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absinvestor
Senior Nomad
Posts: 725
Registered: 11-28-2009
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Baja vs Mainland MX
We just returned from a short trip to the Guymas area of Mexico.. Specifically we were looking for a location to set up a beach palapa on the beaches
surrounding San Carlos. (San Carlos is an easy 4 hour drive from the border on a nice 4 lane road.) We found some beautiful beaches but we had to hunt
to find one person that had not had a car or house broken into!! I mentioned to one person that I might just visit/live in our motorhome and build a
block type building with no windows etc for storage when we left. He stated that he had a steel door on a similar building and the burglars somehow
pulled the door off the hinges and stole his boat motor etc. We have lived in Punta Banda in north Baja and on the beaches near Mulege and seldom even
locked the doors of the car or home??? What a difference!!!
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DavidE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3814
Registered: 12-1-2003
Location: Baja California México
Member Is Offline
Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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So true!
And it's not just limited to one area. There are burglary problems in Mazatlan, Barra de Navidad/Melaque, Zihatanejo and Puerto Escondido. Inland,
Patzcuaro, Ajijic, and other gringo enclaves have their platoons of ripoff artists.
The cape region is rife with uñados, Todos Santos and El Pescadero in particular.
But things have deteriorated greatly in just the last couple of years. So the places you remember as being ripoff-free a few years ago may have
changed.
Vigilant neighbors seem to be my best defense. Chihuahua On The Roof® alarms really work at night. So does adding a cup full of nitric acid to a
Tequila bottle filled with strong tea.
I brought down several unbelievably loud 130 db battery powered alarms (lithium battery) that can be heard for about one mile at night. IR detectors,
pressure mats, window vibration and doorknob rattling alarms. They were brought to "el otro lado" and by the time I left Mazatlan on my way south,
every last item was purchased. I need to get more of those 130 db sirens though. One for the roof and one for inside a structure. Not even earplugs
work to block earsplitting shrieks. A person simply cannot stay inside a structure with one of these babies at full bay.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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bajagrouper
Senior Nomad
Posts: 964
Registered: 8-28-2003
Location: Rincon de Guayabitos, Nayarit, Mexico
Member Is Offline
Mood: happy and retired
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In my house in Nayarit the "ratas con dos patos" even stole my burglar alarm,LOL
I hear the whales song
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motoged
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6481
Registered: 7-31-2006
Location: Kamloops, BC
Member Is Offline
Mood: Gettin' Better
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"Rich gringos" are such easy targets....and it is a pity, when even Nationals are equally targeted....we just don't hear as much from them on these
forums.
I spent several weeks traveling from Toluca through Michoacan (loved it), down to Zihuatanejo, and up the "Highway of Death" (Hwy 134) to Taxco and
back to Toluca.
I never had one moment of real concern regarding my personal safety, and found secure parking in larger centers for the motorcycle (easy target).
The locals sometimes were concerned for my safety and we talked about theft and narco-issues....and it was noticeable that Nationals were/are
concerned about various sorts of crime in Mexico.
The guy running the small hotel in Troncones warned me to not travel on Hwy 134, but when I asked the guys at the Pemex they said it was no
problem....and when I asked the Federales the same question, they assured me it was safe to travel.....and it ended up being some of the best two days
of riding EVER....
There is sometimes such a difference between the "haves" and "have nots", that crime seems to be the answer for many.
Que lastima...
However, my recent travel experience has me eager to explore more of the mainland....and it is a toss-up for my next Mexico travel....Baja or
mainland.....either way, I like to get at least several hundred miles south of the border before I get into the groove.
[Edited on 3-20-2013 by motoged]
Don't believe everything you think....
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durrelllrobert
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7393
Registered: 11-22-2007
Location: Punta Banda BC
Member Is Offline
Mood: thriving in Baja
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Not racial profiling but ...
