Orihuela, where the most homes were robbed in 2025

Breaking and entering is one of the most concerning crimes for residents of Orihuela, where both Alicante natives and foreigners are witnessing a wave of burglaries, making it the most impacted town in the province.

According to the Ministry of the Interior’s most recent statistics, the capital of Vega Baja is the worst offender. These figures, which identify the towns with the most forced entrance into residences in municipalities with more than 20,000 residents between January and March 2025, rank it first.

Orihuela has a rate of 2.05 offences of this sort per 1,000 residents, which is significantly higher than neighbouring municipalities.

They are succeeded by Javea (1.76) and Pilar de la Horadada (1.72). The list continues with Calpe (1.64) and Torrevieja (1.39). All of them are tourist sites with high-income neighbourhoods.

At the other end of the scale, Benidorm and Aspe stand out with extremely low rates of 0.12 and 0.18, respectively. Petrer (0.26) and Elda/Novelda (approximately 0.5) have numbers much lower than the provincial average.

The most impacted area is Orihuela Costa, which made headlines last November for the gruesome gender-based murder of 15-year-old Cloe. Then came the murder of John George, who lived there with his assassin. This year, a man tried to stab his brother-in-law to death.

While all of this was going on, a group of robbers caused panic among the neighbours without attracting much notice. Residents are so fed up with masked robberies that they have started arming themselves and protecting their homes.

Neighbourhood cooperation against criminals has spread to social media, with different groups of people, both national and international, sharing their experiences and warning one another.

The situation has led to the majority of residents installing surveillance cameras and even disregarding data protection standards.

Others have chosen to buy dogs and set them outside at night to alert them to their presence, and others have even gone so far as to get guns to defend themselves.

According to local sources, some foreign immigrants brought firearms, while others purchased pepper spray and self-defence weaponry.