I don’t even know where to begin with this entry. Words cannot describe the feelings and emotions I’m going through. As we all know, crime is a way of life here in Costa Rica. It’s one thing to be surrounded by it and hear about it all the time – and obviously another thing to experience it.

I had been thanking God every day that I not only felt safe here, but also had not experienced too much crime here. Other than the guy who broke onto the farm last year and cut down all my fruit trees, I’d avoided being hit.

Yesterday I was working in Puerto Viejo and got a call at 5:30 in the morning. One of my employees had been watching the house for me, but was sleeping in a second house we have on the property. During the night, some people killed my dogs (click on picture above to see full size photo), broke into my house and stole lots of stuff.

It took me 6 hours to get home. The whole time I was driving, I was nauseous and my mind was racing. I was distraught over the loss of my dogs, angry with the people who did it and pretty much in a daze. But the worst part of it was wondering how and if I could prevent something like this from happening again.

Once I arrived I had to deal with the police, OIJ (investigatory department sort of like the FBI), the insurance people, repair people, friends, etc. It was such a long and painful day. I also had to sleep with a window wide open as the repair people couldn’t take care of it until today. Let’s just say it was pretty hard to fall asleep wondering if they were coming back.

I can’t say that I have any answers yet about what – if anything – I’m going to do. Will I install an alarm system, put bars on my windows like a prisoner, get more dogs or built a fortress? At this point it doesn’t feel like any of that will make me feel safe leaving the house again. But they say time heals all wounds. I hope there is some truth to that!

Thank God I had hidden my credit cards, passport, and my main computer well. They did not find them. Everything else can be replaced, except my poor, sweet Paco and Oprah (the dogs). The best advice I could give to anyone is to build a small, cement room with a metal door and some super-duper locks. It wouldn’t be fool-proof, but it would be a lot tougher to get into it. Yes, they might steal your TV and microwave, but hopefully your most important things would be safer.