Coppers! The Shakedown
As we were leaving CULICAN (Sinaloa) Mexico we were caught in the ‘classic’ scenario. It was both a Sunday and an afternoon and we were on the edge of town on our way out.
Cops
They stopped us and started the dance. Their claim was that we ran a red light – but it was two lights ago (a ploy designed to make it long enough back that we can’t remember there being two lights so maybe we did???). We stood firm, denied the infraction, spoke French and certainly NO Spanish. Handed over photocopy of the Driver Licence....finally they got tired of us and sent us on our way.
I did offer them to accompany them to the police station – to show our originals and to see the ‘photos’ of the infraction. This of course was ignored as this is contrary to the shake-down.
We followed the proposed steps as defined by the DTA crew - well done!
The point of this posting is the one thing that made this one different is that they wanted our licence plate –since we wouldn't give an original Driver’s Licence - as ‘guarantee’ that we would not leave without paying.
When they saw it was pop-riveted on, I guess it took the wind out of their sail.
#1 well done!
Excellent job - keep it up! We also found that arguing in Spanish can be fun too - playing along with their ridiculous claims and agreeing to go with them to a town 3 hours away where the office is closed and we'll have to wait till Monday yada yada takes the wind out of their sails too - they don't want to waste time with people who are willing to spend lots of time with them either!
Never heard of them trying to confiscate a license plate! That is truely insane.
#2 Licence Plates AGAIN
…further to that, we actually WATCHED as a motorcycle cop remove license plates of illegally parked cars in San Miguel de Allende. I guess this is an acknowledged strategy.
Then later while making the blitz across Acapulco – hearing of the security issues we had no interest in staying for a visit - we got stopped not once but TWICE within seconds of each event.
The first event went standard – shake hands, how are you? Nice nice very good, well, you ran a RED LIGHT. They were kind enough to show me the fine for a red light was 5137 pesos (we know it is more like 4?? pesos)! They became belligerent when faced with the photocopy of my driver’s licence demanding the original and later instead the front license plate (still riveted onto the bumper). They tried to get me to step out for a ‘quiet discussion’ which was refused. More serious belligerency followed my demand to accompany them to the police station; as you guess closed at 1530hrs in the afternoon! (NOTE these cops had NO identification tags or badges on their uniform and NO license plate on the car but they DID still have the CAR ID number on the bumper. SIDELINE: We had heard that a month or so earlier that the Mayor of Acapulco received a complaint from a tourist that was shaken down to which the result was a massive termination of coppers and a revamp of the police system due to the ongoing bad rep of Acapulco vis a vis the importance of tourism for the city) With this in mind, I then took out my notebook and pen and started demanding their identification; name and badge number. Meanwhile Fanny openly called the ‘Tourist HOTLINE (066) and started speaking SPANISH into the telephone. The first cop – Mr Belligerent – was clearly shaken by this and fled to his car while the other cop started shining apples.
Not two minutes later I spotted the second cop making a u-turn to follow us. He followed us for a km or so at a distance with no indication of immediate or imminent action. I figured to outwit him by pulling over and letting him pass. Do you believe he parked behind me with his lights on??!! Watching him approached I pulled out the roadmap and got ready to misdirect him with 'how to get to...?' questions. He approached the car talking to (he said) his Jeffe on his phone and then started... RED LIGHT.... (NOTE this time the cops had no ID or nameplate, no BADGE and their car had no plates AND the Car ID on the bumper had been scratched off) I told him flat out ‘bullshit’ and followed that cherry with the fact that we had been stopped just 2 minutes ago by other cops. INTERESTINGLY his hearing of being hit by other cops was an immediate ‘get out of jail’ pass. He waved us on.
Moral of the story? There are two: rivet your plates on your car and tell all cops that you just got shaken down just a couple of minutes ago!
A third might be to boycott Acapulco.
#3 We paid...
We drove through Acapulco and believe it or not, we DID drive through a red light. But actually, the cops MADE us drive through :).
Situation was this; we were waiting in front of the red light behind a cab, and behind us was a patrol car. The cab made a right turn through the red. And then the cops behind us switched on their red-and-blue lights and started honking for me to get out of their way. My only option was to pull over to the side, a little past the red light.
So they went after the taxi, but he was out of reach, so they came back and pulled me over. Apparently it was NO EXCUSE that I helped them by letting them through, that they made me move to the side.
We just wanted to get out of Acapulco, we paid a 3USD mordida, not worth an hour discussion and after that they were really friendly. Explained us the exit out of Acapulco, stopped a 4-lane traffic to let us make a U-turn.
If you don't want to pay, we experienced or heard it's good to;
-Don't speak Spanish nor English
-(Pretend to) Start calling 'some' authorities
-Take a picture of them (really scares them to be identified)
#4 love it!
That is so awesome that they forced you to drive through a red light and then pulled you over for it. What is the deal with the cops in Acapulco? The only problem with not speaking Spanish (even if you do) is that you can't point out that lots of them have 'Tourista no pagan multas' (Tourists Don't Pay Fines) or something like that written on the backs of their cars.