Panama Forum

StanleySankey
Joined 2016
Posts: 481

4 years ago

A Landmark Day

4 years ago

This morning we found that the restaurant that my wife and I operate was robbed overnight. I realized this was the first time in Panama that I had been robbed by someone that I didn't know. Before now it has always been employees or acquaintances.

Obviously, it was kids as the only thing they took was 20 cans of soda from the fridge. Have to give them some grudging credit though. In a clearly Jackie Chan inspired move they gained access by using the wall for a push off point to vault the 7 foot iron fence with the finials (security spikes) on top. The police noted the foot prints on the wall 4 and 8 feet up from the ground. So next upgrade will be to top that fence with a coil of razor wire.

Just to note, the National Police, although very much maligned in general; and I too may have lobbed a grenade or two at them; are actually are quite good at responding. This morning they were onsite within 5 minutes of getting called. They did their reports and took photos etc. and offered some advice to increase the security of the location.

When I had the location in Las Tablas my employees noticed a car parked on the street with four malientes that he figured were suspicious and called the police. The NP were there in also in under 5 minutes and had the suspects rousted out and were questioning them for about 30 minutes. They ultimately let them go as they had not done anything yet. My employee seen the same four malientes all handcuffed together in the back of a police truck two days later so clearly they robbed someone else instead of us.

Police are generally not people you want to have to deal with as it usually means your having a bad day; but so far I have no issues with the quality of service of the NP and they seem to be shaping up from when I first arrived here. Just for contrast the Canadian police in Edmonton, Victoria and Mission (Vancouver area) where I also was robbed; the cops just took a report over the phone and couldn’t be bothered to even show up.

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