Security warning for apartments

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Jool
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Security warning for apartments

Postby Jool » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:12 pm

Just to warn all apartment owners, whether in a block with a secure entry system or not. Always double lock your apartment whether you are inside or out. A recent re-emerging modus operandi is that burglars continuously ring the bell of apartments. If there is no reply they get themselves let in to the block by someone and then slip the latch of individual aprtments and can rob money and jewellery in peace.

Do not assume the secure entry system offers any real protection as it is too easily bypassed. Someone recently did not answer their doorbell after many rings as they were in the bathroom, walked in to hall and found two men casually opening their front door - so please be ultra careful. As the financial picture worsens there are more desperate people out there......

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costakid
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby costakid » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:56 pm

Further to that Jool, Always deadlock with your key because then they would have to drill the lock to get in.

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ken2
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby ken2 » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:43 pm

VERY VERY good advice, i have to tell holiday makes this all day every day, its unreal how people on holiday forget all about these bloody tea leafs.

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princess peach
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby princess peach » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:31 pm

If you do not double lock your apartment door,they can actually get in using a bank card or such like very easily.

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gerryh
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby gerryh » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:57 pm

How?
Have you ever tried it?
I think you will find this is one of those things shown in films and TV programmes but doesn't work in practice.

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Gerry
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campo babe
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby campo babe » Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:49 pm

Gerry, this does work.

Where we are the houses have security doors and locks, but if the lock isn't turned to actually lock the door a plastic card can be used to open it.

My husband has done this twice for neighbours who had locked themselves out. If the key is turned in the lock then it can't be done.

No, he wasn't a burglar in a former life!

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costakid
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby costakid » Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:54 pm

Gerry, I left my key in the door and closed it. Could not get in with the spare key so called a locksmith out and he got in with a piece of flexi plastic in under 30 seconds. I always dead lock now. €120 for half a minutes work but you pay for his expertise i suppose.

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gerryh
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby gerryh » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:08 pm

You must both have types of doors I have never seen.
All the doors I have seen close into a rebated section of door frame. There is absolutely no way that a credit card would bend around the rebate unless the door is extremely badly fitting.
I'm intrigued to know how your doors are made and fitted.
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Gerry
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Angie P
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby Angie P » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:11 pm

We did the same as Costakid last week. My keys were on the inside, we were on the outside with my husbands set of keys, but they didnt work due to the presence of mine still in the lock!

Fortunately, we own another property in the block, so we went to wait there until the president came home with the keys to the roof, so that we could climb over ( we are top floor, not spidermen!) into our place..
As we were waiting, we got chatting to the neighbour of the flat we own but dont live in, and he said he was a locksmith!! Result! He asked us if we had a radiografia or credit card which was no longer used. We werent sure what he meant by a radiografia helping us to gain access, even though we knew it meant x-ray.
Anyway, el presidente comes home, locksmith climbs over onto our terrace, gets in and lets us back in.
When I went for lunch with a Spanish friend the day after she said they normally use an sheet of x-ray to get in. at which point the penny dropped(!) Before then, if we have gone down to the trastero or to the rubbish bins, I didnt normally lock the door, just close it behind me, so it was on the latch.. Not anymore!
I have also made a note for the back of our holiday rental apartment on the coast to make sure guests lock the door behind them, as I dont know how many of them realise how easy it is for someone to get in while they are out.

Good advice.
Thanks


Ang

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Devils Advocate
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby Devils Advocate » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:56 pm

Nationwides Flexi-card is made especially for this purpose :lol:
Property owner in Andalucia since 2002. How time flies.

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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby Paula » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:26 pm

Have had 2 burglaries and one attempted burglary since living here, each time we thought we had ample security :roll: Now I leave nothing to chance and even if visiting a neighbour for 15 mins, I close every window, double lock doors and put down electric shutters. Its a total pain in ****, but I'd rather it took me 10 mins to get in my house than have those robbing b's get in.

