Car thieves only need 60 seconds to steal your vehicle in Costa Rica.
Every day, criminals create new methods and during 2016, more than 4,000 victims were reported. Cars and motorcycles became a valuable booty that the underworld seeks every day.
On average, every 24 hours, 12 vehicles are stolen in the country. According to David Corrales, interim head of the Vehicle Stealing Section of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), crime continues to take advantage of Costa Ricans’ trust to steal vehicles and motorcycles.
We should not leave the vehicles on public roads, you can look for alternative transportation, change keys and use GPS,”
said Corrales. On average, 85% of vehicle owners do not recover their investment.
The main methodologies are robbery in public highways, “bajonazo” or gun-point robbery, robbery during vehicle dealership sales and sales of vehicles that were stolen abroad.
Most vehicle thefts occur in the provinces of Alajuela and San José on Sundays.
The most stolen vehicles are models from 1990 to 2000, which are dismantled with the aim of selling them as spare parts.
This is organized crime, because there are many actors involved in this and we have even found Costa Rican vehicles in countries like Guatemala,”
explained Corrales.