Last week a friend of mine was using his brand new electric jack hammer to break up an asphalt parking lot in Chula Vistawhen he was approached by 2
"Hispanic looking" men that asked him to hire them "for almost free" to do that job. After finishing for the day they apparently followed him home
unoticed and he parked in his driveway and locked the jack hammer in the cab of his truck. Later that night "SOMEONE" broke the window of the truck
and took it and even though he had hundreds of dollars worth of other tools unlocked in the bed nothing else was stolen.
Bob Durrell
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Bajafun777
Super Nomad
Posts: 1103
Registered: 9-13-2006
Location: Rosarito & California
Member Is Offline
Mood: Enjoying Life with Wife In Mexico, Easy on The Easy
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While living in Baja it helps to have watchful neighbors and even living in a gated community adds to at least feeling your stuff won't just walk off.
We live in Las Gaviotas just outside of Rosarito and we love it as my wife feels safe there so I can enjoy my Baja times easier. Now, things can still
happen on occasion but not like living in town or just outside of town where the pickings seems to increase your chances of a theft happening.
We are in Baja for about 5 months sometimes a little less with our home in California left alone with family and friends checking on it. Had security
but when the front door was kicked in the frame went with it, so the alarm was not functional as it never disconnected from the door opening. New
steel door and frame should keep that from happening again along with all the extra stuff we had installed.
No problems for the last 4 years doing this routine, until last year and we got our home burglarized in California. It seems the early release from
prisons in California is returning criminals intent on starting right back to where they left off. Gangbangers and criminals take kindness for
weakness with their laugh now cry later mentality when doing crimes. Some sources on the streets and finding a witness to the crooks selling things
got one of the past probationers identified. However, he took off to Mexicali but warrant is waiting for his next crossing. So, had to double up on
cameras with night vision, motion detectors, video recordings for night time and registering with police when out of town so they know alarm means now
please.
Our world is changing more and more, so be prepared to do whatever you have to secure your items and yes the installing of security isn't cheap but
having your home messed up, keepsakes destroyed and anything of value stolen isn't cheap either. You can't always be home and even when you are at
home it doesn't mean some crook won't try something. So you will have to make choices to do what you have to do to avoid being a victim, as even if
victims comply that doesn't mean bad things still don't happen to them. Take Care & Travel Safe------ "No Hurry, No Worry, Just FUN"
bajafun777
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Jim/Liisa
Nomad
Posts: 192
Registered: 2-5-2011
Location: San Felipe (South Campos)
Member Is Offline
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In San Felipe, you see windows and doors with security screens and bars on the houses . All owned by the "locals"??? Oh!!! forgot to mention the
broken glass on the top of the block walls. All this to keep the "locals" from breaking in???
Sorry forgot to mention there are houses here in southern Calif that have these same bars and security screens owned by the not so local, to keep
the not so local from breaking in???
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daveB
Nomad
Posts: 244
Registered: 11-6-2003
Location: B.C. Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: wondering about Nomads!
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We dry camped on the same coral beach in Jalisco for a year and a half over a span of seven years, never had anything taken, nor had any of the other
12 or14 rigs that anually stayed there, we only remember one or two incidents. But there was always someone around. We did trips out to other
locations but limited time away to three nights. One time a car was stolen from a camper there who had left keys in during the day, apparently had
them taken. That evening the car wasfinally locked up and owners turned off the lights in their rig, only to hear their car start up and drive away,
never to be seen again.
[Edited on 3-25-2013 by daveB]
[Edited on 3-25-2013 by daveB]
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3507
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
Member Is Offline
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Forgot to mention this: a MX family I lived with this year got hit too. Mama had a bad habit of leaving laundry on the line for days. One
night, thief's got 6-8 designer jeans and assorted other clothing. (Mama, at last view, had not learned the lesson.)
