A friend of mine had a really bad experience recently. He has a villa in the Mijas area and in the early hours of the morning whilst he was sleeping, some young foreigners broke through the bars of one of his windows and got in the house.

The really scary thing was that they jumped on his bed, put a knife to his throat and then tied him up. They were really after money and after spotting a safe in the house demanded that he open it. The problem was that the safe had come with the house when he bought it and he didn't have the key!

Anyway, he managed to convince them that he really didn't have the key so they took his cash, an expensive watch and then drove off in his car (which was recovered the next day).

This is a truly frightening experience. Imagine if it had been a woman on her own? My friend is no small man himself, he's about 6 foot 5 and built like a brick....you get the idea.