Car Burglary Bariloche | Warning

April 4th, 2019 by natalie.neagu

Well, after parking we noticed that we parked exactly where the warning sign was placed. We went to have lunch at the Vegetarian restaurant across the street. We had a funny feeling so we check on the car every now and then. INDEED THERE WAS AN ORGANIZED GROUP TRYING TO BREAK IN. We caught them and managed to take a photo of one guy and complained to the police. They only damaged our car but could not open it so nothing was stolen. Still, we know their method now.

They saw us looking for parking and they had a pickup truck parked in a space which they evacuated as they saw us coming near. Of course we felt lucky enough to find it... They waited until we parked and left the car, then they drove away.
About 20 minutes after we left the car I went to see if evertythings ok. A guy spotted me approaching and hurried close to the car and started whistling. I saw two guys going around the car and walked past me supposedly talking on the phone. I managed to take photos of the whistler guy only. I called my bf to come out of the restaurant and waited on the main road, as the pickup truck that evacuated the parking spot came by me with those two guys that tried to open the car.
In retrospective, when we looked for parking there was one guy running to the pickup truck, but there was one guy already waiting in the parked car, which was sketchy... As if they hurried to let us park.
Anyway, we were lucky but.. PAY ATTENTION TO ANY SKETCHY PARKING, ESPECIALLY IF SOMEONE FREES A SPOT FOR YOU.
I added a photo of the whistler.

The good in the story - The staff of the Vegetarian restaurant were super nice, packed up our food to go, called the police and translated for us. The food was delicious!

March 28th, 2018 by barefootinajeep

Bariloche is worth the trip. Mendoza, Lima, Medellin, Mexico City, Rio, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile are all sketchier than Bariloche.

January 31st, 2018 by instagram.com/wanderingfamvan

Yes, there are criminals almost everywhere in the world. Its a beautiful area to visit and there is plenty of 15 pesos per hour guarded parking lots straight at the lake.

February 20th, 2017 by www.bummelmitpummel.de

O.k. similare storys about Bariloche. And yesterday again from two brasilien motorhome travellers which had trouble too.
So we made the dicision to bypass Bariloche. Bad luck!

November 15th, 2016 by u.m.schumacher

During our journey we heard a lot of criminals, especially car burglary, in Bariloche. Some locals told us there are gangs specialiced on tourists/overlander. For our trip we decided to sleep in a camping out of center and drive with the autobus to the city which we snd a lot of other people recommend. As we arrived in Bariloche we visited the Tourist Information in the center. One crew member is always staying at the car, even for shopping e.g. After Tourist information we moved to the hospital because we had to check the sickness of our kids. We parked at the Place from hospital. All of us was going to hospital. One hour later we came back and our van was open. Criminals damaged two locks and has stolen a design pad for computer and two softshell-jackets. We was lucky because it coud worser then that. After burglary we drove to Camping Ser and police record the burglary. Anna, the host from Camping Ser was very nice and talked to police, because she speaks spanish and english. She was going to present us an I-Pad and two jackets because she was sad about the robbry. She helped us with a lot of information were to buy a new design-pad (Chile) and told us something aboutthe gangs. Don't lesve your car alone. Gang members observes you for example you are going to beach. At this time Other gang members steals your car or things in it. The gang members wear good clothes liketourists so it is not noticable if they are in your car. Maybe they followed us from the tourist information. We don'tknow... Anyway we like Bariloche and the people here and know there are only a few fools, but they smesh a lot of faith. Don't be afraid of Bariloche but keep your eyes open. It's a nice city with a lot of options for overlanders. Nice lakes, good hikes e.g. We highly highly recommend CAMPING SER at Colonia Suiza. We came back one month after the burglary and like it here.