The following is the text of the letter I just sent to the US Embassy in Panama City. I feel like a bubble has been popped and am looking for anybodys input and experiences with a similar situation. Thanks to all!!!
My wife and I have been in Panama since July 2012 and have lived the whole time in Cambutal. We love it here. Today we came back to our apartment to find 6 men and a policeman from the Tonosi headquarters waiting for us. The men who identified themselves to us told us they were a judge, a lawyer, and the police officer. The others were witnesses and maintenance men. The judge demanded we pay him over $1,700 in cash or other assets totaling that amount. He claimed this would be the amount to pay legal and court fees for papers that he held which were in Spanish and we could not understand. I am on a fixed disability income from the US Government Social Security Administration and get paid once a month on the 3rd. We told him we had no money to pay him. He ended up seizing our washing machine, gas stove, crock pot, toaster oven, and then started to seize the home owners appliances. The home owner started arguing with them that the other items and appliances in her kitchen were hers and had been for many years and that they had no right to take them. They did not take them at the end of the dispute but all our things were stolen from us. We have receipts, serial numbers, and pictures of our seized items showing we purchased them over the last few months.
A little bit of history is necessary now for you. The beginning of January we paid $400 cash and signed a 1 year lease with Daniele Travato who also lives in Cambutal and owns an apartment we were going to rent. He also owns the Boom Shiva Hotel located a mile away on the beach of Playa Cambutal. The $400 was for last months rent and the lease stipulated that we would be moving into his newly created apartment with 2 working air conditioners, refrigerator, stove, washing machine, microwave oven, sofa, table, and bedroom furniture. The move-in date was setup for February 3rd 2013. On the 3rd of February we moved into the apartment with only 1 working air conditioner, no stove, no refrigerator, no washing machine, no microwave oven, no sofa, a flimsy plastic table, and a bed in the bedroom. Nothing else! The next day they move an old, half broken refrigerator into our place from another apartment. Also, that day we started complaining that the 2nd air conditioner did not work. Over the next 2 months we reminded and complained about the missing appliances and broken air conditioner but got no solution. We finally became angry and told him we were moving out since he had breached the contract / lease and that we were getting sick because the 1 working air conditioner had started leaking after a month and the mold was forming under the wooden floorboards and in the walls. I am 63 years old and in poor health as well as being physically disabled due to having polio in 1954. Part of my problems include sinus infection and allergic to mildew and mold so we needed to move. Daniele became very upset that we were moving out after only 2 months and his 21 year old girlfriend even got physically abusive towards my wife and grabbed her hair to yank on it. We let them spout off but still moved out the next week.
So today was a very heart-rendering and upsetting day for us.
We are asking you to please look into this matter for us and advise us on what recourse we have to get our belongings back. We are so shocked about what has happened and hope you can possibly help us.
Sincerely,
Gregg and Rene Soden
Cambutal, Tonosi, Los Santos, Panama
My wife and I have been in Panama since July 2012 and have lived the whole time in Cambutal. We love it here. Today we came back to our apartment to find 6 men and a policeman from the Tonosi headquarters waiting for us. The men who identified themselves to us told us they were a judge, a lawyer, and the police officer. The others were witnesses and maintenance men. The judge demanded we pay him over $1,700 in cash or other assets totaling that amount. He claimed this would be the amount to pay legal and court fees for papers that he held which were in Spanish and we could not understand. I am on a fixed disability income from the US Government Social Security Administration and get paid once a month on the 3rd. We told him we had no money to pay him. He ended up seizing our washing machine, gas stove, crock pot, toaster oven, and then started to seize the home owners appliances. The home owner started arguing with them that the other items and appliances in her kitchen were hers and had been for many years and that they had no right to take them. They did not take them at the end of the dispute but all our things were stolen from us. We have receipts, serial numbers, and pictures of our seized items showing we purchased them over the last few months.
A little bit of history is necessary now for you. The beginning of January we paid $400 cash and signed a 1 year lease with Daniele Travato who also lives in Cambutal and owns an apartment we were going to rent. He also owns the Boom Shiva Hotel located a mile away on the beach of Playa Cambutal. The $400 was for last months rent and the lease stipulated that we would be moving into his newly created apartment with 2 working air conditioners, refrigerator, stove, washing machine, microwave oven, sofa, table, and bedroom furniture. The move-in date was setup for February 3rd 2013. On the 3rd of February we moved into the apartment with only 1 working air conditioner, no stove, no refrigerator, no washing machine, no microwave oven, no sofa, a flimsy plastic table, and a bed in the bedroom. Nothing else! The next day they move an old, half broken refrigerator into our place from another apartment. Also, that day we started complaining that the 2nd air conditioner did not work. Over the next 2 months we reminded and complained about the missing appliances and broken air conditioner but got no solution. We finally became angry and told him we were moving out since he had breached the contract / lease and that we were getting sick because the 1 working air conditioner had started leaking after a month and the mold was forming under the wooden floorboards and in the walls. I am 63 years old and in poor health as well as being physically disabled due to having polio in 1954. Part of my problems include sinus infection and allergic to mildew and mold so we needed to move. Daniele became very upset that we were moving out after only 2 months and his 21 year old girlfriend even got physically abusive towards my wife and grabbed her hair to yank on it. We let them spout off but still moved out the next week.
So today was a very heart-rendering and upsetting day for us.
We are asking you to please look into this matter for us and advise us on what recourse we have to get our belongings back. We are so shocked about what has happened and hope you can possibly help us.
Sincerely,
Gregg and Rene Soden
Cambutal, Tonosi, Los Santos, Panama
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