# Expats Under Attack !



## Wils & Nance (Dec 31, 2007)

Hi All !
Don't know if anyone watched a documentary last night titled Expats under attack !(ITV 10.30)
It mainly focused on Torrevieja & Feungirola and inland of Costa Blanca, it was
pretty scary stuff on how eastern europeans are targeting the houses of British expats in these areas and with the use of macetes and axes to threaten people in their homes...............it was horrendous !!!
So watch out for chalk marks outside your gate, they have certain codes to tell each other when is the best time to target that house, and they prefer it if your all at home.
One woman lost her hubby and a couples son was sliced across the stomach and killed !
I know these things happen everywhere...............but the fact that it is only expats that they are targeting, I feel all should be made more aware.


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Wils & Nance said:


> Hi All !
> Don't know if anyone watched a documentary last night titled Expats under attack !(ITV 10.30)
> It mainly focused on Torrevieja & Feungirola and inland of Costa Blanca, it was
> pretty scary stuff on how eastern europeans are targeting the houses of British expats in these areas and with the use of macetes and axes to threaten people in their homes...............it was horrendous !!!
> ...



I only managed to catch the first bit of the programme, but didn't one of the people involved go upstairs and leave his front door open according to what I heard? Well, I wouldn't have done that back in the UK.

I'm afraid I (and most other people I have spoken to on other forums) think this is just sensationalist journalism. Seems to be in fashion to knock Spain at the moment.

Sure .... there are burglaries and crime here. So far as I am concerned I haven't seen any crime since I've been here. Back in the UK I was burgled in all but one of the houses I lived in!!!! On one of those occasions we had no carpet (just moved in) and it was clear from footprints that someone had stood over me whilst I had been asleep whilst the others carried stuff out.

Its just about being sensible. Take precautions, as you would anywhere. Have an alarm fitted with an outside box and a key fob panic button. Thats what I have, and when I'm in the garden its with me. If anything were to happen I'd be pressing it pretty damned quick. That activate internal and external alarms as well as triggering phone calls. The windows have spanish bars and the front door is a 10 bolt deadlock, much like the one we had in the UK but metal.

I really don't think ex pats should be losing sleep over that programme. You have as much chance of being a victim of crime here as you would in the UK ... so as I said, be sensible and be safe! 

PS .... maybe they should do a programme on all the people in the UK that get burgled


----------



## Wils & Nance (Dec 31, 2007)

Hi Stravinsky,
I agree with you , it does happen everywhere !
It's just that this gang seemed to be particularily brutal, the older couple were just sitting down to dinner and 3 masked men walked in with an axe and hammer, and the couple had experienced this before....they even had a panic room, didn't do them any good whatsoever !
Some of the other situations the iron window bars were just hauled out the wall with a rope tied to a car !
They did say at the end of the programme that Spain does have a lower crime rate than the UK !
I am not trying to scare any one, but your statement (You have as much chance of being a victim in the Uk) is not true in this case being *from the UK *increases your chances big time ! 
They interviewed a E/Eu gang member and he said as much !

It hasn't put me off, but I no longer want a wee finca out in the country any more !
Far too isolated with that kind of thing going on.


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Wils & Nance said:


> It hasn't put me off, but I no longer want a wee finca out in the country any more !
> Far too isolated with that kind of thing going on.


I agree with you there. The beauty here is that if I was sitting to dinner & that happened the panic button would bring people to our door from around us. If they tried to rip bars off the window or break the door down then we'd hear it, and sound the alarm. In the campo it might be a different story


----------

