Bulgaria's Capital Sofia Sees 30 Home Robberies Daily

Between 20 and 30 home robberies are committed in Bulgaria's capital Sofia every day according to police data.

While the official information lists about 3 000 burglaries per year, their number is much higher since many people do not report the intrusions into their homes, said Yanko Yankolov, head of the Crimes against Property department with the Sofia police, as cited by bTV.

Yankolov did say, however, that the police have seen a decrease in the number of home robberies, and that only six such crimes were reported this Christmas.

He admitted that only 10-12% of the burglary cases are solved successfully.

According to leading criminal journalist Slavi Angelov, however, 400 new burglars join the "
market"
each month.

Angelov pointed out that most of the burglars are not prone to violence since their aim is not to leave any traces. Many of them break in and steal while the families are sleeping.

These criminals often use pepper or even the deodorants and perfumes they find on the spot to cover their smells to prevent the use of police dogs.

Often they would grab a bouquet of flowers and will visit every apartment in a building pretending to be looking for their girlfriend just to check who is home.

Sounds alarming but compared to say London its nothing UK statistics....

A householder is attacked by a violent burglar every 30 minutes.

The shocking statistic exposes for the first time the epidemic of terrifying intruder confrontations taking place in Britain.

I was about to agree with you, but I did a check on the Met site and actually for 2009 the whole of london only had 5,997 home robberies which when you take population and size into consideration actually makes it much better than Sofia, but I guess you also have to take in the fact that more people in London will have CCT, and high tech security than those in Sofia too... also that there are much easier ways to steal money in the UK, (just ask for a hand out)

seven wrote:

I was about to agree with you, but I did a check on the Met site and actually for 2009 the whole of london only had 5,997 home robberies which when you take population and size into consideration actually makes it much better than Sofia, but I guess you also have to take in the fact that more people in London will have CCT, and high tech security than those in Sofia too... also that there are much easier ways to steal money in the UK, (just ask for a hand out)

I think what Ashley has said at the end refers to the whole of the uk and as for what the met site says this will only be those that were reported and then you also have the political angle so they won't publish all the facts.

I don't think you can compare robberies in Sofia with London. The population in London is greater than that of the whole of Bulgaria, so it is not like for like, and another thing to take into consideration is what is classed as a robbery

Don't want to be pedantic but isn't Robbery and Burglary two different crimes ???

Gimp wrote:

Don't want to be pedantic but isn't Robbery and Burglary two different crimes ???

Correct

As I see it Gimp, it appears that there are two different threads here, a poll for burglary in Bulgaria and robbery in the other thread, not to be confused

Changed topic title to cover both

I'd say that a 'Home Robbery' is a Burglary as I just used the words form the original text and the met office numbers are for HOME Robberies/Burglary's within the home not on the streets or commercial.....

Yes the numbers will not be right, just as the numbers for Bulgaria will not be right, so in my mind that sort of cancels the issue out and as for size, yes the population of london is that of the whole of bulgaria, in which case even being conservative it says that Sofia has an incredibly high Burglary/home robbery rate...........

Or have I just read all of the original text wrong!!!!

Who knows seven nothing is easy when it comes to the law and words because most of the time its only just that "
WORDS"

The burglary's in Sophia seems rather high according to the population of averages.These thieves that are committing these atrocious crimes,are they Roma gypsies.

Just wondered if anyone around the area of Elhovo has this problem of thieves entering their property.ls it a regular problem or something not to worry about to much around Elhovo,since the burglar is around Sophia.

ls Sophia the area where most likely these crimes are taking place then other areas in the south east of Bulgaria.
And what do you think is the best deterrent to repel these nasty people off your land.

I voted no

Been burgled twice, also had electric cable stolen twice. Was burgled the first time when our place was only semi-secure, they broke the padlocks off our security shutters and nicked a few bits such as fridge freezer and washer. The second time they broke in through new metal doors (which they tried to remove and take with them) they removed the old flimsy window grills and stole several new windows and various other items, even tried removing the new bathroom sink!
We now have new doors and windows, new bars on the windows, a monitored alarm system (with battery back up) and the security company visit at least twice a day. All this didn't stop the thieving gits from taking our electric cable twice, this is now buried underground and set in concrete. We are now waiting to see what our imaginative thieves steal next. The best thing that we ever did was to ensure that we used a good insurance company!
The stupid thing is that despite all the problems we still love our house and the village and even with the benefit of hindsight would still buy there.

Well done to you citman you sound as though you are really enjoying your life even after all the trial and tribulations you have faced and I would like to say I like the idea of setting the cable in concrete

Thanks nu2bg, I forgot to mention that the real key to remaining sane during these problems is to have someone honest, reliable and trustworthy over in Bg to get stuck in and sort things out for us. We are very lucky to have such people who live in our village and they have been absolute stars during our problems. It would be great if we could be over there full time, but unfortunately this is not possible yet. So in the meantime we rely on these people and thank our lucky stars that we had the good fortune to meet them!

citman. wrote:

Been burgled twice, also had electric cable stolen twice. Was burgled the first time when our place was only semi-secure, they broke the padlocks off our security shutters and nicked a few bits such as fridge freezer and washer. The second time they broke in through new metal doors (which they tried to remove and take with them) they removed the old flimsy window grills and stole several new windows and various other items, even tried removing the new bathroom sink!
We now have new doors and windows, new bars on the windows, a monitored alarm system (with battery back up) and the security company visit at least twice a day. All this didn't stop the thieving gits from taking our electric cable twice, this is now buried underground and set in concrete. We are now waiting to see what our imaginative thieves steal next. The best thing that we ever did was to ensure that we used a good insurance company!
The stupid thing is that despite all the problems we still love our house and the village and even with the benefit of hindsight would still buy there.

I love to read such stories of positiveness and even though you have had to endure a few serious problems you still smile in the face of evil PMA and I think this is the answer for all of us, I haven't yet bought my house but this is the year I shall be looking in ernest and I do believe you have removed some of the fears I may have had about even buying a house I have read all sorts of horror stories on various forums but none quite like what you have written here so thank you citman you have given me great hope