Panama Crime - Home Invasions

Posted By: Panama Expertos on 07.04.2008
Views: 2815, Published in sections: Panama-Expertos ::

Introduction - Panama is very safe compared to Western Europe, North America, Central America and South America. This does not mean it has no crime. There is always going to be some degree of crime on the world the way it is today. The crime to be most careful of is Home Invasion. It can be ugly.

What is a Home Invasion - This is when the robbers get into your home when you are home. They want you there. That way they get the jewelry, you get to open the safe and they get all the valuables.

How It Works - The bad guys do not come to your door and shoot you through the peephole as is done in the USA. This does not get them where they want to be. You would be laying on the floor with the door locked. They are not in the house, if anyone else is home they are probably in shock screaming, calling for help, grabbing guns etc. Senseless aggression is not common in this country. They have to get you to open your door, they are robbers. This is done with guile. In one case they went to a doorman building in Punta Patilla dressed as Para-Medics. They said so and so had called with chest pains in the middle of the night. The doorman goes to ring up and they say hey he can't answer the intercom he is having a heart attack. They get let in.

They go to a floor and smash the lock out of someone's condo. The doorman figures it will take sometime to stabilize him for transport. I am not sure if they pulled up with an ambulance or not. In most of these doorman, concierge security guard buildings the condo owners mistakenly have little security on their individual units. This is error. If a doorman or guard goes bad, they are very vulnerable for a break-in. So the robbers use a punch type tool, a drill, or a small sledge to get into the back or front door. The people are probably asleep in a bedroom with the air conditioning running and the door closed far from the entry door. These units are big.

Now they are in and they wake up the occupants. What fun! A gun in your face, being yelled at out of a dead sleep, kicked, hit, dragged, thrown down etc. Sounds like military interrogation training except they are really doing bodily damage and will be quick to kill. Then they tie you up. Now they ransack the house, you get to open the safe, and if you are lucky they leave with you tied up and gagged on the floor. If you are not lucky they rape the females and kill everyone. The shades of gray are they damage people seriously from the beatings, rapes and being tied up tight and gagged. Some people can take years to get over this experience.

There was an instance recently where they got a beach house occupant. He had set up layers of security. Fences, dogs, guns etc. The fence and dogs worked. He woke up and they said they were Police on a drug raid. He let them in and boy was he sorry. He should have ran into his safe room (which he did not have) called the police and said there are people breaking into his house. He should have screamed out to the guys outside that he phoned the police and they have to wait for them to arrive. Now shooting him and robbing him before the police come is not such a good idea. Let the police identify themselves to each other, not your problem if it is a real raid. If you saw marked police cars, lights flashing, radios blaring, numerous guys in uniform this might be a different story.

There are other ways to get into your house easily. When a foreigner moves here they are often doing work on the house. There are plumbers, carpenters, painters, floor people etc. These people bird-dog you to the robbers for a percentage or flat fee. The robbers may get in through a door or window the workmen leave open when they leave. The workmen may identify a weak point of entry. They can also disable an alarm switch but a good alarm should indicate a zone has been disconnected. Watch these workmen carefully. Never trust them. Never leave them alone in any room. They do not get to use the bathroom in your house. They do not get to use your phone. The robbers may enter through a left open window or door, or ring the bell and try to get you to open the door. They will say they have a delivery, left something, whatever. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR.

Condos Safer - Single family homes are way more at risk than a condo. When new to the country live in a condo for a year or two. The robbers have to contend with neighbors and security guards in condos. They often need to park far away and this makes for a long escape route. These buildings often have closed circuit TV and this makes for more problems. If the guards are armed more risks. If there are multiple guards more risks and trouble controlling the crime scene. The guard will shut down the elevators if there is an incident and close the stairwell with a key and wait for the police. Again more robber headaches. Condos with more than one security guard are many times safer for a newcomer to live in.

Mobile Victim Location - These same crooks will often look for foreigners at a restaurant like at the Causeway. They will follow you with their car and honk the horn saying you are leaking fluids; something is flopping around on your axle etc. The idea is to get you to pull over. If you do they then come over to help and of course then they present the gun - wallets, jewelry etc in a few seconds they are gone. If this happens write down their license plate, description of the car, location, direction etc and call the police on cell phone while driving. Never stop. Do not let him get in front of you and force you to stop. If you see the police do flash lights, wave hands etc hopefully they will stop the cars and see what is up. They will search the guy's car if he is there, if he runs even worse for him and he will have a gun in the car and go away. They may just rob you if you stop or they may force you to take them to your house and rob, rape, or murder everyone in the house, get the safe etc.

Crook Profile - I am told that crooks like these can often be former PDF, Panama Defense Forces from the Noriega days. They were trained well by the Americans, they are conditioned to be brutal and violent from the Noriega days and they have a tendency to enjoy crime more than honest work. They are familiar with police tactics, operations and methods. They are also familiar with security procedures for physical facilities. These guys will display coolness under the pressure of committing the crime. They understand the odds are greatly on their side if they can get the drop on you and get away from the scene without the police being called. Once the police get called if they are still at the crime scene they are in for problems.

