Has It Always Been So Bad?

[r2d2]

Last night we went to eat a pizza around the corner. We were sitting outside and they had a police officer at the entrance. I thought - great I do not have to be worried that they rob the place. But then I though how sad it is that you need to have a police at the door to feel safe at a pizzeria.

 

[Gringoboy]

I ride down to Lomas de Zamora on my bike for business quite often.
Also Banfield and the other day I rode down to Adrogue, a very difficult place to get to at the best of times and if it hadn't been for the GPS, I'd have been fooked.
Trouble is, the GPS sent me zig zagging through a very rough area with stray dogs and cats everywhere, donkeys on the loose, half naked kids and old men wandering about looking aimless and yet I didn't feel threatened.
One drives through these places and it's like a time warp.

 

[AmigoArtistico]

I ride down to Lomas de Zamora on my bike for business quite often.
Also Banfield and the other day I rode down to Adrogue, a very difficult place to get to at the best of times and if it hadn't been for the GPS, I'd have been fooked.
Trouble is, the GPS sent me zig zagging through a very rough area with stray dogs and cats everywhere, donkeys on the loose, half naked kids and old men wandering about looking aimless and yet I didn't feel threatened.
One drives through these places and it's like a time warp.

Maybe you did pass through a time warp. You look much different now.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Loitering is not a crime in this country Noesdeayer.

 

[Noesdeayer]

Bajo_cero2 :
How well we know that in SanTelmo when we walk down the street Estados Unidos between Bolivar and Peru and there are drunks drinking beer and pissing right there.
The stench (la varanda de meo) would knock you over--te tumbaria!!

 

[TomAtAlki]

I'm from Seattle and live here in buenos Aires year round. What you said is just crazy to me, there is no comparison in terms of saftey. I feel much less safe here than I ever did in Seattle and I've traveled all of Seattle in public transport, at night as well.

In Seattle 1 month ago my daughter's boyfriend was beaten up on a bus, elbow broken.
Personally for me I never worried, but never used public transportation in Seattle.
Also, I grew up in NYC, so very aware of my surroundings and not trusting. Never leave my phone or laptop on the table at Starbucks and go to the bathroom, like many Seattleite.

Nancy

 

[Pensador]

You wanted a change, you got it!

Like it changed that fast. However, I cannot not wait to see what happens when Macri gets done cleaning up all the political riff raff from and slime from the K crony clan and then turns his attentions to these criminals. But there will be some change then.

 

[Patagone]

Bajo cero I BEG TO DIFFER!
when I was stabbed violently last year, it was NOT under the current government! When I was robbed it was NOT under the new government. IT will take time to make things right if it is even possible. BA is no longer what it was years ago. Any one who says it was is lieing or has been living in their ivory tower! IT is time to show that the populous will no longer permit this "locura" as in other countries! I for one am sick and tired of having to think about so many exits, what ifs, etc before I leave my building(and even living in my building!) BASTA YA!

I cycled through 23 American countries over the course of 2.5 years and the only time we were robbed was not in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras El Salvador, Colombia, Guyana , Brasil or Venezuela, not even in Peru, but here in Argentina. Happened on the Ruta 40, a 4-lane road with cars speeding by metres away, by a group of overweight kids toting a handgun, just outside of Mendoza.

When we told the police that were stationed 1km ahead, they said; yes, they come from that barrio nuevo. Another free populist barrio with people doing nothing and being bored. The kids were all teenagers and well-fed (at least in quantity, probably not quality). Not your typical Rio or Caracas gang of skinny kids that need to survive.

This was 2011 by the way.

 

[Pensador]

I wonder if there are any long term expats that were not at least once robbed in Argentina?

I once had my laptop bag stolen by moto choros sitting at a cafe on a corner. LOL bag was empty thank God. After that I was very careful with my belongings.

 

[steveinbsas]

I wonder if there are any long term expats that were not at least once robbed in Argentina?

May 5th will mark the tenth anniversary of my arrival in Argentina and I have never been robbed.

I have seen a man chasing a robber in the street in San Telmo, a woman who just had her purse snatched in Palermo, and was in a restaurant in San Telmo when a man snatched a purse. He was tackled by men at a nearby table and held until the police arrived.

One of the men who held the purse snatcher had been sitting at my table and was robbed in a supermarket in San Telmo the following week (at 5 pm on a Saturday).

On a crowded subte (linea C) I felt fingers going into one of my pockets but I swatted away the hand of the wannabe pickpocket before he could extract the $1200 pesos that was in the pocket.

I was in Mexico in 2007 when two men entered my building in Recoleta at midnight with the intention of robbing me. They told two girls who were entering the building that they were there to visit the yankee who lived there. The girls let them in. The men accosted the girls in the elevator and took their keys so they could get out of the building. A a result, everyone in the building had to pay for new keys to the front door.

The woman who took care of my dog while I was in Mexico had her purse snatched by a motocharo who cut the strap with a knife when she resisted. She had keys to my apartment in the bag but nothing with my address.

Since my arrival in el campo of Pcia. Bs. As. in 2010 the only thing to go missing from my property was an iron chain in the driveway (used to keep the neighbor's horse from entering). It happened during the day while I was home, but I don't think that qualifies as a robbery. An old coaxial cable now serves the same purpose.