www.CostaRicaTicas.com

great point and post ID

Suggestions like these don't work:

Take a taxi (The guy got picked up right in front of HDR!)
Walk a certain way. (Yeah right.)
Do all mongering in HDR and never leave. (The fun is gone.)

This thing is new and its a pattern that's not going away.

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The sexiest part of the human body? The brain.

The other night after my chica friend's birthday party. I was driving home one of her friends. I was stopped by policia and checked. I was given a breatherlizer test and passed. So he was pissed ,So he gave me a 2000 colones ticket because he could no read the stamp on my passport copy. ALL BULL S--T

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enjoy life

Many Costa Rica regulars used to think I was crazy when I started travelling to Colombia back in 2003. Funny how the times have changed.

Devo

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The most dangerous adversaries are the ones that come with a smile instead of a sword

I was involved in a police altercation. They cuffed and stuffed me.

Why is the name for handcuffs in Espanol esposa and the name for wife is also esposa?

They took me to the station. An official there ran my passport copy number on an old green screen DOS like computer. I did not have a arrival stamp copy on me.

Date of arrival came back OK and they drove me home. I offered the cops a couple of beers. They said they were on duty and could not partake of the merry frosty mirth however, would gladdy accept the 2 mil (tico prices) for the beers.

Another time walking through the Parque Morazan one afternoon, the cop in the box waved me over and asked if I would like a police escort (cuida espalda) tour of the best chica places in San Jose. Said he got off at six and for a fee plus food and beers he would show me around.

Triple FFF,

I didn't know about that thing about the espanol term for handcuffs being the same as wife, but I find that very interesting. To answer your question, I have to think it is no mere coincidence.

I also found your 2 experiences to be very interesting tales and they bring a few questions of my own to mind:

1) Do you think, if you had the stamp page with you but it was hard to read, you would have still been brought in?

2) How long did that whole procedure at the station take you (and getting there and back)? 15-30 minutes or hours? If it was all handled pretty quickly that might be a better deal than paying a bribe.

3) You seemed to be taking the whole thing in stride and pretty goodnaturedly. Do I understand correctly that the cops didn't really solicit any propina for taking you home and only asked for the dos mil because you were nice enough to offer the beers that they couldn't take you up on?

That "cuida espalda" tour may have been interesting and well worth the price. You could have made learned about some new places to tell all of us about or at least could go back to visit on your own on future trips and you might have made friends with a nice local guy and established some connections with law enforcement that might come in handy later.

4) Do you think he would have taken you to expensive clip joints where you would have had to shell out a lot of money for you and him and he would collect a commission or do you think he would have taken you to some cheap local places that even BB57 or RBC never heard of?

5) How much could beer and food really cost at the real tico places? If his fee was not that high and he was mainly looking for free food and drink, then it might have been a reasonable price to pay.

6) Last question, which is a little off topic and you've probably been asked before, but if your handle is "Triple FFF" wouldn't that really be the same as "FFF FFF FFF"?

I can help with the last one, Pro: "Triple FFF" is the way that black powder canisters are labeled. He obviously likes things that go "boom" and creating his own fog banks!

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"Your love gives me such a thrill
but your love don't pay my bills,
I NEED THE MONEY!" - John Lee Hooker

Disclaimer: The above is merely the opinion of the author unless specific scientific data is included.
Your mileage may vary. https://costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewto ... 978#206978

Senior Prolijo,

It is an honor to respond to your quieries as I have noted your posts seem to be very analytical and that you are very interested int he details.

6. Tres FFF is the 3 Feathers team famous in their own minds operational in the NIC and CR back in the days of Ollie Norte.

3.5, 4, & 5. The invitation was interesting. He promised to wear his badge, uniform, and weapon. The best wild side / dark side tour I have taken in the last year was with Florida. What a great all nighter that turned out to be . I look forward to hanging with Bang Bang 57 soon

1, 2, 3. I was under arrest for fighting three ticos that assaulted me in Barrio Blancos while I was walking the streets heading to Vista Linda well after midnight.

