More Robberies

Unfortunately our neighborhood store got robbed last week. He is the nicest guy. He speaks English and he and his wife lived in the States for a couple of years but have chosen to live here in Costa Rica. Gringos find it amazing that not everyone wants to live in the States by the way.

When hubby talked with Duglas, the neighbor that got robbed, he said that three other stores in the area were also robbed last week. What a bummer to see that kind of crap going down in your own neighborhood. He also told hubby that he was robbed of $400.00 and his wedding ring and some office supplies. The other stores suffered greater losses. One, the Cheena store on the corner had almost $8,000.00 taken. Of course everyone was wondering why in the heck anyone in Costa Rica would keep that much money in their store.

When baby and I stopped in at the store on the way home from school today things were a little different. You now have to shut the gate when you come in and there is a really tight spring on it to make sure it shuts and locks. He used to keep the gate open most of the time.

The good news was he still has rat poison. Yup that time of the year again. They are out and about. I looked out my kitchen window and scurrying across our car port was a big fat gray rat. EEEEWWWWWWW! You know I would see it the day hubby left for Nica. Of course when the cat is away the rats will play! The last time we had a rat problem was when hubby was in the Osa Peninsula working for two months. Our house is now stocked up and guarded against the nasty, nasty creatures. Let's just hope they stay outside this time around and don't set up camp in my stove again! EEEEEWWWWWWW!

IS COSTA RICA SAFE?

Needless to say after the murder in our neighborhood last night this is the biggest question we are asking ourselves. We found out more facts that help a little bit. One biggie was the fact that the kid (19 years old) was actually apparently speaking with the guy who shot him, and seemed to know him. The other was that this kid was one of the ring that has been robbing people in the neighborhood for the past few weeks. The other was that this kid was a known trouble maker and druggy.
About two months ago in fact he beat up my daughters boyfriend. He beat him up a bit and stole his sweatshirt. The guy who runs our neighborhood park called the police, who surprised all and showed up. They made the guy give the sweatshirt back and basically slapped his hand.
Apparently he messed with the wrong person this time. On the bus coming home from teaching I saw a group of people putting flowers and writing on the road where he was shot. A lot of the neighbors are surprised that anyone did anything since the kid was so much trouble. The fact remains he was only 19, and he was still someones' son, brother, and since we are in Costa Rica, probably someones' father.
Be that all as it may, my daughter is not allowed to walk off our street after dark. Isn't that messed up? I remember that when I was 8 not 15. People should at least be free to walk to the store or to get a movie or go anywhere without worrying about "bad guys".
Of course upon reading the U.S. news it sounds like it is getting pretty wild there. Who knows?

COSTA RICA WAR IN OUR BACKYARD

We have always felt relatively safe here in our little town in the mountains. My daughters' boyfriend just got a call on his cell phone that his ex-girlfriends current boyfriend just got robbed, beat up and shot right down the road from us. They ran out the door and just called to report.
It appears the kid was just walking down the road and the guys pulled up and robbed him. Knowing him he probably mouthed off and they shot him twice. He is dead.
Now it is getting a little close to home, as in about one hundred meters from our corner. In fact I run down that road every morning on my way home from the track. I would go take pictures, but the streets are packed with people mourning as well as just plain old freaking out.
I will get some pics tomorrow of the street so you can see how busy it is and how close to home it is. We have tried to keep our fingers on the pulse of things so that we would know when it was getting too dangerous to stay here. Not going out of our house after dark is not an option.
Of course as my son who just moved here from Vegas keeps reminding us there are many places in Vegas that he will not go alone at night either. Maybe just the world is getting pretty crazy to be sure.
I just wonder how hard the police here will even try to find these kids. At the neighborhood meeting they told us to try their office if we had any problems, and if no one answered try the next two neighborhoods over. They sure did not do this kid much good!