expatasia

Apologies if this has been discussed on here recently, I'm quite new to BE.


Has the economic crisis made things noticeably different in your part of Spain? I've always considered the country to be super safe, not as much as Japan of course but much better than Britain where I've ended up in unlikely scrapes even when just back home on holiday, say having a quiet drink in a pub or having something nicked off the rental car. I ask because of what happened on this last visit in December, my first ever such experience(!)

The whole trip had actually been in doubt because of BA's threatened strike but when we arrived at Barajas after long journey from Tokyo (via Heathrow) there appeared to be a taxi strike under way in Madrid! Just our luck!

Forced to lug suitcases & travel bags on the Metro on a Saturday evening in a very fatigued state after the long haul we got targeted by an Eastern European mini-gang on the train pretending to help get all the bags inside a predictably teeming carriage. I suddenly noticed Mrs expatasia fending off one bloke & desperately clinging onto her handbag, I felt in my pocket - NO WALLET and hell it was the START of the holiday, an hour in to be precise!

Don't know why but I instinctively smacked one surly chap in a long overcoat next to me on the arm and magically a familiar scruffy purple wallet fell to the deck near my feet - would have been a complete nightmare losing different currencies & credit cards and having to spend all night at the copshop explaining and then contacting banks overseas etc! Me muero!

Of course no help from the other passengers when I held up my wallet shouting 'ayudenme que nos estan robando' or something but I guess you never know what weapons might be used by these kinds of scumbags.

One Spanish girl who was present told me a bit later she'd also been done not long before in the same way by pickpockets ('de Europa del Este') in the underground and hadn't even noticed. She hinted it was common.

The 3 or 4 opportunists backed off and gave up anyway amid the commotion gruntingly alighting at next station empty handed so no harm done and we laughed about it later in our room, well not exactly laughed when the hotel staff told us to not even bother reporting the incident since if 400 Euros' worth of stuff is not actually robbed the police will do nothing anyway and just release suspects immediately, in the unlikely event that they are caught.

Surely Spain needs to be more proactive to defend its vital tourism industry?


Anyway, how safe do you feel going about your daily business nowadays? Any similar experiences?

Rotor

Anyway, how safe do you feel going about your daily business nowadays? Any similar experiences?

In small towns and villages I feel very safe and dont worry about my wife and kids either, but in the bigger city`s I would not be be happy for my wife and kids to travel around in certain areas especially at night, same as the UK really.
The biggest crooks here work in offices selling realestate or collecting taxes etcbut they dont beat you up when they take your money....yet

pete_l

Well, personally I've had more stuff stolen from the house in the spanish countryside over the past 5 years than I have from anywhere I've lived in England for the previous 50.
I now presume that anything that's not locked away will, eventually get nicked - even down to single terracotta plant pots

dr_designer

In Oxford, living in a small semi-detached house, I was regularly burgled. One year, it happened 6 times.

I have lived here in Calpe without a burglar alarm, regularly forgetting to lock my front door when I go to bed, or even (a couple of times) leaving it wide open. (Well, I was very tired after an evening out…) I have never been burgled, and the only crime I have been a victim of was when some German yobs who were on holiday in a villa across the road took my car one night for a joyride.

agoreira

Both Spain and UK will differ enormously, depending on where you live. I live in rural UK, have never suffered a break in, nor had anything stolen, don't even know anyone that has had a car stolen or suffered a break in. We're one of the lowest areas in UK for insurance. In Spain, we have had our hire car broken into twice. My neighbour lived alongside us in a huge desirable house for nearly 20 years and never had any trouble, but within a few weeks of moving to Spain had her car stolen and solar panels stolen. However, talk to some from other parts of UK, and you'll get an entirely different story, if it's not nailed down, it'll walk! People from these areas moving to certain parts of Spain will find crime much, much less. People here often tell us crime is much lower in Spain but personally I don't find that, and I certainly don't feel the need to have my humble dwelling adorned with rejas, and all the other security precautions that so many Spanish dwellings seem to have. We often rent properties from Spanish friends, and it's a five minute job locking up at night or when we go out, bars, grills, chains, locks etc, I've got a very ordinary lock on the front and back door at home and that's it.

