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Is crime getting worse? Is safety getting more complicated during this recession?

T

Twin City

New member
My family moved here 3 weeks ago from Southern California. We have a set of toddler twins. My husband was born in Argentina but has only come here once when he was a teenager. We recently sold our house and decided it was a good time to try something else for a while. My husband always is on edge and his relatives here in BA are always telling him to be careful and that it is so dangerous and getting worse.

I don't really feel like that. BA feels like a really safe city to me. I haven't seen any crime at all. I hear people saying they had their cell phones stolen. And I see on the news some issues with cars getting broken into but we have not witnessed anything. Are many of you witnessing crime firsthand?

My husbands cousins and uncle always have the sky is falling attitude. How bad is crime and is it really getting worse? I am not too worried about getting my purse or phone stolen as I am very careful and don't carry around much money at all. I am more worried about possibly getting our apartment broken into. Things like kidnapping don't seem to be an issue so I'm not sure why my inlaws are always so worried about us.
 
I have found over the years that people from Argentina tend to exaggerate the crime risks. Before I moved here, every time I would tell someone I was in Buenos Aires and they were from Argentina, even if they haven't been home for years would always tell me how dangerous it was. I would tell them that wasn't my experience at all. But people always seem to make it a bigger deal than it is. It is like most major cities in the world, there is crime but other than theft of cellphones which is very common your odds of having issues I don't think is high.

More cars are getting broken into but I wouldn't be worried about apartment getting broken into. Kidnapping is not a problem here.
 
Twin City said:
My family moved here 3 weeks ago from Southern California. We have a set of toddler twins. My husband was born in Argentina but has only come here once when he was a teenager. We recently sold our house and decided it was a good time to try something else for a while. My husband always is on edge and his relatives here in BA are always telling him to be careful and that it is so dangerous and getting worse.

I don't really feel like that. BA feels like a really safe city to me. I haven't seen any crime at all. I hear people saying they had their cell phones stolen. And I see on the news some issues with cars getting broken into but we have not witnessed anything. Are many of you witnessing crime firsthand?

My husbands cousins and uncle always have the sky is falling attitude. How bad is crime and is it really getting worse? I am not too worried about getting my purse or phone stolen as I am very careful and don't carry around much money at all. I am more worried about possibly getting our apartment broken into. Things like kidnapping don't seem to be an issue so I'm not sure why my inlaws are always so worried about us.
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@Twin City you will enjoy living in Buenos Aires. I raised my kids here in BA and zero issues at all. Good timing on selling your house as real estate prices have skyrocketed in the U.S. Just be careful with your cellphone as you already know. As Betsy mentioned, automobile break-ins are more common now but I see more crime in NYC vs. here.

The most popular neighborhoods here that most expats gravitate towards (Palermo, Belgrano, Recoleta, Puerto Madero) are very safe. There are some sketchy areas in CABA but most areas are relatively safe. If you follow common sense and don't wear expensive jewelry or designer purses, etc. you will be fine.
 
BA isn't bad at all. Nothing like Brazil. I have properties in Sao Paulo and Rio and back and forth and here you have to watch your back. But in BA I never had any problems. In BA most people are in apartments so it is safer vs. having a house. I have colleagues that have houses in the Northern Suburbs of BA and had their houses robbed but at night when no one was home. That is more common and many times the security guards are probably in on it. I would rather live in an apartment vs. house in Buenos Aires and preferably with security guard or doorman for peace of mind. But many buildings don't have one and are ok.
 
I find Buenos Aires to be a very safe city compared to other world capital cities. I have seen far more crime in my many trips to Paris vs. Buenos Aires. Much of the crime in Buenos Aires is non-violent crime and by far the most popular is cellphones getting stolen. Also, if you wear an expensive watch it WILL get stolen. I can't emphasize this enough.

I formally owned the largest property management company in Argentina and we exclusively dealt with tourists. We would warn them to keep their expensive watches at home. We explained that many people get these items stolen. Some people wouldn't listen and insist on bringing their Rolex or Cartier watches and we had over 20 incidents of these people getting their watches stolen. Thieves have friends working in cafes, restaurants, hotels, etc. so if they see you with an expensive watch they will call their friend to come and rob you when you leave. This happened to many people. So just keep your expensive watches at home.

I agree about apartment vs. home. There aren't too many homes in Buenos Aires compared to the vast # of apartments. I don't necessarily think you have to have security or doorman in the building but it is good piece of mind. Many of my friends in the suburbs that have homes have had them broken into. I also think it is more common outside of CABA.

Kidnappings don't really happen here for the most part. In the early 2000's after I first moved there after the corralito you would have some "express kidnappings" where they would kidnap wealthy people for a few hours and would call their relatives to give money and then release but I haven't heard of that for many years.

Buenos Aires is still a relatively safe city even with such a poor economy. I'm always amazed by that and one of the things that I like the most about the city.
 
Twin City said:
My family moved here 3 weeks ago from Southern California. We have a set of toddler twins. My husband was born in Argentina but has only come here once when he was a teenager. We recently sold our house and decided it was a good time to try something else for a while. My husband always is on edge and his relatives here in BA are always telling him to be careful and that it is so dangerous and getting worse.

I don't really feel like that. BA feels like a really safe city to me. I haven't seen any crime at all. I hear people saying they had their cell phones stolen. And I see on the news some issues with cars getting broken into but we have not witnessed anything. Are many of you witnessing crime firsthand?