These ex military and ex police types resorting to common low dollar criminality are generally not that sophisticated, short on funds and often have drug, alcohol and gambling problems in addition to supporting mistresses. If this were not the case they would be involved in high dollar criminality or a legitimate pursuit. Their approach requires you to fall for their con to get your guard down.

If you do decide to engage these robbers make sure you know what you are about first. You will probably need to disable them at a minimum before the resistance stops. Make sure you have the fortitude to kill and maim them before engaging them. They will immediately try to kill you at the first sign of resistance. Running around Panama as a criminal with a broken arm or leg is life threatening - they live in a predatory world and now the predators are going to come after them. If you think you cannot bring yourself to this mental state do not engage them. Once you begin an attack do not let up until it is obvious they are no longer functional. Sadly many non-resistant victims gets brutalized or murdered anyway so it is worth considering resistance if you have a weapon and can use it effectively. You are no longer in Kansas.

Home Invasion Protection - First off protect against an inside job. If you hire a maid and or driver do check their references. Have at least three references. No references get someone else. Do not hire an illegal from another country - too much risk for a setup. Photocopy the cedulla of all hires and keep a file on them away from the house. Buy them a cell phone and that way you get a record of everyone they ever called. I never said they were smart.

If you are in a detached house put up a fence. Barbed wire on top. This is not foolproof, just another layer. For private houses install bars on the windows. Make sure they are strong bars, not decorative junk and that they are inserted right into the cement. Remember rebar bars are nice painted up, but not everyone is going to like that. Make sure your car is parked behind a fence. Have a light that turns on lighting up the entire parking area so you can see if anyone is hiding there before pulling in. Have a remote for the gate. Close the gate before getting out of the car and make sure no one sneaked in. If they do throw it in reverse, drive and close the gate with the remote.

The doors to the outside should be fortified solid steel doors. Those iron bar gate type doors are easy to defeat with a small hydraulic jack and a piece of 2X4. They push the door to the side far enough so the bolt swings free and that is that. Get a solid steel door with a security lock and use a solid steel frame. This is for all external doors. Do change all the locks from previous owner. Use only high security locks.

For your bedroom you can use a steel door and frame or at least a steel frame and a solid core wood door with a strong lock. This should slow an invader down allowing you time to do something if your house is invaded. You can grab a gun, cell phone, scream, or go to your security room.

A security room is your walk-in closet. It should have solid concrete walls on all sides. The lock should have bolts on several sides of the door that goes into the concrete through a steel frame. A steel door is a must so if they try to shoot through it they can kill themselves with the ricochet. High-powered rifle bullets may pass through one side of the steel door but they will likely be deformed, deflected and may not go through the other side. I doubt a .308 with ball ammo would get through a good steel door. Each side of the door should be like a wall for a gun safe, but the door has two of them. An AK-47 round would not get through nor would a .223. If they had armor piercing ammo it would get through from a rifle. Armor piercing pistol ammo most likely encountered would be 9mm and I would not be too sure it would get through both sides of the door and the insides of the door with any serious velocity left. When the bullet hits the first side of the door it should destabilize especially since the door is full of bolts and steel pieces to operate the sophisticated bolts on three sides of the door. If you really are worried about encountering armor piercing ammo have a 1/4" steel plate bolted into the back of the door and that will stop anything except a very high powered round like a .50 BMG and those guns weigh 35 pounds.

The reality is the door itself will do the job since the odds are they are going to have pistols or a folding stock AK-47 with a short barrel. Robbers are going to have concealable guns, not likely to have full size military assault rifles. Shorter barrel rifles like folding stock AK-47's lose muzzle velocity and thus are less likely to shoot through a steel door. Uzi's are just shooting 9mm handgun ammo and will not do much damage to your steel door (assuming you get a good one made out of 10 or 12 gauge steel).

The windows on your safe room if any need to be addressed. Install a good amount of bars on them. Do not brick in the window because you need to be able to get a cell phone signal. Keep a cell phone with minutes and a plugged in charger in the safe room. If you have guns keep a gun and ammo in the safe room. You can place strong wire mesh over the bars on the window if there is a way the robbers can get access to the window. This will stop any insertion of hands but your gun can do this well too. You can put steel mesh on both sides of the bars, welded to the bars. The two layers of mesh should be overlapping. This will allow for a cell phone signal and yet make shooting through the window challenging. A low caliber handgun round could readily ricochet back at the shooter if it hits the mesh, assuming you used really strong steel mesh.

You should not be visible from the window. If you are visible then you need to modify the safe room. You can install a partial bricking in of the window on the lower half for instance to prevent them from seeing you. If there is a bend in the safe room then you can stay out of sight. Do not answer them when they start yelling and they may not even be sure you are in there and think you are hiding elsewhere which is good for you.

