Thieves Ransack Villa Real Home

Police in Santa Ana, west of San José, have confirmed that four thieves broke into a home in the exclusive residential community of Villa Real on Tuesday and stole close to $40,000 in money, jewelry and laptop computers.

The break in occurred within a kilometer of the home of President Laura Chinchilla, who bought a house in the upscale complex last year.

In her Independence Day speech the following day, the president said an unprecedented level of crime has settled in Costa Rica and is affecting its institutions and sovereignty. 

“We are living a more dramatic situation than in any chapter in our history because now, we have to fight an enemy that has already taken root in our country,” she said.

According to the daily La Nación, four young men entered the home at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 14 wearing ski masks and carrying weapons. They tied up the owner and household employees while they ransacked the home. Police suspect the bandits entered the complex through the forest on the mountainside complex.

–The Tico Times