They were beating me with motor cycle helmets and my passport copy was blood soaked. The police officers handled my docs w/o latex gloves. I did not have the additional copy of my entry stamp everyone advises we carry. I was relieved that they took me into custody ending the beating.

I think it took about an hour in total, but I was both drunk and concussed so it may have actually been longer.

YMMV

Triple FFF,

Interesting replies and some fresh questions and comments:

6) That goes to show that there is always something we can all learn from each other. I already said I never knew that thing about the CR sland term for handcuffs (muy interesante). I didn't know about the black powder reference that Pac mentioned and I'm not entirely sure what "team" you're talking about with Ollie (but then a lot of what on back then in CR and Nic has been swept under a rug). Did you know that Triple FFF is also the name of a premium beer from England?

4 & 5) nuff said there except I can't imagine a safer wingman.

1, 2 & 3) I hope you don't mind my continuing to be very analytical and make some observations on what you just wrote (probably most of which you realize already). I realize you weren't looking for any pity with your post, OTOH I don't mean to "blame the victim" by pointing out mistakes. I assume they attacked you first and there is never any justification for that. I also realize you didn't really intend your tale as any object lesson for the rest of us. Nonetheless, there are some lessons we can all get from what happened to you. For some that lesson would simply be to always take cabs. I think there is a little more to it than that. Beyond merely walking in SJ after dark there were a number of important contributing factors, as there so often are in cases like this: a) you were drunk b) it was well after midnight and c) it was way up in remote and deserted Calle Blanco. So for me the lesson would actually be not to walk when in that condition, time and place.

The second lesson is not to get in a fight with 3 ticos armed with motorcycle helmets if you can at all avoid it. I don't really know what went down. A robbery? Hopefully, you weren't carrying so much cash that you'd feel reluctant to give it up or that it was worth getting your head bashed in over. However, if you were backed into a corner and the ticos continued their attack even after taking all your money, then obviously you do whatever you need to do to survive.

The third lesson is that this case was not really an example of having to "watch out for the policia" because of increasingly bold "passport shakedowns" like the original post was talking about. Your first post said that you were "involved in a police altercation. They cuffed and stuffed me." But the real altercation was with the 3 tico street thugs not the cops and, as you acknowledged, the cops weren't really victimizing you by arresting you but were really doing you a favor by breaking up your beating and getting you out of there. Also, like your original post said, this wasn't a matter of their their just picking up some random gringo innocently walking the street and not accepting the validity/legibility of his copy of passport's stamp date page like the cops were doing with TMG and others. In this case, not only were you without all your required documentation, you were involved in some sort of drunken brawl out on the street (again not blaming you). Under those circumstances, it is completely understandable why they took you in to check things out.

Final lesson, with all the circumstances surrounding your case it only took an hour or so of your time in total INCLUDING the time it took the nice cops to drive you back to your hotel afterwards. If they really wanted to shake you down they could have threatened to charge you with assault but they didn't and even any relatively minor immigration violation charge was quickly dropped after you checked out. SO, it is hard to imagine that it would take much longer than that to check out the computer records for a reasonable sober gringo with photocopies of ALL his required passport pages (even if hard to read) and simply walking on the street completely minding his own business, if they bothered to pursue it at all. And unless that gringo did something really stupid (like "telling the cops to Phuck off"), its highly doubtful that the cops would try something like bringing him up on "some trumped up charges which will take 6 months to iron out as you're getting beaten and raped in some CR jail."(as certain others have suggested).

Pro,
The term "esposas" for handcuffs is not slang, that's what it really is. It's pretty funny. The guy who invented Spanish must've had a sense of humor (and must've been married).

3FFF,
What happened to the 3 ticos?