Remember the safe room is not Fort Apache. It is designed to buy you time, minutes not hours until the police arrive. If you can get 45 minutes out of the safe room it should do fine short of a full-scale military assault. Bear in mind that the robbers do not have 45 minutes. They figure if you have a safe room, you have a cell phone and probably a gun. They are not going to peel off your roof to drop in only to start taking fire through the ceiling from you. They also don't have these tools, the knowledge and the time required. They can cut your power, cut your phone but bringing a functional cell phone jammer is probably something best left for Oceans 11 movies.

If they get in, they assume you are going to shoot them or at least at them. A safe room with a solid core wood door does not cut it. Remember the story of the wolf and the three pigs - the brick house won out in the end. Same for all the walls, only solid concrete. If your walk-in closet safe room does not have a good wall you can have a wall built inside the weak wall. You can use cinder blocks filled with hard concrete and lots and lots of rebar.

Dogs - They are great. The bigger the better. A few robbers can deal with dogs if the dog is outside. They will shoot the dog(s). If the dogs are inside this is a whole other story. Now if there are two or more large dogs rushing the robbers at night in the dark and the robbers are on unfamiliar territory, the dogs are barking (big dogs sound scary) I give it to the dogs. It takes nerve of steel to stand there and aim at a dog charging in the dark who is 100% dedicated to the idea of killing you right now and will be ready to die trying.

Hitting such a charging small profile target in the dark is another matter. Most shooting for offense or self-defense is practiced using a man size upright target or an elevated bulls eye. Hitting the dog racing at them is not easy even if they have the nerves to stay there and try. A lousy hit is still going to let the dog get you and he may have fight for a few minutes after the hit. Yikes that is scary, the robber may die before the dog even after shooting the dog. I am assuming at least an 80-pound dog is being used. Dogs of lesser weight have trouble throwing people to the ground where they can get in to the vital areas real easy (neck).

If you have three dogs that is a mess for them for sure. Multiple dogs make the robbers crazy. If the dogs are outside they can shoot them through the fence, poison meat is another option, meat with drugs is another option. If the dogs are in the house with you it makes it very hard for the robbers. The dogs know the layout. You may want to keep a dog outside for a warning, fine but have at least one inside the house. Once the barking stops you know the dog is otherwise occupied. The pit bulls are effective on animals but have trouble taking people down. They often hang on to an arm or leg. True they cause damage, maybe even 100 or more stitches but you want a dog that has take down power so it can bring a definitive end to the assault. A 100-pound Rottweiller, German Shepherd, Doberman, etc is going to get the job done fast and decisively. The big dogs will also hold up better when it comes to taking a poorly placed bullet, getting kicked, choked, or clubbed.

Lights - Having driveway or yard lights that go on when one crosses a beam is of course good. Another thing for them to worry about. Hook it to a buzzer inside the house so you know there is something going on.

Megaphone - Get a battery-powered megaphone and start screaming out the window. Send Police. Home invasion. Give apt number or address. Odds are about 99% they will abort when they hear this.

Boat Horn - Gas canister powered. A boat horn blowing out the window will attract attention too and is now going to be a comforting sound to the robbers.

Cameras - This is a real pain for the robber. A closed circuit camera focused on the entry doors. They can pull shirts over their face, pull hats down etc but then if you see them on the inside monitor why would you let them in. You can also rig the camera to transmit the images to a website somewhere, like in another country and have a sign explaining this. This eliminates the possibility of breaking in and grabbing the tapes. Dummy cameras with flashing lights tend to be deterrents.

Alarms - These can be helpful. Make sure they use a wireless radio or cell phone to phone in the alarm or else or they do is cut your phone line before the break in. Do get a panic switch. Have an audible sound and a flashing light so people can see where the alarm is coming from.

Entry Door Locks - Have them keyed on the inside. The first thing the robbers do if breaking in through a window is look for exits. If they see the entry doors locked, more trouble for them especially if you are in the safe room with the key.

Safes - Do keep the safe in the safe room. It is an extra layer when traveling or not home. You can also keep casual valuables on the shelves in the safe room. Do buy a substantial safe so it cannot be carried away. Do bolt the safe into the solid concrete floor and walls. It helps to build concrete walls around the safe on sides and top exposing only the door. Walls should be at least 4" thick with lots of rebar inside.

The least vulnerable part of a safe if the door and that is where most attempt to get in, go figure. If the safe is bolted in on two sides and has a concrete wrapper it is going to take a lot to get in assuming you have a decent safe. The door should be at least 1/4" inch solid steel as a minimum, 1" is much better.

Get a good digital lock. It can be helpful to get a low price but useable safe and keep it somewhere easily found. Make them work to get it but not too hard. Maybe two bolts on back into wall so they can crowbar it out easy enough. Get a safe that weighs maybe 125 pounds so they can carry it out. Inside keep a paper bag with a note in English and Spanish that says please hold. If you are hiding in the safe room and they find the safe they may be content to take it and leave. Remember they are not really sure you are even in the safe room if you stay quiet, just use cell phone to call police.