Colombia Expat Forum

Andresen
Joined 2012
Posts: 1766

8 years ago

Home Invasion

8 years ago

I wanted to share my experience from last week with all the other expats out there. Hopefully, someone can learn from this.

First, some background information. I live in a finca with my girlfriend (hereafter referred to as gf) outside Medellin. We have had a couple workmen rebuilding the path that leads to the finca. Also, my Spanish is very basic and I don’t understand most Spanish conversations.

Now, here’s what happened.

The workmen were digging out the rocks closest to the finca.

About 3pm, 3 men came down the hill with the 2 men who had been working on our path. When they got close I saw one of the 3 men holding a revolver at his side and another man holding a knife. They came into the finca and over the next hour they seated us on the couches with my gf on a chair, fastened all our arms together using those plastic ties, and ransacked the house looking for money. Then they put plastic tape covering each of our mouths and put an electric cord around my gf’s neck for some reason.

(Later she told me it’s because they threatened her to give them money.) Then they locked the front door with our Stanley padlock and took the keys. I had visions of spending the weekend like this.

I managed to wriggle one of my hands out of the tie attached to the man on my right. I led my gf into the kitchen and used a knife to cut the one tie still tying us together then I used the knife to cut the ties connecting the other two men. But we were still locked in the finca. The guys found a long piece of rebar that they used to pry off the lock.

It took us less than 20 minutes to get totally free but I was told we were warned not to leave for at least 60 minutes. After time expired and the two workers left we took stock of what they took.

They found quite a bit of cash in one location, money that I had converted to pesos while the currency exchange rate was high. They also found the spare cash I take with me in my fanny pack when we go to town. They must have removed a small bag I had in my shaving kit that contained 1 million pesos but they obviously didn’t open it so we had that.

I thought they took my laptop but later I found it under blankets thrown on the bed. They took both my debit cards and I cancelled them the following day.

They took my cheap Timex watch. They broke our nearly full (with 500 peso and 1mil peso coins) piggy bank looking for something more valuable but didn’t take the coins. They also took 2 small flashlights my brother brought me from the States.

Of course my gf was very distraught but for some reason I was pretty cool through the whole thing. She started crying again when she thought about the fact that they could have slit our throats but I told her not to think about that. She told me one of the men said they should slit our throats but the other 2 men said they weren’t going to do that.

My gf wants me to buy a gun but I hate guns. Even if I had had a gun with me and had it in my hand I might have had to shoot one of the workers to get to the only bad guy carrying a gun. I told my gf I understand it’s difficult to buy a gun legally in Colombia. She told me that people who live in fincas have a right to buy a shotgun. (It better be more than a double barrel or the 3rd guy would have gotten me before I could reload.) Now I know why so many gringos live in gated communities with 24-hour security.

In the future we won’t be keeping a lot of cash in pesos in the house; just 100mil or so to appease any thieves that might do this again. We’re already looking at getting an apartment in Medellin. Since they know where the rich gringo lives I figure it’s just a matter of time before they come back for more. Comments welcome!

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