Quote: (12-03-2018 05:57 AM)floridaboiii Wrote:
I've seen it mentioned here a few times. The best thing you can do is have friends/girls in other countries, it's a part of the reason I stay in hostels for at least a day or two when I travel. In my experience I've been saved quite a bit by some random people I had just met in clubs in taxis, everywhere.
Anyways I'm in PY in South America. I've been driving for a while with no problems. I've been pulled over three times, they have police checkpoints. First two times I pass my drivers license and they wave us through. The third time Its a breathalyzer so i take the test. im not drunk so i expect no problems. This time however the officer looks a little longer and tells me and my girl my license is expired. He hands it back and yep it's been expired for like five months. I think we'll get a ticket and move on but this guy is out to get me. While he's explaining some other cop takes a picture. Don't ask why but I'm not allowed to drive, strictly prohibited. My girl knows this so she asks what they took a picture for and the cops says it's standard protocol. She knows that picture is bad and tells them to delete it, they reiterate it's protocol.
They tell us to step out of the car and hand us the fine which is about 175 USD or 800 mil guaranies. If not they'll take the car. We're in the middle of nowhere, why the fuck would I have that much money on me? I've never heard of paying a fine on the spot but whatever.
I start pleading in broken spanish with the guy to let us take the car to my house to get at least half of the money. My girl is backing me up saying I'm American bla bla blah. The dude starts mocking my bad spanish and tells me he can't understand. He asks me why I'm talking like that. I tell "sir you know I'm not fluent in your language." He says he knows. I reiterate we are in the middle of nowhere it's my girls car can she take us to get a part of the money just to get her car back. I tell him what I'm doing in his country and show him my documents and they act like they don't give a fuck. "I know I know." Then he line for line quotes the law about licenses. These guys are right of course I'm in the wrong but I've never heard of cops taking your car if you can't pay a full fine at 12 am at night? Only in the 3rd world... plus it's my girls car and she has a license. I am in the wrong so I give up on that and decide to plead with them to erase the picture. A picture would really fuck everything up for me. The cop says, "this picture will be posted in every database and all over the country lfor everyone to see. Everyone will see your picture." I try to plead with another officer and they shoo me away saying, "go talk to my boss."
I start back talking to the jefe and he says, "Back up! Why are you talking to me like that? Who do you think you are!? Oh now you're trying to bribe me!? (I only understood the back up part) he tells me he doesn't want to talk to me anymore and to go away, he only wants to talk to my girl. I've been in this country for a while and that's the second time I've been visibly upset. Probably the first time in front of my girl. There's nothing more humiliating and frustrating then not being able to communicate fluently everything that you want to say. This along with the dickhead officer had me ready to do some dumb shit. My girl comes over to calm me down and pleads with me to go sit in the car (this girl really saved my ass.)
Anyways she comes back after like thirty minutes and tells me everything is okay. They told her she can pay the fine later. She told me she went over and started crying. "These guys can't handle when I cry. I should win an oscar. I told them you're here helping in my country and if the picture gets out It'll ruin your life. I'll never forgive myself if I ruin his life. I'm the one who asked him to drive!" She made up some bullshit about me being a doctor helping sick children and teaching english. She said the cop softened up after that. She even got them to delete the photo which was my main problem.
She asked me if I understood everything that happened. She told me he thought I was bribing him. She said that he had told me to go back to my country. She said he was mocking my bad spanish. She told me when she was by herself he asked who I was and why she was with a foreigner. She asked me why would he ask that? Why was it his business. She said he said i probably had a wife and thats why i didnt want my picture taken. She then told me he hated Americans and that's why he was such a dick. She's like if my uncle the politician wasn't in jail I would've called him and he would've lost his job immediately. She continued to curse this cop for thirty more minutes as we drove home and the next day as well saying she didn't like how he talked to me.
I told her to remember I'm from the USA and I probably wouldve been dead had it been there haha.
Tldr: get some foreign friends or keep a girl with you
OP, whatever you leaving out of the story is probably crucial to understanding it. Especially the shit about the picture and not being allowed to drive... I have my suspicions.