The Panamanian Technical Judicial Police, a.k.a. PTJ, the Panamanian version of the FBI, doesn't seem to take any crimes seriously unless they are either murder or drug related. The citizenship repeatedly reports robberies and burglaries, but nothing is ever done by the main investigating unit. Most of us wonder if it is even worth it to go through the trouble of reporting our crimes, as it only seems to be good for statistical purposes. One year ago I reported a burglary to my home, giving the PTJ the name, cedula (legal D number) and home address of the criminal, and they did virtually nothing to catch him. He denied having done it, so the case was filed. The criminal is now working as a security guard in some office building.
However, every now and then they actually do something right, and I believe in giving praise when praise is due.
My mother recently reported a debit card theft. 21 ATM withdrawals of $500 each were made in a period of two months. My mother suspected the beauty shop where she goes, but the bank has not yet provided the video tapes, so there is no proof.
After that, she went back to the same beauty shop, so as to not alert the thieves that she knew who they were. They styled her hair and put makeup on her face. While they placed the makeup on, they always strongly insisted that she close her eyes, because otherwise the makeup would not come out right. It turned out that while her eyes were closed, they sacked her purse and withdrew a pair of diamond earrings.
The next day, she figured out that her earrings were missing, and called the PTJ, giving them the names and address of the suspects. I don't know how she convinced them to take immediate action, because they hardly ever do, but they promptly and diligently acted on the information my mother gave them, went to the suspects' business, and recovered the pair of earrings! The two women (mother and daughter) now face jail time, and will possibly be returned to their home country, the Dominican Republic, after their time is served.
The debit card theft is still being solved, but it does seem to me that if the bank complies with submitting the tapes, the thieves will be caught.
Congratulations to the PTJ for a job well done. I am very pleased with these results.
