viviendo en Caracas

life ein easy here yuh know. Everyday that you make it withou some incident or the other you have to thank your lucky stars and moreso, the the good one above. Now two incidents occured over the last week that just makes you shake yuh head and wonder, what on earth am I doing here.

Incident #1: A collegue of ours had her apartment broken into. Now just imagine this, she lives in a building with 24hrs security. The garage door need to be opened by either the security or a remote control. She lives in one of the penthouse apts of her building. The building is seperated into two sections, one elevator for per section. To gett o any of the penthouses from the elevators, you need another special key to operate the elevator. You cannot just go into elevator, press PH and be on your way. You either need the key or have the person call/send the elevator for you.

So pray tell me how it is that someone can break into the PH floor? The person/s broke into three apts on that floor. All three apts occupied by foreigners. Now in addition to the outside security, the Apt doors themselves are all equiped with spider locks. Spider locks are locks that are located in the center of the door. when you lock the door, iron bolts go in the four directions, up, down and to the sides. then there is the regular door lock. So a day last week, some persons decie to have fun on the PH of this bldg. They literally broke off the spider locks with a crowbar and this was an art of work, cause those spider locks ein easy to break. They had ample time to do their damage. firt it was the next door neighbors apt, her door was a mess. they went in stole her computer, some bags with important douments ect. Then they went into our colleagues apt. lucky for her, she didn't have her spider lock locked, so they just broke her regular lock and in her apt they were.

These guys/gals, had a ball in this woman's place. They empitied every bag, draw, container, ah mean they literally searched any and everything they could put their hand on, All of her personal care items, her underware, everything was searched through. they were looking for US money, but the colleague said that she didn't have any in the apt. and her passports were locked in the safe at work. so instead they took her jewlery, cameras and a few other things, but the robbers were determined to find money and they searched everything they possibly can in this pursuit. Can you imagine coming home from a hard days work to face such a sight?

Amongst all of this, hte robbers wereable to either walk out or drive out of the building with the loot including a computer and not a soul ein see a thing... chuupppse.

Incident#2: The hubby's secretary was robbed blind of every penny she had in the bank from the bank. The lady had just gotten paid the week before. So she was about her business one day in a store and wanted to pay with a check, when they run the check it couldn't be cleared. She say they must be some mistake, so she tried again, still check can't be cleared. So she goes to the bank to inquire, what's happening, only to find out that she has no money in eother her savings or checking account. How can this be? she asks. The bank tells her that she withdrew money from the checking and put it on her savings and has been spending it. She fights and argues with them and says no she didn't do such things..ect. Well come to fin dout, that she may have been scammed at a ATM machine. When she look in her purse for her ATM card, she realizes that the card she has isn't hers. The last she remembers is that she was at the ATM. there seems to be a little problem, some fellas was behind her supposedly wanting to offer assistance and that was the end of the story.

What happens a lot here in Caracas, is that the theives drug you and rob you blind, and we think that's what they did to her, give her something to knock her out for a while, get her to transfer the money and the switch cards with her and hence all the woman hard eaned money gone in a flas so...you think they easy about here? The bank ein even trying to trace or stop de woman ATM card.

In an unrelated issue. The hubby had to do some banking business over the weekend. The banks in the malls are open until the mall closes at 9:00 at night, so off we went to the bank. get there only to remember that it's quiencens (bi-weekly pay day) and the lines longer than long hell. so we decide to skip that heartache and go first thing Sat morning. So hubby get up early and gone, Mall opens at 10:00A he get to the entrance at 9:45. Can't get in until opening time, so he gotta wait. No problem, at 10:00 guards open the door and in goes a mad rush of about 200 people, hubby walks in and he realizes that people running in the direction tuh where he going, they must be going to the bank, so off he starts to run also, finally reaches the bank, a bit breathless and manages to be the 10th person in line. Now mind you, this is a bank that will only have a maxium of 3-4 cashiers working at a time and speed and efficiency isn't in thier vocabulary. So the hubby makes it in and he get his business done in about 15 mins and he out. By the time he leave the bank, the line is about 50 people and out the door of the bank it goes to begin to snake around the mall.

That is life here in Caracas. Never a dull moment...and I still wondering what de hell am I doing here.