Tenants belongings

The problem continues, now Block 4 again.  We arrived Sunday evening 4 Feb and the next day went down to the beach.  I had a few worries about security and so went up at 3.30 p.m. to check everything.  Arriving inside I could see half a leg appearing over the balcony/ partition wall and then the whole body of a man.  He seemed surprised to see me and I him, and he started to climb back hurriedly. I opened the patio door and went out shouting in Spanish what are you doing, and he replied  "I'm fixing the satellite dish"- ha ha.  By this time he had mad it over next door's balcony , their dog barking like mad, and I saw an older Spanish-looking man in a cap talking to another down by the pool and shouted in Spanish " there's a man breaking in to the flats" but he ignored me. By this time the Spanish- looking intruder  - mid thirties I guess - had reached the third balcony presumably to make his escape.  When I went out the front door I saw another Spanish-looking man walking hurriedly towards the gate with a rucksack on his back . So I walked to  the third flat along ( the only one without bars on the window) found the blind forced up, bedroom window forced open, table positioned below the  window etc.to make his escape.  Returning to my balcony the men by the pool had disappeared.  We called a friend of the owner of the far-end flat and he came and found no damage and nothing apparently taken so it's likely they were using it as a means to get to our flat via the balconies.  Nothing taken, burglary thwarted, so the police won't consider it a crimescene and  won't be interested. I had a good look at their faces though, so I don't think they'll be back for a while.   I spoke to the Miraflores Vigilante patrol.  They weren't interested and didn't seem to think they cover Angel - does anyone? They said these men work in groups of 4 or more. Two stand and watch with  mobile phones  (look-out s ), one breaks in  and throws what ever he finds to the catcher with the rucksack, and there may be others to distract or confuse the residents . Spoke to Jose- he finishes at 3 pm. They are targeting us after he leaves while we're down at the beach - first day ,guard down as you're on holiday and  have left money and credit cards, passports and jewellery on the table.  Even grills and gates are not going to stop them.  VIGILANCE WILL.  We need a watchman from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. to keep an eye on the blocks to call the police if he sees anything suspicious, even if this costs us a few Euros more, otherwise we will continue to be a target and someone might get hurt as well as losing our possessions and expensive damage to property.  The end flat has damage where they tried to force open the shower window ( no bars on it ) with a screwdriver  but failed. We all need to be extremely vigilant and challenge strangers.

Dave,

As President of Angel de Miraflores I am sorry to read about your attempted break in.

I was in Spain from Thursday for 4 days so just missed you by a day. I looked at the damage to apartment 1D in block 4 for myself. The shower room window is damaged and can easily be opened again and there is damage to the window and tiles of the bedroom. I must state that I advised the owners of this apartment  to get wrecker bars fitted to these windows but their reply was these are too expensive. I can't believe that they had not even fitted internal window locks. Perhaps now wrecker bars will be fitted as a matter of urgency. Apartment owners must take some responsibility for their own security and security of others.

If the owners of this web site are known can they please contact me as they have not supplied a UK address for emergencies like this and cannot even receive details of meetings etc.

I can't agree that security guards would solve the problem. I watch people leave the site and do even bother to close doors and gates. We have improved security by changing the locks and installing gate closures but the residents must play their part. Alot of money has been spent on garage security with all doors now working and the ramp gate is now closed automatically when residents leave the community. All apartment owners must play their part in ensuring the community is secure and this includes owners who rent out apartments. Owners who fail to advise renters that security is important may have the right to rent withdrawn.

To get the residents to pay more community fees for a security guard would be impossible. The recent increase in community fees has caused uproar amongst residents with some refusing to pay this increase so to add even more cost would not be possible. Some apartment owners ( UK and Spainish ) still continue to refuse to pay community fees but our Administrator and our Lawyers now have the power to chase for non payment through the Spanish courts and these will include back payments plus court costs.

I will e-mail the President of the Grand urb Miraflores to clarify that Angel is covered by Franjus Seguridad Company and will post the reply as soon I have his response.

The next quarterly bulletin is due out soon and security will be featured as a matter of urgency.

Many thanks,

Michael Russell - President.

Sorry to hear about the break ins.

Mike I just want to say you are doing an excellent job. keep the good work up.

H.