My husbands cousins and uncle always have the sky is falling attitude. How bad is crime and is it really getting worse? I am not too worried about getting my purse or phone stolen as I am very careful and don't carry around much money at all. I am more worried about possibly getting our apartment broken into. Things like kidnapping don't seem to be an issue so I'm not sure why my inlaws are always so worried about us.
Click to expand...
Doubt you will have any problems here. Lately it seems like more and more parents are moving down here with kids or to have kids. LOTS of Russian young families. I see them all over the place and can hear them speaking Russian and now I see a trend of some Americans too moving here to have kids. One of them went viral the past few weeks.
 
I've been living in Buenos Aires for several years and haven't had any incidents. Sometimes I see reports of robberies on the news, but it seems that most of them occur on the outskirts of the city. I would also recommend choosing an apartment over a house for greater security. Vince is right: those outside the country often view Argentina as unsafe. My friends have asked me about it in horror several times, but like many other foreigners, I actually think this city is safer than some cities in the U.S. In fact, I've seen videos on social media of foreigners sharing their experiences and debunking the idea that BA is dangerous.
 
I’ve been living here for a few years now, and I believe some things have improved in terms of security. I occasionally see reports of robberies on the news, but I’ve never experienced anything personally. In fact, just today, I saw a story where security cameras helped catch the thieves who stole a cellphone from a schoolgirl while she was at Plaza San Martín.

 
noname said:
I’ve been living here for a few years now, and I believe some things have improved in terms of security. I occasionally see reports of robberies on the news, but I’ve never experienced anything personally. In fact, just today, I saw a story where security cameras helped catch the thieves who stole a cellphone from a schoolgirl while she was at Plaza San Martín.

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Great they caught them. I heard they are going to put up many more cameras and security so that will be a good thing.
 
earlyretirement said:
I find Buenos Aires to be a very safe city compared to other world capital cities. I have seen far more crime in my many trips to Paris vs. Buenos Aires. Much of the crime in Buenos Aires is non-violent crime and by far the most popular is cellphones getting stolen. Also, if you wear an expensive watch it WILL get stolen. I can't emphasize this enough.

I formally owned the largest property management company in Argentina and we exclusively dealt with tourists. We would warn them to keep their expensive watches at home. We explained that many people get these items stolen. Some people wouldn't listen and insist on bringing their Rolex or Cartier watches and we had over 20 incidents of these people getting their watches stolen. Thieves have friends working in cafes, restaurants, hotels, etc. so if they see you with an expensive watch they will call their friend to come and rob you when you leave. This happened to many people. So just keep your expensive watches at home.

I agree about apartment vs. home. There aren't too many homes in Buenos Aires compared to the vast # of apartments. I don't necessarily think you have to have security or doorman in the building but it is good piece of mind. Many of my friends in the suburbs that have homes have had them broken into. I also think it is more common outside of CABA.

Kidnappings don't really happen here for the most part. In the early 2000's after I first moved there after the corralito you would have some "express kidnappings" where they would kidnap wealthy people for a few hours and would call their relatives to give money and then release but I haven't heard of that for many years.

Buenos Aires is still a relatively safe city even with such a poor economy. I'm always amazed by that and one of the things that I like the most about the city.
Click to expand...
Very true about thieves working in conjunction with restaurant workers. I have heard they also call or text friends to rob expensive iphones after dinner. Some people are just coming out of hotels and get expensive watches robbed from them. That has been happening for years. You can avoid problems by just not wearing expensive watches. I have never heard of any women getting engagement rings stolen. Just watches.
 
Betsy Ross said:
Very true about thieves working in conjunction with restaurant workers. I have heard they also call or text friends to rob expensive iphones after dinner. Some people are just coming out of hotels and get expensive watches robbed from them. That has been happening for years. You can avoid problems by just not wearing expensive watches. I have never heard of any women getting engagement rings stolen. Just watches.
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Totally true @Betsy Ross. Many years ago a good friend of mine was coming out of the Alvear Palace hotel. He just having breakfast there and he only stepped outside about 5 steps and his Rolex was stolen. I told him ahead of the trip NOT to wear it but he was a world traveler and been to BA many times and had a false sense of confidence.

Same thing with my best friend in Argentina who is a big guy. We had been telling clients for years not to wear Rolex watches but he got one and sure enough he was robbed at knife point for it. I had thousands of tourists each year we dealt with and no one ever had rings stolen. I'm not sure why this is the case. But you can almost guarantee yourself if you're wearing an expensive Rolex or Cartier watch it WILL get stolen.

Many people got their iphones stolen as well coming out of restaurants. It's long been known that some waiters/waitresses tip off thieves so just be aware with phones when leaving restaurants.
 
We don't find any problem with crime here. We go to Paris many time and see people stealing purses all the time and also phones. Here we have no problem but we are careful.
 
Crime has definitely increased in CABA but it is still relatively safe walking around in the streets. Don't make yourself a target wearing expensive things or carrying around expensive purse/bag.
 
MickMolloy said:
Crime in the USA is getting worse every day since there is no charge for crimes under $1000 of damage. No one pays for the bus anymore. Liberal hellhole
Click to expand...
True. Blue states have it worse than others. Some places things seem the same but other cities have really gone downhill and probably will get worse.
 
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