I use to think hey petty crimes and no one hurt. Since the Las Tunas shooting (intruder taking a shot at gringo in a dark room?), I've become
aware of another armed robbery that I think only made local news. A gringo, near Rancho Pescadero, at home when 2-3 MX approach him about work, or
something. Some chit chat and one pulls a gun putting it to the head of the gringo then demanding money. Guy gave what he had in his pocket
and the perps left.
No one is happy about armed robbers in the 'hood.
(The upside is these pachucos are probably not trained in handling guns. Taking one away would be easy followed by a severe butt whupping.)
Then I'd leave town for a few months.
US Marines: providing enemies of America an opportunity to die for their country since 1775.
What I say before any important decision.
F*ck it.
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DavidE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3814
Registered: 12-1-2003
Location: Baja California México
Member Is Offline
Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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A crossbow or double band spear gun is a hell of an effective close-in weapon if defending yourself in a house (just don't miss!).
I rant horribly at uñados on this forum because most of them have wads of high denomination bills stuff in their pockets, gold jewelery and personal
electronics worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars and they STILL insist of victimizing the innocent. These are not crimes of "little old poor
starving me". They are sharks looking for prey. Mexico has "lost" what 70,000 sicarios in the drug war? Maybe they need to lose 800,000 more. Whatever
it takes.
I agree. Whatever number of gringos you hear about being victimized the number of Mexicans must be a hundred times greater. I become enraged getting
ripped-off because with my poverty level pension some articles are irreplaceable. But then I have to stop and ponder the truly poor that lose a
refrigerator or stove to the rats.
I hired a dirt-poor couple in "southern Baja (no more place bashing") because wandering Seventh Day Adventists recommended them personally. This
couple ripped me off of many hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. How can I be sure it was them? The last time I saw them they were carrying on their
backs loads of stuff from my bodega down the dirt road. I was using a cart to walk so chasing them was out of the question. With a pair of 20X50
binoculars I could count the whiskers on his face, and the barét's rhinestones. This was the 1st day of the week that I had paid them "en adelante" in
advance.
It is a sickness. I do not know if drugs were involved in this case.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
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Had a break-in at 3:15am on a Tuesday in January in La Paz. I made a mistake at my Kitchen door that night and didn't lock the door with the key to
slide the bars thru into the wall. Only the tongue was locked and the burglar broke the louver glass window next to the door, put his arm thru and
squeezed the tongue release on the lock from the inside. I heard the glass break, woke up and confronted the guy when he was half way thru the door,
waving my 3 foot machete at him. As soon as he heard me yell at him, he split.
When I bought the house, I replaced the flimsy yard fence with an 8 ft high cinder block fence topped with broken glass and circular razor barbed
wire, locked the front two door gate with double wrapped very, very thick chain and the biggest padlock I could find. The front of the house had no
barbed wire, just a metal yard gate and that's where the burglar (or potential murderer; who knows?) hopped the fence. That particular night/morning,
the street lights were out.
I have since welded horizontal bars to my vertical bars on all windows already covered with horizontal bars, particularly to louver window and kitchen
door windows. Now no hands or arms can fit in thru those narrow width bars. Had an iron door made and installed on front wooden door and put two
massive locks on it. Also, I put a high watt security light on roof in front of house, an extra lock on front gate, and an additional double wrapped
chain and big pad lock on front driveway double metal door gate.
I know of no practical way to achieve 100% security, but every little bit contributes to deterrence. I like the loud alarm idea. I'm going to look
into that.
I have read on this forum that if you injure or kill an intruder in the house that they or their families most often prevail in Mexican court against
the victimized homeowner.
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bajamedic
Nomad
Posts: 392
Registered: 12-5-2008
Location: Northern California
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just waitin for baja
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I hope I am not hijacking this thread, but… I made a trip to San Felipe in February; I stopped at Costco in Mexicali and loaded up the back of my
truck with food and staples for one of the local orphanages, the back seat was full of special things that I had brought from the states. I stayed in
a San Felipe hotel the night that I got into town; I left all of the goodies in the back of my open truck, fully expecting to have it all taken during
the night with all of the stories that I have heard. I reasoned that me bring the “stuff” was for those less fortunate than I and if it was gone when
I awoke the next morning, then so be it. The idea of me bringing “stuff” was more about me giving than those that receive. When I awoke the next
morning, to my amazement, nothing was touched, everything was sitting just the way I had left it, so off to deliver it to those that were in need.
