How to secure personal belongings in your apartment?

Mr_Traveler

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Dec 2, 2010
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I have a foreigner friend in the DR who recently had his stuff stolen when someone broke into his apartment.

I'm thinking of moving down there, and I'm pretty worried about the same thing happening to me. Does this happen frequently to foreigners living down there? How do you protect your personal belongings in your apartment? The most expensive thing I'll have is probably my laptop, and maybe a camera.
 

yanandu

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Jan 23, 2011
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I have a foreigner friend in the DR who recently had his stuff stolen when someone broke into his apartment.

I'm thinking of moving down there, and I'm pretty worried about the same thing happening to me. Does this happen frequently to foreigners living down there? How do you protect your personal belongings in your apartment? The most expensive thing I'll have is probably my laptop, and maybe a camera.

A safe large enough for a laptop and an alarm are possible. It depends on the physical security of the building. Good locks and steel bars are common.

Both are quite low cost.

A friend leaves a old cheap laptop out with the other hidden away; ditto camera.

Yanandu.
 

Mr_Traveler

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Dec 2, 2010
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A lot depends on where you live. Live in an "iffy" area, you'll probably get robbed.

Live in a good area, you'll have a lot less to worry about.




So would a good area be a district where foreigners live -- I'm guessing it's a gated community? How often do robbery crimes occur there vs. an ordinary Dominican district?

I was thinking of places along the northern coast, Cabarete in particular.
 

yanandu

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Jan 23, 2011
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Hear of plenty of robberies in gated communities.
However my apartment in a fairly nice part of London was robbed twice in quick succession. Insurance was heavy - about $500 dollars a year.
Best to take precautions - a safe, alarm and assume there will be loss once in a while as in other cities in the World.
Most people live simply and do not take out contents insurance saving $$$$.
As elsewhere best to put documents in a safety deposit box. Photocopies should satisfy most needs. If the camera is professional worth $1000's then this also.
Yanandu
 

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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In many cases it is about how you live and how you present yourself. Go around with lots of flash - money - possessions etc and you make yourself a target. One argument is that expat gated communities set themselves up as targets.

I have always lived in middle class Dominican neighborhoods, with good security, treated my neighbors with respect, I don't flash and I've never had problems.