COSTA RICA NEWS – Staying a first class hotel does not guarantee against robbery. Such was the case on Sunday at the Barceló hotel in Playa Tambor, where a number of guests became a statistic.
According to the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) – judicial investigators – some 30 guests, including 7 children, in eight rooms, where victims of a robbery while they were sleeping.
In total, the thief or thieves made off with some ¢8 million colones in valuables that included cameras, cellular phones and tablets, jewellery and cash, entering the rooms between 4:00am and 5:00am.
Some of the victims, still in shook, told investigators they could not believe that someone had entered their room, been so close to them, and they had not idea of what was happening.
Investigators are puzzled as to how the thief or thieves got in and without detection. According to the hotel, they have an electronic security door lock, accessible only through a card key and two glass doors on the balconies and patios. Nor does the hotel security have a record of main doors being opened with a master card.
The OIJ ruled out forced entry on any doors.
Hotel manager, Raúl Arranz, admits to a failure in the hotel’s security system: a lack of surveillance cameras and not enough guards for the entire hotel complex of 402 rooms and a guest capacity of 1.000 people.
This past weekend, the hotel was at maximum capacity given the long weekend celebrating the 190th anniversary of Guanacaste.