Jardines 8 - burgled last night

We have a ground floor apartment on Jardines 8, today we received an email from Mileniun saying that a security guard had noticed our patio door was open, it turns our we were broken into last night.  The burglar entered via the window in the small bedroom presumably by removing the shutter and forcing open the window and left via the patio doors.

Not sure yet what has been taken, I think large flat screen Sony TV, dvd player and Playstation 2, possibly bikes and golf clubs too.

We will be reporting to the police tomorrow.

If you have a similar property please ensure you have secured it properly, and if anyone has any information about this incident please report it to Milleniun.

A sad day for our dream holiday home !!

I am so sorry & saddened to hear of the burglary in your apartment.

I read earlier today that due to the lack of street lighting in Campasol burglaries have risen drastically.

The difference is that we are supposed to be in a secured guarded complex unlike Campasol but these incidences are occurring on Condado too. We have adequate lighting I feel. There is no way anyone could get off site if the security guards inspected all vehicles. Inside vans & the boots of cars.

The only other thing to consider is that the thieves are residents & that is even more worrying.

How do we get round that? Paint everything a bright colour so anyone calling in to see their neighbour will notice it. A bit drastic. (only joking) though it`s not a joke for those who have lost their valuables.

How do we get round it? Alarms? Probably a waste of money as I don’t think there are enough residents to cover each Jardin & apartment block & respond when an alarm goes off.

Increase security guards in cars & on foot. Probably not as the site is very large & not financially economic to police.

Security cameras linked to your computer @ home. Maybe we could bulk buy & therefore get a good discount from a reputable company. We would consider it but the price would have to be very good.

The latter does seem to me to be the best idea though I know this has been discussed before.

It is a sad sign of the times but it does not mean that people have the right to steal from us! though how we stop it I do not know.

 Jan

Hi lanky, I am so sorry....we are in n5...if you need anything doing let us know.


We have window locks on all windows....they give peace of mind...Rob fitted ours louandlev@yahoo.com...think they were 70 Euro for 4.


If youre brave enough to do them yourself...you can buy them about 7euro each, in Camposol ferreteria.

I heard recently that Ml will also fit these, I heard a figure of over 400 Euro so maybe we wont go there!!!

We thought the burglaries had stopped, quite a few were done in j5 a few months ago.  We had heard the police got fingerprints (find this hatd to believe) and that 2 individuals from another urbanisation were on the run...but who knows.  I hope it's not residents but people can live here and you never see them!!  We had a few individuals last summer who accidentally (their word when they returned it) lifted a friend's smartphone...they returned it when they found out we were trying to find out where they lived and they seem to have disappeared off site!! 

When you discover whats missing let us know and will keep an eye on local FB sites for items for sale.  A friend saw his camera on a site near Alicante recently....but when he contacted them they blocked him!!!  Always worth having photos of what we have in our apartments!

Take care and again don't hesitate to contact us if you need anything doing for you!!!

Denise

I am really sorry to hear the news and they seems to be doing the rounds of the resorts and often the value of the goods taken is less than the cost of the damages and of course the inconvience of the reporting process but as I have said before on here there are lots of common sense low cost ways to protect the property as the last thing they want is to be discovered, it is all about prevention and deterrents

Lighting - simple PIR floodlights that you can buy locally that come on when anybody approaches, ask the people in properties above yours if they will also fit them so that they are too high for easy access. They can and do smash there and take out the memory cards but it is unusal for them to do this

There are many good low cost alarms out there, noise makers only but people will tell you that you cannot fit them, this is not true. One of the best is the Friedland SL2 kits, nice outside siren with flashing lights and they work well with their combination of motion sensors and magneting contact breakers. In the same range they offer a dummy box and it is impossible to tell the dummy box from a real one. We have many of these fitted and they have broken into the property next door rather than chance the alarm.. Also available fake cameras

Leave some power on to the property especially for the door bell because this is the normal way for them to check if a place os empty by testing the bell

Put a simple cheap timer onto a light and if you have a keyholer make sure that they adjust the timing as the season changes, this can also be connected to a radio but may new TV's have a capability where you can set timers

