Description

Healthy Defense - Why prevention matters:

On Sunday, July 21, at around 7:30 PM, a resident went into the bedroom of his home on the canyon in Oriana and opened the window to let in a little air.
His wife out of the country, he retired to the living room with his three incessantly yappy dogs to watch TV.

Within minutes, he was astonished to see two men, dressed entirely in black, emerge from his bedroom. Within seconds, he was lifted up and slammed to the floor, apparently losing consciousness.

The dogs had no clue about the coming attack and provided no warning.

His next memory was that his legs were tied (with garbage bags it turned out) and a pistol was pointed in his face, a butcher knife from his kitchen across his throat. He was dragged by the arms into the bathroom and tied up further.

Dragged into the bedroom, he remembers the robbers screaming "MONEY, MONEY" into his face. He offered them his wallet, which they cleaned out, leaving behind credit cards and ID.

Then he was gagged, blindfolded and tied to a chair. He could hear them stealing two TVs from a closet, a big screen from the living room and other electronic items, including a desktop PC computer. Finally he heard them loading it all in his pickup truck, taking his keys and driving away.

Some 40 minutes later, he was finally able to escape from his bonds. His cell phones were gone and his land line did not work.

He walked to a friend's house, the Hotline was called and the police arrived promptly, although there was a delay due to the fact that he was not in the Resident ID database. Due to the time elapsed, it was deemed unnecessary to set up a roadblock to catch the robbers.

The resident was impressed with the dedication of the police and felt that they took an interest in his case.

After the police left, the robbers returned to finish the job. They had assembled burglar tools at the same window entered earlier, but were interrupted when the police returned to report that his adjacent property was also vulnerable because of an open gate.

The next day, his truck was recovered from a rice field in El Valle. He has filed the proper denuncias and visited the forensic physician as required.

He was never gratuitously beaten, but the violence of being thrown to the floor, dragged and tied up left him with numerous bruises and cuts.

Because he has no record of the serial numbers of his stolen property, the probability of recovering it or convicting the perpetrators is essentially zero. This resident is in a state of shock, much like PTSD, and is slowly recovering from his physical injuries.

His financial losses are in the many thousands of dollars. Had his truck not been recovered, his losses would have been in excess of $60,000, the original cost plus replacement.

This crime could have been prevented altogether for less than $200 in razor wire and motion lights and not leaving un-barred windows open at night.

We have unconfirmed reports from Panamanian sources of attacks like this occurring daily between Alto Boquete and Dolega.

Most of the attacks on Panamanians are never reported.

If you own a home in this area, or know someone who does, please alert them to the danger at this time.

We believe that it is no coincidence that road crews are in the area and that the new road provides a more facile escape route.

Many if not most homes in the area are in imminent danger.

Alto al Crimen is asking for knowledgable volunteers who can assist is visiting homes in the Boquete area to conduct security evaluations.

In every case of recent burglaries and robberies, the home's perimeter had glaring security gaps, which the attackers simply walked through.

Many home owners are apparently not capable of "thinking like robbers" and seeing how easily their property can be penetrated.

Working together, we need to help each other see and plug these gaps for the good of the entire community.

If you are interested in volunteering to do security evaluations, please contact us at info@altoalcrimen.org.