Costa Rica Crime & Police

One afternoon last week a friend of mine who had a rental car decided to visit my small real estate project in Puriscal and drink a few beers while watching the sun set.

It was raining when we got there so we invited the gardener and a man I had working on the road to join us in the car while we waited for the clouds to clear. At 3:30pm the hired man asked us to take him to the bus in Barbacoas because it was raining very hard. We took him in to the bus stop in town, about 3 minutes away and then decided to drive up the hill and look at a property above town.

We then drove back to the project, having been gone for no more than 10 minutes. As we rounded the curve just before the entrance to the project, we saw a taxi leaving my gate. We tried to stop it as it came past us but it kept going. My gardener reacted immediately. He said; “Hurry up the hill, I left the $500 WeedEater out when the rain started and I think the guys in the taxi may have robbed it“.

He jumped out of the car and looked around and said; “It is gone!“. We turned around and took off trying to catch the taxi. The gardener, who was a Police Officer in Puriscal for 8 years, asked for my cell phone and called the local Police Station. He talked very fast and described the taxi. He had observed it was a Toyota Corola with the symbol of a San Jose taxi with four men in it.

The Police said they would notify their colleagues in Ciudad Colon and set up roadblocks. Cuidad Colon is the next town on the road to San Jose, about 15 minutes from Puriscal. My friend and I had already accepted the fact we would never see that WeedEater again and I started trying to figure out how and when I could buy a new one.

We went back to the property to finish the beer and discuss how in the world these guys could have timed this so well. We were away for only 10 minutes. That is why we did not lock the chain for the gate or put the Weed Eater in the car. Then, we got a call. It was the Police in Ciudad Colon. They had caught the taxi.

They had my Weed Eater, a pair of binoculars that were in the camper we use for storage, two loaded pistols and a bolt cutter. That is the good news, now for the bad news. We spent the next 11 hours filing reports. First we went to the OIJ office in Puriscal for about 1 hour. Then we went to Ciudad Colon to identify our stuff and file another report.

After about another hour, they asked us to wait for a Police van to take the bad guys to the Judge and jail in the Moravia section of San Jose. We asked if this is necessary and they said if we wanted to assure they were properly charged and jailed we would need to do this. They said it would be about + hour before the van arrived. We asked if they would like some pizza since it was after 6pm. They cheerfully agreed and we went and got two extra large pizzas.

We all enjoyed pizza and discussing what actually happened. We believe it all was planned and set up by a new worker the neighbor on the property across the road had recently employed. The worker is of obvious bad background and is from Lower Pavas, one of the poorest areas of Costa Rica.

The taxi was a fake and all four of the occupants are from Pavas and have criminal records. They use a “taxi” so people will not pay any attention to them. My gardener usually leaves the project at 4pm and locks the chain on the entrance. We believe the new man had contacted his friends in Pavas and told them we had a nice, new Weed Eater and all they would need is a bolt cutter to get access to the project.

They could just wait until my guy leaves and go in and steal it and anything else we had worth taking. Well, the + hour wait for the van turned into two hours and then we drove in the continuing rain to Moravia. We sat outside the Courthouse/Jail until 2am. During this time, we watched Police bring one or two handcuffed bad guys every 15 minutes into the lock up.

I have heard many people say the Police here do not catch bad guys. We sure watched them bring a lot into the Jail that night. I firmly believe the reason there is so much robbery in Costa Rica is that the bad guys are not inconvenienced enough when they are caught. Most are poor and to get a night or two in a warm jail, a few good meals, and then released.

This is like a secondary reward for stealing. I have concluded preventative measures like close, observant neighbors, good locks, good guard dogs, and alarm systems are necessary to reduce the chances of losing your portable goodies here in Costa Rica.

We were just lucky we had an experienced Police Officer with us and we returned sooner than the robbers expected. We are also lucky we did not catch the taxi and will never know if they would have used the pistols…

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.