Hide your TV, perhaps under the bed sheets, we recently had a break in and they could not fine the TV so did not take anything and if you do have a safe leave it empty and open

You can and should fit extra window locks, screw through type bolts on sliding doors, sliding bolts on the blinds, pop type keylock on the windows, cheap and effective

Grills remain the ultimate thing, we have had concertina grills fitted on other resorts costing around €450 for a typical patio door or €170 for a window but be carefull because quality and prices can vary dramatically between suppliers. If they quote and take an order without first doing a survey avoid the company because window sizes can vary dramatically , even in the same type of property

You can buy very cheap individual alarms this are battery operated and stick to the doors and windows and go off if opened, they cost €2 and again a real expience was when somebdoy tried to break into a property this simple alarm went off and they didn't go in

The problem with real cameras is that there are different systems and really you need an internet connection to have them notify you of movements, or a phone line or internt to have an alarm that calls you

When it comes to security I am not advising anybody to do anything that I have not done on my own residential and holidays propeties, they all have grills, PIR lights and my resifdental home has IP cameras linked to the internet and an alarm that calls me

If anybody would like an other advice please mail me and I will be happy to help

When we go around site we notice that there are cver flaps on the door bells and we will see in a block that all of the covers have been openned

What I didn't also say was let your neighbours know when you will be visiting

With the limited amount of people on condado this time of year you would think security .could find these scum also how do they take the goods out .which makes me think is it  someone who stays at condado who as a van so they pass security so regular that they dont get checked, so may be all residents should look closer to home to find these low lifes

Often they are internal jobs although this cannot proven, they can stash the goods and simply put them into the back of a car and drive them out and most of the time they only take TV's

They also sometimes open up an empty property to store stolen items and gain take them out later so watch out for this

Why do they need a van, I have a Zarfria which has plenty if space fior 4 TV's in the back and the cover will go over them, so 2-3 cars going out of different gates, at different times wouldn't get noticed

They re getting clever because they now close the shutters so that there is no obvious signs of a break in

They normally break into around 4 propertes at a time, in the same area, so what we do is when it happens, even if we do not manage the surrounding properties we check them for break ins

So sad to read this story and feel sad for anyone who has been burgled. It really makes you worry. :(

I too have a ground floor property on J8 and recevied an email on Friday afternoon from Millennium which I did not receive until last night so our property was unsecured until today when a neighbour kindly checked it and secured it.

We have lost several small but high value item, a mountatain bike (GT Aggressor XC3 Silver/Blue not common locally) and they even took my wifi router.

It's sad to think this can happen in so called gated community but it seems to open season for criminals and we have never been challenged when entering or leaving. We are usually just waved at by security.

It seems I will have to take care of my own security with IP cameras etc. but this makes me wonder why we are contributing towards security?  

These robberys have been going on for a while now

as anything been done yet ?

are security involved ?

who knows they may try breaking in when apartments when occupied , it could be child that is taken not tv sets this is the biggest problem facing condado and millennium and the presidents turn a blind eye after all we are paying for 24hr security I ask millennium about the problem of thefts on condado and was told it is a very small problem and it happens all over Spain (24hr security )

I still think it is someone who lives or visits condado regular (everyday) with large van/car known to security possible with a business. i am not pointing the finger at anyone but anyone with nothing to hide would not take offence but would be helpfull

I have a large car, with my company name on and I have NEVER been asked to open my boot when I enter or leave the resort

By comparison I always get searched when I enter or leave Terrazes De La Torre

Security MUST start checking every single vehicle - if not coming into the resort then at least leaving!  I would have no problem stopping to allow a guard to open the boot and quickly check that I'm not leaving with a tv, dvd player, bike etc etc...... those that have a problem with this will be the guilty ones.  I would far prefer to be delayed by a couple of minutes than have to sort out insurance claims and item replacement.  Also.....if security started doing these checks the word would get out pretty quickly to the undesirable people who are stealing people's property that Condado is too risky as the security is so tight..... they'd soon leave the resort alone.