Left the crime scene? I'm surprised they even showed up!

It's not so easy to break into a wealthy persons home in DR. Perhaps he didn't pay the security money, why would he be alone. I know people that are NOBODIES with good american pensions with at least one armed person with them once they step onto dominican soil.

danny00-While I neither defend nor apologize for the crime wave in the DR, however the way you make it out to be, it is as if we are the worse in Latin America, when in fact it is not. In spite of recent increases, our numbers remain relatively low compared to the rest. We have traditionally lagged behind most places, when compared to Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Pto Rico, Virgin Islands, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador. So don't even go there. Yes we have a problem and the surge in crime is some what of a new thing for the DR. It caught us totally off guard and ill prepared to handle it. We were just not ready for the hundreds of deportee that all of a sudden were sent back after serving US sentences, excaped prisoners from Haiti, the invasion of foreign nationals with a criminal past hiding in DR while attempting to run from justice and the drug cartels taking control of DR streets. We will fix it but will take time, regardless of how bad, we are still better off then most.

The DR is not safe for tourist or retiree's from other countries.

Why would he be alone.= Because you cannot trust other Dominicans. I live alone with 2 Pit Bulls and a cat. Pass by if You dare.

It does seem that he had just arrived home from the USA ..maybe this was a surprise for the thieves and maybbe his staff live in seperate quarters i am sure there will be more news tomorrow

Cuanto hytiano en esta pajina Dominicana!

True.......I'll take two pits over a paid guard myself, I had a couple 70lbs A.S.B.T , trained off-leash with a five and ten foot radius of defense

Dogs are not real security because the theives can give the "special salami"

Well trained and loved dogs won't eat from an unknown scent.

Have your employees feed the special stuff laced with gun powder, hot sauce or wasabe in the middle and watch your dog eat from no one.

They need to crucify those stupid ass cops.... Man, sometimes it just seems as if we're regressing instead of progressing as a society. How hard would it be to recruit cops that at minimum possess a H.S. Diploma? I bet you it wouldn't -- all we have to do is make an effort and pay them what the function warrants. Every other country that has even the slightest clue does it this way.

Guillermone,
It is a statistical fact that the DR was one of the safest locations in Latin America just over a decade ago. Actually, the further you go back the safer it was and while that may also be true of most all Latin America, the DR earned it's place among the safest by comparison in any era. However, your claim of "recent" or "new thing" vis-a-vis crime does not articulate the dire reality of the situation. The untenable spike in homicides goes as far back as 2003, which will be a full 9 years in just a few weeks and certainly cannot honestly be considered "recent" or a "new thing". In fact during that time the DR yearly homicide rate has been higher than in Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Panama. I know that personal sensibilities are often far more definitive in this forum than corroborative factual datum but we must resist the urge to intersperse those sensibilities for factual realities as not to risk any indurate credibility.

"devin11"
Wholeheartedly concur -- and am onboard with you about the whole "personal sensibilities" thing.

Danny,
You have absolutely zero credibility. You post negative statements without any regard to the topic. I believe that people should always be vigilant of their governments and question everything. Criticism should always be met out to those deserving of scrutiny but you just criticize for the sake of being critical, even where positive results are given. You are so transparently vile about your not so well hidden agenda which is to simply denigrate the DR and everything about it. You are not insulting anyone except yourself and should seriously consider a new hobby.

just got through reading an interesting tidbit. the small Eastern Caribbean nation of Dominica has banned the sale and ownership of imitation firearms. they already have draconian laws against the real thing, including 20 years in jail for possession of illegal guns. having watched a group of kids running through the neighborhood, with very realistic looking toy guns, one wonders when this could escalate to the point wherein one of them decides to use their toy to stage a holdup. maybe it is time, given the trajectory of violent crime incidence in this country, to enact elementary measures to attack the problem, from every concievable angle.

devin11-I believe this is a matter of interpretation and not of sentiments. It may not be for you, but for me a decade is still relatively recent. Like I said and stated above the surge of crime in our country and key word is "RELATIVELY" a recent phenomena for the DR and new for the 21st century. For over a 100 years the Dominican Republic was an extremely safe country. So if we compare 10 years versus 100 you then might then understand what I really mean. Don't you think ?

guillermone is right. Crime is everywhere in the world. Here a least there are no crazies that take a gun and go to a shopping center or a school to kill whoever they can get like in the U.S. The important thing would be to disarm the population. But unfortunately there ist this stupid macho-gringo thinking that only a man with a gun is a man. Dominicans usually are very friendly and helpful people. I'm out in the streets everywhere in the country in public cars and buses and with rented cars at any day or night time and never felt afraid. I was assaulted once in my house. It was a bad experience, of course. And of course the crime rate is much worse than a few years before. I'm not blind to not accept this. But I wouldn't leave this beautiful country for one asshole who did harm me when there are thousands that are nice people.

So sad, I thinks on one safe in this country. Police do not working properly.
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I am told that the Trujillo era was the safest, unless you opposed him. Then you would be about as safe as an unarmed gringo on foot with a Rolex in a barrio at midnight. Shivers!

Murder rates per 100,000 population in the Dominican republic each year from 2000 are:
14 13 14 21 25 26 23 22 25 24
So it seems there has been a sudden jump from 2002 to 2003. What happened then?

My grand father use to tell me that in his days all you needed was 1 police officer to arrest 12 people. Today it is the other way around, you need 12 police officers to arrest one person.