[quote="Zman"]I pay the taxi driver I put the bags where I want them. That's the back seat. I handle all the bags myself. I am not a cripple. I take charge. He never touches my bags.
Why wouldn't you do it this way if you thought the drivers were stealing from you?
Answer;
"By the time I realized it, and it wasn't like a dozen times, maybe 2 or 3 times, I started tying the tops off and counting the bags, that ended the problem."
"The way it works is first time you assume it fell out of the bag or something. You check your receipt to make sure you did buy the item, it didn't fall out of the grocery cart."
"2nd time you go..."Hmmm...that's odd...you check the receipt again, but fumbling with 7,8,9,10 bags, between the cab and the gate, probably lost again but could the cabbie have taken it?"
"Third time's a charm, that's when you know...

that's when I started tying off and what a surprise, nada missing. Of course, 3x the most expensive small meat item could have fallen out, who knows, stranger things have happened but I don't believe in coincidences..."
"Also, it's not like it happens every trip, maybe in 15 to 20 trips the 3 MIA situations occurred..."
Hundreds of trips with groceries. Never heard of anyone at Vista Linda having that problem.
Kinda like an answer...;
"Years ago in my ancient days of working, I joined a group that bought and flipped houses, one of their problems is they would sign a contract with someone who didn't qualify, (often backed up by a flake mortgage broker and/or realtor) and they kept the house off the market for 1 to 2 months.
Since I was an experienced mortgage broker, any one who wanted to buy one of their houses had to get past me. I was strict and demanded proof of income, assets, and pull my own credit report on them, if the answer was "No", my reply was "Hasta la vista, baby..."
Often the potential buyer and/or realtor and mortgage broker didn't like this and/or was hesitant to cooperate fully, they would say "We never heard of this..."
My reply was, "Now you have, we learn something new every day now, don't we???"
Driver must have thought you were a sap and easy to steal from. Time and time again.
Response;
"Ummm...do you always get the same driver? I rarely do..."
Over the many years I have lived and worked in Costa Rica I have witnessed, read about, heard about many many muggings. But never ever about a taxi driving stealing groceries right under your nose.
Answer; See previous response...if you're not sure what I'm getting at, I'll elaborate...
You gotta watch your shit in CR...
Agreed...There's more...;
"Back in the ancient good old days, 2003 to say 2009, New Fantasy was a top hot spot, I loved the two way mirror, when they removed that, things immediately started going downhill...
In any event, in those days the girl would shower and or go to the sauna and or steam room with you obediently...

Suddenly, girls wouldn't want to do that, and you might go alone, I loved the steam room...or after the session, when taking a shower, they would finish before you and bound back to the room while you're still toweling off. Me and friends of mine who would often go there together thought nothing of it even though our wallets were there...
OK, stupid, I admit it, but I wasn't the only fool, my only excuse was I was still a dumb mistake making newbie to a degree. Often we would get home and I would count my cash and review my spending.
Where did that 5k or 10k colones go???
We all carried typically 100k colones or more, and often had a fat wad of 10k colones in the wallet. They wouldn't wipe you out, they figured you would see immediately and come charging back in to see the manager, but slip a 5k or 10k note when there's so many...who would know?
Finally after getting fleeced about 3x each, and only if we went to NF, we genius sleuths figured it out....
I also know every stitch of clothes I wear. Vista Linda has this rip off policy of nailing you for about $10 for the maid to wash your clothes, a small basket, even though they have several washers and dryers, you can't do your own.
That alone is a royal fleecing, unless you want to stink, or wash your clothes in the shower (Which I did...) look at $50 a month...
One day the maid returned my wash. I had this Tico style blue and red checkered shirt, a very nice one I bought from a high end Tico shop here, joking that I wanted to make people think I'm a Tico when I'm walking around. Other than me, no gringos would wear it, but it was a beautiful shirt for a Tico.
I kept a particular eye out for it because it was new (some of my clothes still date back to the 90's) different, and I really liked it. One wash I knew it was in, when my clothes were returned, MIA.
When I asked her about it, she sort of fidgeted, squirmed and went on and on and on with excuses and wasn't it Shakespeare who said "Methinks thou dost protest too much..."???
Yeah, I love being here and the majority of people are good and honest, but many here think "Puda Vida" means they get to puda their hands in your pockets...
