"We are planning on moving to Belize in the near future, Would you recommend "burglar bars" for the windows? Also have you ever been robbed?  Do you feel your electronics ( computers,stereo,TV) are safe when you leave your house?"

Burglar Bars:  "Don't leave home without them."   When we were driving around suburban Houston over three years ago, we noticed that all the new communities had fences, guards, and burglar bars on all the windows.  It's a pretty good idea.   Most of the windows here are "louvers," wooden and easily broken.  Burglar bars cost about 200 dollah each, and are a very good investment.  We already had burglar bars all around when we moved in, and we soon added "burglar doors"  -- steel screen doors made of angle iron, cris-crossed with re-bar.  These are also a deterrant to mosquitos, which are far more of a menace than burglars.  <grin>

 However, I note that burglar bars are not a real deterrant to a determined criminal.  They could simply back a car up to the house, hook a chain onto the bars, and pull them out of the wall!  A four-foot wrecking bar would accomplish the same thing in most cases, and will pop a cheap Chinese lock open in a trice.   

Lights. We have never been robbed, but we live on a very well lit street, with a street light in the front yard, and another one right across the street, and dogs in every yard and roaming the streets barking at strangers. Still, last month, someone walked down my north wall (five feet high) and pilfered a nearlly ripe bunch of plantains right off the tree. There is a lot of petty thievery -- taking things that you leave laying around -- and burglary of houses that are left vacant.  People who own a house here, and leave for months at a time usually hire a house sitter for a reasonable price or maybe just free rent. 

Locality.  As in cities in the US, affluent areas are more plagued with burglaries.  Here, if you have a place that is back in the bush, invisible, it will likely be burglarized.  Of course, electronics -- TVs and Computers -- are always a prime target.   Burglar Alarm companies are having a field day in the States and we could use a good one here in Corozal. 

Dogs.  I worry a little about being robbed, enough so that I got Brutus, the wonder dog.  Unfortunately, he loves everyone right now, and his voice hasn't changed yet, so he still has a puppy yip instead of a BIG BARK!  However, it's in the process; the other day he sat at the fence and barked (BIG BARKS) for a couple of minutes at the dogs in the carport.  I think he was a little surprised and delighted at the sound of it!   I know I was. 

We will start guard dog training for him at about six months, and turn him into a "killer."  However, we note that Belizeans are afraid of black dogs in general, and big lab/rottweiler crosses like Brutus in particular.