Although my experience was a just a short visit verses those of you living in an area and feeling violated by those that you trust and live around, I
left there knowing there are still some good people you might just need to look through the few bad ones to see them. JH
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3507
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajamedic
Although my experience was a just a short visit verses those of you living in an area and feeling violated by those that you trust and live around, I
left there knowing there are still some good people you might just need to look through the few bad ones to see them. JH |
I think everyone knows the world, including Baja, is filled with good people.
You were lucky. Nothing more.
Leave your truck loaded in Pescadero, stuff will be stolen, maybe the truck too.
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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Mitchman,
The way you have that house secured, you maybe able to interest the local authorities in buying it, if you ever intend to move. Would make a great
"Slammer" 
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Bajafun777
Super Nomad
Posts: 1103
Registered: 9-13-2006
Location: Rosarito & California
Member Is Offline
Mood: Enjoying Life with Wife In Mexico, Easy on The Easy
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Mitchman, I always thought if I owned a house in Baja I would put electrical cattle boxes attached to thin wires on the fence at top and bottom areas
to deter people. I even thought about using them on the bars attached to windows or doors. So, when you go to bed the boxes come on and I would
have a generator connected to the house and boxes just in case the electrical went out, now that is sleeping tight, LOL. Anyone that has had an
experience with these electrical boxes know you don't go back for seconds!!
A stun gun is also a good way to protect yourself and if you have it shipped into Mexico through the company that can sell them in Mexico you are
good to go. Pepper Spray and stun guns are no problem in Mexico from what updates and regulations I have read on them in the past unless something
has changed I am not aware of. Take Care & Travel Safe---- "No Hurry, No Worry, Just FUN" bajafun777
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CarlVon
Newbie
Posts: 21
Registered: 7-28-2012
Location: Every where
Member Is Offline
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Here is an excellent place to check out. It is just south of Puerto Penasco, and is a 4 hour drive from Phoenix.
Bahía De San Jorge / Sonora / Mexico
There are quite a few places that you describe, Storage room with bath, and pad for RV
\"An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto a blade of grass to keep from falling from the face of the earth\"
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CarlVon
Newbie
Posts: 21
Registered: 7-28-2012
Location: Every where
Member Is Offline
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Sorry, forgot to add this link.
http://www.chinci.com/travel/pax/p/3986497/Bah%C3%ADa+De+San...
\"An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto a blade of grass to keep from falling from the face of the earth\"
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stanburn
Nomad
Posts: 145
Registered: 10-4-2007
Location: Santiago, Colima, MX
Member Is Offline
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Been in Manzanillo full-time for 6 years now. I have had no problems...i think the key is being with your stuff full-time. Otherwise it is just an
opportunity for someone. Good neighbors will help alot....
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absinvestor
Senior Nomad
Posts: 725
Registered: 11-28-2009
Member Is Offline
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CarlVon-thanks for the info and link. Ron
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
Member Is Offline
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Can't say we've had much crime problems here in East Cape. I will admit that when my wife was in the states I did take some clean clothes off my
neighbor Tom's clothesline. We're about the same size and he has nicer chones.
And I guess you could call this a almost crime when I borrowed a wheelbarrow from another neighbor (a Canadian I share emails with almost every day)
I have a lot of fishing gear (and a lot of lures) in my bodega that really belong to Joe next door but he spends less and less time here. I have his
keys to look after his place and I figure if he trusts me with those, then he should trust me with his spendy Avets and line and end tackle.
I guess it's "Nothing to see here. Move along."
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