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San José and Alajuela Head List
of Most Car Thefts
The cities of San José and
Alajuela are prime targets for
car thieves, where as many as 70
cars per month are stolen from
their owners, according
information by the Organismo de
Investigación Judicial (OIJ),
representing some ˘2.387 million
colones (us$4.6 million dollars)
loss to car owners.
The agency says that in 55% of
the cases the loss is due to the
negligence of the owners, who
become careless in respect to
parking their cars and caring
for the keys. In those cases,
where the same key to open the
door also starts the engine, the
keys can disappear in a moment
of distraction and so will the
vehicle.
The OIJ says that in 30% of the
cases, violence is used to steal
the vehicle. Authorities say
that to minimize injury in the
face of a violent theft, the
owner should remain calm, hand
over the vehicle and make note
of the description of the
thieves and other information to
offer to the investigators.
The remaining 15% of the
robberies, the OIJ says, is in
the early morning hours where
thieves silently cut chains on
the garage doors and quickly
take the vehicle. The OIJ
recommends that additional
security measures, like double
locks on the garage doors, car
alarms, steering locks be used
to dissuade thieves from taking
your car and moving on to an
easier target.
To give you an idea of the size
of the problem, the press office
of the OIJ has supplied the
following information that is
the result of all vehicle
robberies for the year.
In the case of owner negligence,
San José had 2.074 cars and 489
motorcycles stolen; in Alajuela,
the number was 1.150 cars and
455 motorcycles; in Heredia, 678
cars and 139 motorcycles; while
the provinces of Puntarenas and
Guanacaste saw the least number
of thefts (numbers of those
provinces was not released).
When it comes to "bajonazos"
(violent thefts), San José
registered 119 incidents, while
there were 119 in Alajuela, 130
in Heredia, 67 in Cartago, 19 in
Limón and 16 in Puntarenas and
only 1 in Guanacaste.
In the case of "chocerazos"
(breaking in garage doors),
there were 82 cases reported in
San José, 77 in Alajuela, 53 in
Heredia, 31 in Cartago, 4 in
Limón, 10 in Puntarenas and 9 in
Guanacaste.
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