Central America - Costa Rica police shake down

I just returned from a few days in Costa Rica. As we always do I rented a car. Between Jaco and San Jose I was pulled over for speeding. The cop in his broken english explained that the fine has increased to $590 for any speeding. I was doing 90 KPH in a 80 KPH speed zone. I was speeding and do not deny it.
He then said it needed to be reported to rental car company. Not sure why that mattered.
He said I had to pay fine before I would be allowed to leave the country. He also said that the fine increased by 23% if I paid with a credit card.

I told him I did not have the cash left to pay the fine.

He then told me if I paid him $100 cash he would forget the whole thing.

I did pay and went on my way.

I am mixed on this. I was speeding and frankly glad I only had to pay $100 but it was clearly a shakedown.

Anyone else have anything like this.

the cop is right about the amount , what happened to you is totally (sadly) typical and what you did is also (sadly) typical so I would say the system 'worked' as normal

doing the right thing in the cop/fine department is very expensive here lately

reporting it to the company= would not have mattered because they would have chased you afterwards for the amount

there is no such 23% for paying with credit card because........you can't pay those fines with a credit card, however there is some % on top of the amount that goes towards the child protection agency so its true that its even more than the amount he 'quoted' you

Wolfie_cr is right about the amount of the fine. But you are correct this was a shakedown. You can travel around the Jaco to Guanacaste area and find that the very worst drivers are in usually silver Toyota or Daihatsu rental cars, or at least they are favorites for being pulled over by the transitos. No matter that you were passed on a mountanous blind curve with double yellow lines by a junk heap of a car without proper documentation, the transitos pull over the car that will make them the most money.

The local authorities have started cracking down on this with some undercover sting operations, but December is a month when the police and everyone else is looking for a little extra cash.

Just yesterday a prison warden and 7 other officials were arrested for accepting gifts to get the prisoners better cells and allow conyugal visits and such.

Unfortunately, you perpetuated the problem by paying the bribe. :td:

I'm probably in an extreme minority - but I don't mind at all when I can bribe police on minor infractions such as this. CZ has a similar setup where you normally pay the fine directly to the police - and in my opinion this encourages cops to take a little home.

I know that it wasn't the "right" thing to do but what the hell else can you do under those circumstances? I am leaving to CR in a few days and renting a car as well. I would love to hear some other solutions. Frankly, I probably would do the same. $100 or ?:confused:

I know that it wasn't the "right" thing to do but what the hell else can you do under those circumstances? I am leaving to CR in a few days and renting a car as well. I would love to hear some other solutions. Frankly, I probably would do the same. $100 or ?:confused:

Well, he was speeding and the cop nabbed him fair and square, as he states in his post. He only paid the cash bribe because the cost of paying the ticket was higher, and he preferred to be on his way as soon as possible.

What should you do? Not speed. The new transit laws in Costa Rica carry huge fines, so the best thing you can do is drive the speed limit and obey the law. If you don't and get stopped, just take the ticket and pay it. Nothing nefarious is going to happen to you if you do.

In 20 years of travelling to Costa Rica and driving there, I have never been stopped by a police officer or asked for a bribe of any sort, by anyone. I find these sorts of stories and situations to be extremely rare. I don't doubt that they happen, I just don't think you have anything to worry about.