Four Negatives

3. The Costa del Crime
Crime figures show that Spain - Andalucia - is a safer place, with less crime than the UK. Having said that, the Costa del Sol has some crime specialities that can be particularly painful for the unwary foreign visitor or street-foolish property buyer.

Burglary
Thieves consistently target new owners and newly occupied properties - they're not hard to recognise - when owners are likely to be at their least alert and their properties at their least protected. Before you move into your property, ensure that window bars and secure doors and locks are fitted as standard. We are unused to them in the UK, but window bars are a ubiquitous feature of Spanish houses, with good reason. Patio doors need security shutters, and all doors and windows may need additional locks - those that are fitted new as standard are very often completely insecure. This is particularly true of sliding doors and windows.

Change the barrels of all locks on external doors. There will be copies of your keys everywhere. Painters, plasterers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and many other trades will have needed access to your keys. Don't be tempted to save the locks, throw them away. There is no knowing when someone may return to try a key he has kept or copied.

Make sure that before you move in to your property that it is fully insured, including an amount for contents. £7,500 is more than adequate for most people. In most cases this will be twice the amount required but it will avoid the risk of under insurance should a claim be necessary. Make sure that your insurance covers computers, TVs, HiFis and other favourite theft items. The cheapest insurance quote carries the greatest potential for problems in the event of a claim.

There are two types of alarms. The first and that promoted the most vigorously is the silent type which upon detecting an entry or attempted entry alerts an operator at a central unit who summons either the police or their own operatives to investigate. As a reasonable burglar can be in and out in less than two minutes it is unlikely that this system can ever be effective. The key fact is that burglars like neither noise nor light, so a good alarm system should provide plenty of both - to a physically painful degree - the moment a security breach is detected. For some reason, movement operated outside lights are uncommon in Spain, so visit B&Q before you leave.

Mugging
There are numerous opportunities for the unwary to be relieved of their purses, wallets and bags - together with whatever is inside them. For example, passports, credit cards, driving licences, mobile phones, pocket computers, car keys . . as well as money. Coastal areas, full of relaxed foreigner targets, on holiday or recently arrived, provide rich pickings - particularly if the newly arrived are carrying wads of cash to pay for furnishings and home equipment.

Bum bags can be 'dipped' by pickpockets. Bags can be snatched from your feet whilst you're in a shop or sitting at a café and the perpetrators can be off down the road on the back of a small motorbike or scooter before you've had time to register the fact. Be very suspicious of anyone who approaches you, in any situation . . "got a light for my cigarette, senor?". Apparently also, one should be very suspicious of any car stopping or cruising nearby with a blue tarpaulin on the roof.

Car Crime
There are plenty of imaginative criminals in Spain. BMW does of course mean "break my window" so never leave anything remotely valuable on show. If it's hot, don't drive around town with your windows open and your bag on the seat next to you, or behind you - you are vulnerable when stationary at any point to someone on foot or on a motor scooter with at least one arm and one hand.

Spain has some quite ingenious "highwaymen". Some pose as breakdown victims who lay in wait to rob Samaritans who stop to help them. Others will drive past gesticulating in the direction of a wheel. When you stop to see what's wrong, so do they, when you probably will be relieved of your cash and possessions. Others will surreptitiously slash your tyre and then pose as a Samaritan, helping you change the wheel and helping themselves to your bags (in heat of the situation you forget to lock your car immediately after getting out). There are even criminals who place things over your back window that you notice after you get in to start up, then you get out of the car to remove the obstruction, which gives the thieves the opportunity to open an unlocked door and steal a bag.

The Consequences
Losing money is bad. Losing mobile phones and keys is bad too. Losing credit cards is worse - you have to remember where to telephone to cancel them as well as losing money, and then you're without the card until you get a new one, with a new PIN number that follows on some weeks after. Losing passports and driving licences is an unbelievable nuisance, quite apart from the possibility of identity fraud being perpetrated on you. Losing computers full of personal information, photographs, data, names and addresses, etc. is indescribable. Always set a password security code (of digits and numbers) on every device you use and always back up to somewhere safe. Regularly.

Reporting a Crime - in English
Telephone the Policia Nacional on 902 102 112, then go to any P.N police station to sign the Dununcia.