Placencia residents fed up with crime

The residents of Placencia Village are also being terrorized by burglars. In the past couple weeks, several businesses and homes have been broken into; some of them more than once. Many of the residents are a part of a Facebook group called Placencia Crime Watch and the reports of burglaries and failed attempts have been pouring in. Concerned Resident, Don Palmer, spoke to News Five today and he says the string of burglaries can be linked to the rainy weather they have been experiencing. Palmer also believes that all the break-ins are being committed by one group of persons. He told us about several incidents via phone.

Via Phone: Don Palmer, Concerned Placencia Resident

Don Palmer

“They broke into RFG Insurance twice I think it was last week. They broke in one night and stole a bunch of stuff, they broke in the next night and stole some more stuff. Mango’s up here at Maya Beach has been broken into twice. They broke in one night and stole some of his drinks from his restaurant and stole a big flat screen TV and the next night they came back and stole a bunch of computers. Now I’m looking here at, there’s a lady here in Maya Beach who says some entered through—I’m reading this right off of Placencia Crime Watch—she says “someone entered through my gate and entered downstairs at five-thirty this morning. I heard a sound a little earlier and as I was getting dressed to go look they had started to cut the wire mesh and I guess they heard me coming so they took off”. My point here is they are still around all the time. Someone else was watching someone’s house up by the water tower and—I’m just reading this right off here—they stopped to check on the house and there was a giant crowbar about five feet in length laying against the downstairs storage area. They could see where they tried to pry open the door but couldn’t succeed. Also very large boot prints were in the sand around the area they kept the crow bar.  Here’s someone down the road form us “thieves are on the move. Someone cut a hole in our fence today big enough for a big person to go through. Don’t know if we came home and caught them or our dogs scared them or if they were planning on coming back”. So it’s just a whole rash of break-ins going on all the time and I’m just not sure if everybody is aware of it. I don’t have any idea who might be doing it but I think it’s the same group. The question I have is if they’re stealing flat screen TVs and computers and all this, they have to be selling them somewhere. And I really don’t think they’re selling them in this country but I think they’re taking them out the country. I don’t have no evidence but that’s what I think.  Usually it’s when it’s raining outside when you really can’t hear different sounds. When the rain is coming down, it’s hitting the tin roof, you’re sleeping and everything, you don’t really pay attention to all those noises. So I think it’s when the bad storms come and we’ve been having a lot of rains recently so I think it’s when the rains coming in. and what I’d like to see happen is for the B.D.F. to come down here and start patrols. The police are doing all they can do.”

While they hope for added security, Palmer’s advice to Placencia residents is to keep your lights on, keep your dogs well fed and stay alert.