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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby pete_l » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:11 pm

This is one of the things that amazes me about brits moving to spain. I've frequently heard one of the
reasons for moving was "oh, because of the high crime [in the UK]".
Well, every time I've arrived back in Spain in the past 18 months, something's been nicked or vandalised
from my yard. Hosepipes, garden ornaments, rotary clothes line (good grief - WHY?) etc. Even my little
weather station has been smashed up. I've had my garage broken in to and the last time, someone had
tried to force my front door.
In the UK I've never, ever had anything nicked or any signs that anyone's tred to break in, to
anywhere I've lived - even when I've been working away for extended periods (or in Spain for weeks at
a time) - and the house has been empty.
This idea that Spain is a low-crime country appears to be a complete myth. Rural Spain seems to be
on a par with the worst areas of inner-city britain so far as property crime goes.

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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby Paula » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:19 pm

Well I can't say we haven't experienced crime in UK too, we have had two burglaries there and had vehicles stolen aswell as vandalised. Though not in the last 8 years (apart from a vehicle vandalised).
Personally I think house burglaries are more common here, I seem to hear of some form of home robbery every week, though far nastier crimes appear to be happening here now too.

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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby katy » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:31 pm

Heard of a robbery last week from a Golf member. They had visitors, someone left a window open and the owner heard a noise in the night. He was conforonted by a burglar wearing a balaclava and night sight glasses :shock: Obviously a professional. This was on Los Naranjos, Nueva Andalucia. We are a bit laid back here as nothing has ever happened..yet! I also know someone in Cártama who cannot even leave a gas bottle out or it goes. Would hate to live in that environment.

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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby Paula » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:54 pm

Not as bad as the 93 yr old lady that was murdered in her home in Cabopino couple of weeks ago :shock:
I must admit I felt safer when we had the dogs, one was virtually deaf but the other one used to wake the deaf one if he heard a noise outside at night. (he probably only woke him to say you go first :) )

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ken2
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby ken2 » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:30 pm

We live on a complex, each apartment has a underground parking space with a little lock up, i would think 90% have been broken into, last Christmas we put one of them nice Christmas writhes on the front door, yep it was gone in the morning,and the bloody umbrella stand,didn't take the brolly cos it had a name all over it,soon as we have holiday makers here, the bloody thieves arrive, and sorry Gerry but they mostly get in through the front door ,not being double locked like they have been told to do,money passports jewelry, very strange this year have just left the credit cards behind,

Jool
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby Jool » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:35 pm

This is very depressing reading.......but I have to say that the police and guardia seem all too casual about burglary, often don´t bother to take fingerprints and in one case near us simply tossed the tool used to break in to the house aside so anyone else could have come along and picked them up to use again!!!!!

I know of people with alarm systems where burglars just ripped them off the wall (send a signal) but then the police took 5 hours to arrive, when nearest police station was no more than 20 minutes away, of course house was trashed and burglars long gone by then......

I am shocked about the lady of 93 but have no idea where Cabopino is I´m afraid.........but it seems to me we need to be security conscious now and not leave our doors open when we are at home as even the dogs don´t hear people walking in.....

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frog
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby frog » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:39 am

as a lot of people rent long term out here,if you are one of these people,the first thing you should do is change your locks,all the previous occupants and cleaners may have keys,so it costs you 30 euros for a new lock,you can use the old one when you move to the next place
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patricia
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Re: Security warning for apartments

Postby patricia » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:55 pm

Another thing to remember is if you move into a new build flat or house to change the locks as all of the workman would have had keys. My friends moved into a new apartment and were broken into shortly after.

I only know one person in the UK who has been broken into I know dozens here and some have been burgled twice and a third attempt made as well as the neighbours broken into on the same night one with violence involved ie they got beaten up. The first people who disturbed the burglars called the Guardia Civil who declined to come out and so the second house was burgled and the chap quite seriously beaten up.

I have had my tires slashed twice and acid poured over my car (that car had UK plates),now have a Spanish reg car which has been keyed at least 30 times once they know the owner is aa Guiri, and also have been threatened by a knife from a man in his late sixties when I asked him to pick up his dogs crap! I have lived in the UK a lot longer and I have never had any of these things happen there, and I lived in London.
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