The cooperation of a neighborhood watch group has been instrumental in leading Chapala police to the capture of suspects implicated in several local home break-ins.
A WhatsApp security vigilance chat group created among residents of Ajijic’s Rancho del Oro subdivision provided police with information and surveillance camera images following a break-in reported on Friday, August 20 between 11 a.m. and noon.
The victims were caretakers of a weekend home owned by a Mexican family from Guadalajara. The thieves lifted a smart television set, an iPad, assorted jewelry items and 4,000 pesos in cash from their small abode and left signs of attempting to force the locks of the main residence before escaping the scene.
Video images collected among neighbors showed an individual scaling the front gate to enter the property and a late-model lime green Volkswagen Beetle spotted as the probable getaway car. A vehicle of the same description was identified in connection with a burglary reported several days later in Chapala Haciendas and seen at various locations in or near Chapala by persons posting on the Lake Chapala Crime Watch Facebook site.
After filing a burglary complaint with the Chapala Ministerio Público prosecutors office (MP) early this week, the Rancho del Oro victims learned that municipal police had tracked down the presumed getaway car and detained its occupants.
Evidence presented along with the formal denuncia may be critical to prosecuting the case, demonstrating that expat and Mexican residents can help fight crime by utilizing social media to watch one and another’s backs.