Rental Apartment Robbery In Palermo Hollywood

[Sleuth]

We run a rental apartment in Palermo Hollywood that was robbed this weekend. It appears that the robbers had keys to the apartment (no signs of forced entry). We're pretty confident it was not our cleaning people, so after some thought the most likely culprit was a previous renter who made copies of the keys. Guessing what tenant it was is a bit difficult as we rent primarily to foreigners who come and leave Argentina after a week or two. I wanted to post this as a warning to others to be on the look out and consider changing locks on your doors as well.

The robbery was pretty clean and surprisingly well executed. We had a renter who went out Saturday afternoon for about 3-4 hours. When he returned home about 6pm, the doors were not double-locked as he claims he left them. Once inside, he found that they took his laptop, iPhone, cash (from a small safe they got into - simple digital password, but they may have know the default code from staying there), and all his clothing and backpack. From the apartment itself they took a 32" LCD TV, cordless phone and Roku internet TV device along with the remotes. They left behind a lower-end Nokia phone, an older stereo system, the Wifi router, the DSL modem and the remotes for these devices. They also left all his identification documents and credit cards.

The things that stood out were that they came when he was out, left behind some valuables and seemed to know the default code to the safe.

Anyhow, not much to be done about it now. He filed a police report for his insurance and we'll have to replace the missing items. The better point is that everyone who has a rental place has their photos online showing the apartment and its contents which can make it a target. I'm just hoping that this might serve as a warning for others if someone is indeed targeting rental properties. You might want to change locks more frequently and avoid renting to anyone who may be staying in the country or have friends in the country.

 

[tangueraintrepida]

It's quite possible that the renter didn't actually bolt the door when he left as he thought he did. I've forgotten to bolt mine once or twice and would swear up and down I had because it's such a habit. I've been told you can jimmy almost any unbolted door here with a piece of X-Ray film. Could be anyone from the building, security guard, portero, who knows. Could also be a former tenant as you say, it just seems unlikely if you mostly rent to foreigners. So frustrating. Sorry it happened to you and your tenant.

 

[Canick]

sorry to hear that. that sucks. would it be worth your while to get some sort of alarm system that can be recoded after every renter? I assume that if they walked out with tv that there was no actual security in the building?

 

[thomasb]

That's terrible. And yes, it doesn't sound like your run of the mill robbery...

What about a code-lock system of some kind? That way you don't have to worry about keys and you can change the code between renters. I am looking at getting that for my office so all employees have their own code and I don't have to worry about lost keys etc.

 

[Sleuth]

It's quite possible that the renter didn't actually bolt the door when he left as he thought he did. I've forgotten to bolt mine once or twice and would swear up and down I had because it's such a habit. I've been told you can jimmy almost any unbolted door here with a piece of X-Ray film. Could be anyone from the building, security guard, portero, who knows. Could also be a former tenant as you say, it just seems unlikely if you mostly rent to foreigners. So frustrating. Sorry it happened to you and your tenant.

Definitely thought about that, but there is a locked gate and locked lobby door to get through as well. It could have been an inside job as well though. The portero did help me fix the black out blinds that week and saw what the renter had. We have not had any problems with him before, but who knows. It's unfortunately impossible to know.

sorry to hear that. that sucks. would it be worth your while to get some sort of alarm system that can be recoded after every renter? I assume that if they walked out with tv that there was no actual security in the building?

No building security and no building cameras unfortunately, just a locked door and gate. Thinking about setting up a Dropcam in the apartments in the future, but will need to do that once I can buy one in the States.

That's terrible. And yes, it doesn't sound like your run of the mill robbery...

What about a code-lock system of some kind? That way you don't have to worry about keys and you can change the code between renters. I am looking at getting that for my office so all employees have their own code and I don't have to worry about lost keys etc.

Would love that but of course I figured it was difficult to find in BA. Let me know if you have a contact. Thanks.

 

[Greg2231]

What I do on my rental apartment is use multiple locks on the entry door, with one of them been a Panzer( http://www.panzer.com.ar/particulares/ )lock that has a control key that supposedly only they can duplicate, I generally don't give out the Panzer key, and just use that lock when the apartment isn't rented.
As for them opening the Safe, it isnt that hard to open a lot of the cheap electronic safes, I opened one with a nail clipper in 5 seconds using the key bypass the other day.

I think if it was a previous renter, it would have been one of the very recent ones, you could trying sending a generic email to the renters from the last month or so that contains a tracking cookie( http://www.didtheyreadit.com/ ) and see if any of them open it from an Argentina IP address.

 

[Ceviche]

What I respect about the robbery is that they left the docs untouched. My docs are more valuable for me than any stupid gadget. 3 cheers to the robber. Respect!

 

[garryl]

We run a rental apartment in Palermo Hollywood that was robbed this weekend. It appears that the robbers had keys to the apartment (no signs of forced entry). We're pretty confident it was not our cleaning people, so after some thought the most likely culprit was a previous renter who made copies of the keys. Guessing what tenant it was is a bit difficult as we rent primarily to foreigners who come and leave Argentina after a week or two. I wanted to post this as a warning to others to be on the look out and consider changing locks on your doors as well.

The robbery was pretty clean and surprisingly well executed. We had a renter who went out Saturday afternoon for about 3-4 hours. When he returned home about 6pm, the doors were not double-locked as he claims he left them. Once inside, he found that they took his laptop, iPhone, cash (from a small safe they got into - simple digital password, but they may have know the default code from staying there), and all his clothing and backpack. From the apartment itself they took a 32" LCD TV, cordless phone and Roku internet TV device along with the remotes. They left behind a lower-end Nokia phone, an older stereo system, the Wifi router, the DSL modem and the remotes for these devices. They also left all his identification documents and credit cards.

The things that stood out were that they came when he was out, left behind some valuables and seemed to know the default code to the safe.

Anyhow, not much to be done about it now. He filed a police report for his insurance and we'll have to replace the missing items. The better point is that everyone who has a rental place has their photos online showing the apartment and its contents which can make it a target. I'm just hoping that this might serve as a warning for others if someone is indeed targeting rental properties. You might want to change locks more frequently and avoid renting to anyone who may be staying in the country or have friends in the country.

Looks like an inside job. Yes, multiple locks is good, Also change the keys often (re-key).
I have an alarm put in from US, very simple one. Also know your neighbor helps. I also
have a freaking bright light controlled by a motion sensor.

 

[Nounou]

Sorry to hear what happened Sleuth, and for the renter.

As I have booked an appartment in March its a timely warning for me to take some extra precautions, one of which will be a cross examinatioon of the owner of the default for the safe before I put a thing into it!

Just one question, am I right in presuming when they say 24 hour security they are referring to the two legged variety and not an alarm system? Would far prefer the alarm. I'll be checking with the company this week.

 

[PhilipDT]

Have you considered the renter as a suspect? Insurance fraud doesn't seem unlikely.p here. He left for 4 hours without his cell phone? Not if he's under 40...