Before You Open Your Front Door

[jantango]

This is for those who don't have 24-hour security guards at their building entrance.

A man rang her doorbell at the street claiming he had a package to deliver. She thought it was odd since she wasn't expecting anything for delivery. She grabbed her keys and opened the door of her apartment to go downstairs. Much to her surprise, there were three men outside her apartment door waiting to enter as soon as she opened it. They entered and asked for all her cash and relieved her of her valuables and left. She wasn't harmed, only shaken. She was singled out because she is a foreigner.

 

[Iznogud]

That shit can happen to anyone. Specially on long week ends, you have people ringing just to check who's home and who isn't. A typical casing practice.

Methinks the person should have asked a shitload of questions before even considering going downstairs. With so many messaging means (email, texting, voice messages, whatnot) there's hardly an unexpected delivery. As I said, it can happen to anyone, foreigner or not. Just keep an eye on the news after this weekend, surely there will be similar scenarios.

If the intruders were already inside the building, any other tactic would have likely drawn the lady out.

Anywho, thanks for the heads up. Forewarned is forearmed and better safe than sorry.

[sub]Protected by 40 Small and Wimpy[/sub]

 

[garryl]

This is for those who don't have 24-hour security guards at their building entrance.

A man rang her doorbell at the street claiming he had a package to deliver. She thought it was odd since she wasn't expecting anything for delivery. She grabbed her keys and opened the door of her apartment to go downstairs. Much to her surprise, there were three men outside her apartment door waiting to enter as soon as she opened it. They entered and asked for all her cash and relieved her of her valuables and left. She wasn't harmed, only shaken. She was singled out because she is a foreigner.

is it real ? what kind of barrio is this ?

 

[cbonanni]

She did not practice standard security measures. A bit of common sense should prevail.

 

[nlaruccia]

That's pretty scarey. If someone rings the doorbell of my apartment I'll only open it for the encargado or the pesticide guy that comes once a month. Anyone else can just get a life. You can't open your door to anyone anymore. Here's another scary story that taught me to be cautious. It happened in the States. A woman left her garage door remote control in her car while eating at a restaurant with friends. Someone stole her car and found her address on some documents inside the glove compartment and got into her house through the garage. They robbed her entire house and left the car in the same restaurant parking spot where they had found it. Now I park and take the garage door opener with me.

 

[Davidglen77]

The other day someone knocked on my apartment door. Now I NEVER open the door to anybody, I grew up in New York City in the 1970s, where they did all tricks in the book to get you to open the door, including one I remember very distinctly. They would blow cigarette smoke under the apartment door and yell FIRE FIRE and people would get push-in robbed that way other times the criminal would go with the superintendent (with a gun to his back) and have him knock on people's doors and they would open it, and low and behold they got push in robbed. Never happened to us, first because we were lucky, 2nd because my grandfather, a former Russian military officer never trusted a single word ANYBODY said and suspected everyone of being a spy including babies and old ladies and my Cuban Grandmother who thought the house was bugged. Those paranoia saved us many times I am sure. So back to the other day, someone knocks on my door and I wasn't expecting anybody and mind you I live in a 280 unit apartment building with 24 hour security at the front door. I said who is it, they said "oh we're the neighbors from xyz apartment and we're moving out, we have left over food and cleaning supplies and we wanted to offer them to you. I asked them again "which apartment" and they named the apartment 2 doors down from me. I said NO THANKS of course. I then called down to the security desk at the door and they said nobody was moving out that they were aware of. Later that day, I rang the doorbell of the apartment they said they were moving out of, and somebody answered the door - just opened it without even saying "who is it" and I told them what happened, they were really scared. I also asked other neighbors if the same thing happened to them and 2 said yes, but they didn't open the door either. I felt a bit relieved because it made me think they were trying random doors instead of just trying to get me for being a foreigner. People can get into any building, even ones with 5 encargados and a security guard. It's too easy to fool people and people let their guard down and get distracted. Remember OPEN YOUR DOOR TO NO ONE; EVER if you are not expecting people. With the encargado have a code word if they come to the door, one for trouble and one for safe passage. If someone is outside your door screaming they need help, or are in trouble, you of course don't want to ignore that, just call the police for them but DON'T open the door!

 

[jantango]

is it real ? what kind of barrio is this ?

The woman lives near Callao and Corrientes in Balvanera. She is a regular in the tango scene where it's best not to say where you live especially if you are a foreigner. This theft was set up by someone in the milongas who knows her personally. The thieves were told where to go and got what they wanted. It was three men against one woman.