www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Well it finally happened !!

Last night, Saturday somewhere between 11:45 PM and12:15 AM I'm spread eagle leaning on hood of my car on Ave 10 getting busted for D.W.G. Driving While Gringo!

Normally I don't stay out late and am home by 10:30-11:pm but ended up staying out " after the 12 oclock hour" !

Earlier had gone to dinner at Sportsmans with 2 other locals, and due to large crowd with the UFC Championships, took a while to get served. ( I love the Corvina con Ajo...Mucho!) Left the SL and decided to stop by Pirates Club and Kingston to see what's happening. End up sessioning at Kingston and walked back to my car parked in front of Pirates Club.

Within a block or two, notice a car behind me flashing it's lights.... closer look in mirror and sure enough... a police car, now, blowing it's horn.... Ok..what to do.. not the greatest neighborhood, especially at night, and there have been reports on board and word of mouth, of some "not so real" cops operating in area of Ave 10 betwen Calles 14 & Central late night.

So instead of pulling over to left curb, I stoped more or less in middle of Ave 10,
with enough room for traffic to pass on right but close enough that everyone had to slow down to pass...

Watched my mirror and place left hand on outside left mirror and right hand on top of steering wheel so approaching Cop can see both hands and not go Rambo.. Sure enough, One Cop out of drivers side walking up left side of my car, other out passenger door and positions himself at right rear corner of Car..

Cop #1, in Spanish asks for " Tu Documentos".. hand him my CR Drivers License... looks at it and asks... " Tu Tico or Gringo ? " I reply Gringo, then he asks for my passport... hand him my laminated color copy with photo copy of latest Visa folded and taped to back. (In side the Visa I keep a card with the OIJ Hotline to report Police misconduct.. (506-2586-4022).. neither cop made any mention of this card but had to see it to read Visa. )

He walks back to Cop#2 who has now moved to left rear of Car and hands
the paper to him.. Cop#2 hands Cop#1 a handheld radio and looks at my documents and converses with Cop#1... sure enough, Cop#1 walks back up
to my window, puts is face close to mine, and askes THE question... How much have you had to drink tonight...? Why did I know this was coming...??

I answer him in my best English, Nothing... I don't drink... he asks again in Spanish, How much.. ?? again, I say Nothing, I don't drink at all.
He tells me he smells "something" and tells me to get out of car...

He then asks me (in Spanish) what I thought was " can I search your car" and I step away from car and point at open door and tell him .." go ahead"..
Well... Good ole Cop#2 now moves in and in English tells me in a voice which lead me to believe he was not happy and pointing at the hood of my car... "Put your hands on the car..! If I remember correctly.. he didn't even say please.

At this point I didn't really know if they were real cops... they had an old blue cop car with one headlight burnt out, uniforms, GUNS, and a radio jabbering in Spanish with what I was hoping was "police business".. The thought went through my head to ask for "offical ID's" but a quick reassessment of the situation ( and the fact that I only had about 40K in my pocket and wallet)
indicated to me it would probably not make my new friends very happy, I didn't have that much to loose, 40K and maybe my 20 year old car, and decided to keep my mouth shut and "assume the position!"...

Gosh... first time in over 25 years.. !

Cop#2 starts in rapid fire English.. where you going, where you been, how much you drink, have any drugs, any weapons, what's that in your pocket..

I may add at during this time Cop #1 has already started an exploration of my pockets, removing whatever he found and making his "examination. I felt my wallet being removed and figured... Well..there it goes.. Cop#1 opens it, sees the 10K in the wallet and hands the wallet to Cop #2. No2 now has my wallet, passport copy and DL in his hand and No 1 has finished is business in my pants finding the 30K in the wad and hands it to No 2 and now going thru my shirt pocket..

Cop #2 goes back into action and tells me his partner smells alcohol or something on my breath and wants to know how much I have had to drink.

I answer back and I not sure why but I answered in Spanish... " Nada y Yo no tome nada para mas de viente anos, nada !"

My buddy No 2 stops for a second and asks in spanish... Tu hable espanol?

I answer back " Si mas o menos pero yo aprendando mas total las dias viven aqui"..

No 2 now starts asking questions again in English.. how long you live here,
where you live, what you do here for work, do you have residency...

I don't remember my exact reply but it was something to the effect that my lawyer was looking into that....

Don't know if that was the magic word, but No 2 stopped, said something to No1 in Spanish and both of them had a little huddle to call the next play...

No 2 then tells me in spanish while motioning with his hand, come here. I take my hands off the hood, and take a few steps to them by my open drivers door.

No 2 hands me my wallet, passport, DL, and the wad, which I can see at least one 10K note sticking outand tells me ...you can go...

I figure get going while the going is good, I say, OK.. turn to get in the car, and while I was placing my handful of goddies on the passenger seat, No 2 continues...

We stopped you because we had a report that a car "just like yours" was stolen in Heredia ealier tonight and thought this may be the car...

( Bullshit)

..but I just smiled, said thank you very much, reached out and shook No 2's hand and started to get into the car and should have let well enough alone... but no..
I figured things were going my way and had to push it... so..

