May 31, 2007 - Small-Town Crime Wave

Well, we´ve had a rash of burglaries in our small town of Orosí. Over the last 2 weeks, several homes and businesses have been broken into, including a supermarket, billiards hall, hostel, and several homes.

We get all of our news by word-of-mouth (e.g., gossip - it IS a small town after all...). And now to do my part :D. The host at the hostel was asleep when someone came in to the common area and ate some stuff from the fridge, drank some beer, then took his glasses and shaved with his razor (hmmm). The cash registers were emptied at the businesses, and at least one computer was taken out through a (small!) window of a house. One person had just arrived, with all her stuff at the entrance to a business, and someone walked off with it - she was packed for a 6 month trip!

What is the effect on people when this stuff happens? Well, one person has decided to sell her house instead of renting it out (she was planning to leave the country anyway). One person is moving to another town (but still in Costa Rica) earlier than planned. We had a fairly sleepless night planning our escape from small-town CR. Rumors run wild - ¨Everyone knows who did it (implying that all were robbed by one person), but no one is doing anything (implying complicity).¨ Some people are careful to state how they heard items of interest, and look for alternative interpretations, so other possibilities temper the building panic. Instead of ¨Oh my god! We have to get out of here! We´re next!¨ We get a chance to look around and realize that our situation is not all bad. After all, we do have nosy neighbors ;)