Orange, I just can't let that comment go unnoticed! The Romance languages (of which Spanish is one), were not "invented" by some "guy", they evolved from local dialect versions of Latin. The Latin we all know was actually only used in Roman times for recording government records and other formal uses. What the common person spoke on the "street" was a "lesser" form, and each of the provinces hads their own local version ("vulgar" in Latin, and from which the modern English word is derived). From these dialects came Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian. As just one example, one of our favorite Spanish words "cien" is just one local form of the Latin "cen". Sorry for the linguistics lesson, it's a small interest of mine. Read Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue" for a short and humorous history of the English language; it's a great book and answers a lot of questions.

Man, Prolijo you never cease to amaze me. The poor guy gets jumped by 3 assholes and all you can do is criticize why he got in the fight, why did he not give up his money, why didn't he run...

wow.

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heredia porn king

Why are you picking on Prolijo? At least he is consistent in his posting.

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My life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming...." MAN....WHAT A RIDE!!!!"

Fuzebox,
Why are you picking on Prolijo, when you're not even the one he is talking about? YOU never cease to amaze ME. This is at least the 2nd time in this thread you've complained about me "only" criticizing the poor poor victims even though numerous times I've said at length that ANY mistake that the victims MIGHT have made NEVER justifies or excuses what has been done to them. And I've also expressed my sympathies for the victims numerous times (how much more can really be said about that). This case was no different:The post was addressed to Triple FFF and was about him. He clearly wasn't looking for anybody's pity, yours or mine. But if anybody should complain about what I wrote, it should be him. However I'm willing to bet that, unlike you, he understands and appreciates what I wrote and why. He specifically stated he appreciates my overly analytical nature and must have expected it when he made his reply to me.

What is the point of posting these crime stories at all on this DISCUSSION board if we're not going to be allowed to discuss them? Are there JUST so that one member after the other can offer their condolences? How boring is that and who really thinks that not all of us, who face similar risks, don't also feel that reaction of sympathy for the victim and disgust and frustration over the situation? My point is that we can't do anything to control what the crooks or more recently the cops do to us, but we can do something about our own actions. If what we ourselves do has no relevance to our chances of becoming victims, then the only thing these stories do is reinforce the misperception that crime is rampant AND TOTALLY beyond our control. If that's the case, our only choices are to either accept the risks as a given (in which case, what's the point of posting about more incidents) or else avoid the risks by not going to CR at all.

I prefer to think that there are some things we can do (or not do) for our part to at least IMPROVE our odds somewhat(though I doubt there is anything we can do short of skipping SJ altogether to completely ELIMINATE the risk of becoming victimized there). And if any good is going to come out of what happens to these guys it will be from analyzing it for whatever lessons we glean. Okay, most of the lessons that I pointed out are nothing new, but neither are incidents of this type. For that matter, if the only point of telling these tales in the first place was to warn others about what could happen, then the specifics of each case, however mundane or common, also matter. When you study the specific details, FAR more times than not, such contributing factors as TMG's and FFF's exist, leading me to believe if you eliminate those factors (not walking around when drunk, not walking dangerous and deserted areas alone late at night, not wearing any valuables, etc.) you can greatly improve your odds of avoiding any incidents or reducing the consequences if they do happen.

Lastly, my post was completely on topic. This thread started out being about cop shakedowns over alleged passport violations. FFF's original post only mentioned being taken in by the police. Based just on that one might have thought it was another example of police misconduct. As it turned out in that case the cops were only doing their jobs and really were doing FFF a great service. So I thought it was important and completely relevant to the thread to highlight that distinction. Another theme of this thread has been how to deal with the cops if they do try to shake you down (flatly refuse, demand to be taken to your hotel, don't get in the car or call their bluff and go to the police station). Here was a guy who was taken to the police station, so it was also extremely relevant to the discussion to compare his situation to what might happen to one of us if we were taken in.
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GM, joke if you will but at least I AM consistent
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Triple FFF, I'd also like to know what happened to the 3 ticos. Did they take them in as well? Were they robbing you (as I assumed) and if so did they get away with anything?

You have never heard somebody use the saying "The guy who invented [whatever] was a genius" It's used as a form of sarcasm, most effective when used for intangible things. I didn't mean that some "guy" actually invented Spanish.