I asked him if he could help me? He got a real strange look on his face and I asked.... would you please call the Police in San Pedro on your radio and tell them you have already stopped and checked me out so I don't get stopped again in San Perdo...

No 2 looked at me... a little smile came to his face and he said... "I already do that.."

I smiled back, said thanks and got the F out of there....

I drove east on Ave 10 to a 24 hours Texaco station where I normally get my gas and pull in to take inventory.....

YES... Wallet, Passport, DL, and even my entire 40K intact....

amazing... strange things happen but I'll be happy to pass on this excitement in the future..

Peace Brothers
PIDD

Lots of this stop and search going on. Last time I was in San Jose was stopped and searched three times in two nights. One of the times I came up 10000 col short. Same deal, put your hands on the car or wall and go through all your pockets.rbc100

_________________
In Search of Fine Kittens,
Please... Bring back the Muff

Glad you made it out OK. Ave.10 is where me & Florida & I Can't Stay Away got hassled 2 nights in a row. They did not work us for dinero, but if we would have had anything illegal.....................

_________________
Why Chicas Come to CostaRica:

"Predators gather where prey abounds"

Hard to figure what there motive was based on everything being still there when you did you inventory. Where they really looking for a stolen car or where they looking to shake you down but your having the phone number to report police conduct make them back off? Hard to tell but from what I read into your account they were Fuerza Public cops not Transitos so DUI was not really into play in this case.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Interesting story. Glad everything worked out well.

What lesson have we learned here today, k*ds?

Don't carry anything on your person that you wouldn't want the policia to find. Drugs/weapons/fake I.D. are all bad ideas. Emphasize "bad ideas."

I want to consult a criminal lawyer in C.R. to find out what rights we have regarding search of person/property/automobile. Most U.S. states have fairly strict conditions for police searches, and often a clearly stated, "I will cooperate, Officer but I do not consent to a warrantless search of my person or possessions" is all that is required to get illegally-obtained evidence thrown out of court. Don't suppose we have the same rights in C.R., do we?

If anyone has the name and contact information for a good criminal attorney, please PM me. Thanks.

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Yeah, this is definitely a good thread. The lesson I get from this is Never carry anything illegal, drive after drinking or get stupid while in another country. I even quit doing this stuff at home..Lol Like EC says, It's important to know our rights in CR too, if we even have any.

Don't want to end up on that TV series..Thats for sure!

They definitely dont play with the drinking and driving thing anymore. In the city especially, best not to drive even after a couple of beers. As for the other, yes, definitely a no brainer. Anything illegal in the car is just asking for trouble.

I have noticed that Fuerza Publica is making traffic stops and setting up more road blocks. I think by statute they cannot write tickets or make traffic arrests. Not sure if that was changed in the new “Transit” Law. Not sure if anyone knows what is in the new Transit Law, even the people who wrote it.

From everything I have read about the new law still only transitos can issue tickets. That is the good part the other part is that the are increasing the transitos from 800 to 1200 officers.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Ah! The Costa Rican government has finally followed the example of their fellow governments to the north! Drunk driving = increased revenue! Ta-Da!!

That's why they've added so many transitos.

My own county realized a 18% revenue increase from drunk driving fines in the first year after Minnesota lowered the legal blood alcohol level from .10% to .08% For most people, that's a one-drink difference. Big cash from enforcement. Not to mention the opportunity for officers to raise money for their favorite charity.

Let's be careful out there.

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

I think that is a real stretch. In CR only transitos can enforce traffic laws. Presently there are 800 officers in the entire country. Assuming there are 168 eight hour shifts in a week (8x3x7) and each officer works 5 of those shifts that would mean that at the very maximum there would be 336 officers on duty, at any given time, to cover an area roughly the size of West Virginia. This off course assume that every one of the 800 is assigned to road patrol and not anyone is doing administrative or supervisor duties, no one is sick, no one has a day off, no one gets vacation, etc.

Increasing the force by 50% might seem as a huge step designed increase revenue as you suggest I think it is more likely a step designed to increase road safety. Now if you want to talk about the huge percentage increase in minimum fines that is another matter.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Have you ever seen Pidd's car?

NO WAY anyone would want to steal his Ticomobile.

The traffic laws and traffic enforcement have nothing to do with traffic safety -- reducing traffic deaths and injuries by reducing accidents. It has everything to do with $$$.

The real revenue generators are the Transitos who issue citations for no marchamo / no Reteve and driving in the circunvalación -- the no driving-ring.

No current Reteve sticker is a 10,000 colone fine. Who knows how many of those are issued every day. But when the driving-ring ban was instituted the newspaper reported 1000 tickets written on opening day. At 5000 colones a pop, that is about $9,000, depending on the value of the colone at the time. (One can only speculate on the lost revenue through the bribes a Traffico can extort.)

And they don’t even have to use gas to chase you down; they set up road blocks or just waive you over. Because if you don’t stop, the car gets the ticket and you have to pay the fine plus penalties when you renew in December and you can’t get a marchamo or Reteve if you are not current on all your fines.

Man, sorry to hear that happened, but I'm hearing this kind of thing more and more now. The outcome was great so congrats.