fionamw

Never a truer word.... I think it's utterly impossible to generalise and even in the 'safest' areas (I too, apart from a period in London never lived anywhere in the UK but low insurance rural idyll) you get some crime. I'd leave the house unlocked in Suffolk, Forest of Dean, Somerset.... and here too if I'm honest. However things were taken from a neighbour in Gloucs, a cherry tree was towed up outside our Suffolk house (!!!!) and only yesterday I heard of a stabbing in a nearby hamlet. However that was a crime of passion, by all accounts - the ex and current boyfriend of a transient woman. But does any of that tell you very much about either crime in the bits of the UK I've lived in or the bit of Spain I live in? Not really. Does it tell the OP if things are worse or better now? Not really. Unless you've first hand experience over a long period of time with lots of contact with your near neighbours to know their tales too, none of us will know the true picture.

manamama

No matter which country you live...the cities are often crime ridden, especially with pickpockets and burglary.

The experience you had in Spain would be quite common..at night in the capital, on the metro and laden down with suitcases -

I live in Asturias which feels quite safe...the times I leave my keys in the car and it's still there when I return to it...I am amazed.

But when I lived in the CDS...some of my neighbours' houses where broken into but fortunately, we weren't ...I did feel unsafe when we lived there and pleased we moved to a more safer area of Spain.

I would also say that we never had problems with crime in the UK either..even when we lived in London.

HBG

There are statistics available for crime in Spain and broken down for different areas. Our individual experiences depend on too many other factors to be representative. If you live in a high crime area you need to take precautions, and if you're a high value individual, even more so.

But if you're ordinary people living in ordinary places then crime in Spain is no higher than anywhere else.

I live on the outskirts of Torrevieja and have a Doberman, what more can I say?

expatasia

Fair point but I appreciate people's input on here, keep 'em coming.

Living here you forget what crime is!

cricketman

Oficially, crime in Spain is still the lowest in Europe.

But it is true that the incidence of personal robbery is very high -and yes a lot of these crimes are committed by immigrants and people on the edge of society in the big cities and in areas where there are lots of transient people i.e. the Costas.

However, violent crime and burglery is very low. But dont forget that 80% of Spaniards live in flats which are very difficult to rob and in villages people look out for one another so crime is very low.

Personally I felt safer in Barcelona than in London and saw young people walking outside alone at all times in BCN when in London people would only walk late at night in groups.

But saying that I have never been a victim of crime either in the UK or Spain (touch wood) so both countries cant be so bad!

campello

dr_designer,

Your lucky some friends of ours have been done several times in Calpa and now go to sleep with a panic alarm close by them!

Even the bars on windows seem to provide no protection any more as folk come up in 4X4 put chains around the bars and rip the whole window out.

The crime in Spain is becoming out of control IMHO. I hope you stay safe!

ukdobby

The new estate I have bought on only has about 3 permanent out of 25 houses,the rest are hol homes up to now but have been robbed mainly when they are in the house,app eastern europeans sneak in and whip bags ect.

missile

Had my car stolen twice and been burgled in the UK, but never had any trouble in spain.

I don't think you can generalise and statistics can be very misleading.

Maybe you looked like a tourist - stood out as a target?

jackytoo

There has always been that type of crime around tourist/rental areas. This happened before the Eastern Europeans were able to leave their home countries.

HBG

I've witnessed many cases of minor shoplifting since the crisis started two years ago, the Spanish supermarkets don't seem to employ store detectives and people are walking around stuffing meat and chicken into their clothing quite openly, all kinds of people.

I usually feel sorry for those shoplifters, they're not doing it for fun and leave the luxury items alone; apart from a big fat woman last week who loaded up with expensive chocolate and stayed away from the chicken and salad counter.

Mercadona cannot possibly be making a profit from selling chickens, they fly off the shelves and seldom get their bar codes checked at the tills.