc. — hidden when you’re not home. When I say hidden, I mean hidden well, not
some half-ass job like we had done. The bag that held our computers was hidden,
but on a closet shelf and covered with a blanket. That wasn’t good enough,
obviously, so think of a creative, hard-to-reach spot that would take a lot of
thought and time for someone to find. Our robbers looked under mattresses, climbed
over a wall to get inside a locked bedroom, and who knows what else, so you’ll
need to find a better spot than what we had.
• Have your electronics and money stashed away in separate hiding
spots. We made the mistake of keeping our computers, money and credit cards all
in one locked duffle bag. That made our stuff easy pickings for those pesky ladrones.
• Always backup your documents and pictures, either to a (well-hidden)
hard drive or cloud system on the internet, like iCloud or Google Drive.
Luckily, they didn’t find our hard drive. Otherwise, that would have really,
really sucked. However, we weren’t all that vigilant at backing up our stuff,
so many of our Peace Corps photos are gone forever. Thankfully we have some stored
on Facebook and Picasa.
• Buy property insurance if you own items that are expensive. It’s a
chunk of change, but worth the expense.
• Get to know your neighbors. If you feel the need, form a neighborhood
watch. It doesn’t have to be a formal group; just neighbors watching out for
each other.
• Last, but certainly not least, don’t keep those important phone
numbers only in your phone. What happens if it gets stolen, like ours did? Keep
important numbers — duty officer, neighbors, police — written down somewhere
you will remember. Better yet, memorize them like you’re supposed to. It had
been a long time since we memorized the duty officer phone number, so
thankfully we had fresh trainees at our site with the number memorized. We were
able to call the duty officer and report the incident right away.
Through this whole experience, we have learned that Peace Corps Costa
Rica’s number one concern is our safety. If you feel unsafe in any way, don’t
hesitate to call the office and get some advice. No Peace Corps volunteer
should have to live in fear; we have too many important things do to.
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