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Security in Waterloo, Belgium
Question
My husband and I are moving to Belgium soon. We have decided to rent a house in Waterloo. I expect to be home alone some days when my husband goes on business trips, or in some days house will be empty when we are both away. I have read about increasing burglaries in Belgium. Are home burglaries also a growing concern in Waterloo ? Is it safe walking alone in Waterloo streets and commuting alone by bus or train to and from Brussels ?
Appreciate inputs from Waterloo residents. Thanks!
ANON100 - just logic. Personally, I asked this sort of question BEFORE deciding whether or not to move to Waterloo, not afterwards. And to be honest, input from people who decided NOT to be Waterloo residents ought to carry a lot more weight than people who are - people very rarely have a truly objective opinion of the place they live - they need to put a positive spin on it to justify their original decision or the situation they've landed themselves in. However, that's beside the point really. I chose not to live in Waterloo because I found a place that suited me better.
However asking a question NOW, after committing to rent a place, about SECURITY? Can you really be that un-clued up about a place to have to ask the most basic of personal security questions after you've been bamboozled into living there?
What do you want? The standard do-gooder answer of "I've always felt safe around Waterloo (except for the traffic), and none of the people I know who live there have been burgled" (which is true, but unhelpful...), or do you think that it would be more constructive to address the reason why CCD felt the need to ask this question in the first place?
And another thing, anon100- my introduction to Belgium also involved an anti car jacking course. Belgium was the car jackers shopping basket, cars whizzed of to Eastern Europe but little was done.
In fact, I was warned against taking my offered car, too dangerous according to the relocation agent.
You want to know when that changed? Well, it was not until a couple of high ranking politicians had their cars taken and do you want to know where that was? I'll tell you, it was the waterloosestenweg, car jacking hot spot of Belgium.
And I no longer pay tax to Belgium, but thanks for the advice.
CCD please ignore J.
J maybe you would ask these question first before you decide on Waterloo but you have no idea what discussion were undertaken nor why CCD and their spouse chose Waterloo. In addition if the first time they left home to live as expats it can be frightening. Different if you not the trailing spouse you have work and get busy but the trailing spouse if they can't work is at home away from friends, family and known culture. I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to think of after the fact. You have to suddenly find the shops, the way to meet people being stuck in the house with no support and no friends isn't easy at first or pleasant I can assure you. If you realise the area is safe you can then feel relaxed at leaving your home to join clubs and etc. CCD there are plenty of ways to meet people in and around that area wishing you a good transition.
I like Waterloo. I think it's safe, people are OK, there's quite an ex-pat community, I know a number of people who live there happily. Burglary, if heresay is anything to go by, is not as much of a problem as Ixelles, probably because people are more paranoid about it.
Does that actually help?
I don't like the traffic.
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