Encounter with the Costa Rican Police

(By Scott) It all started when we met Reed on the colectivo bus from Puerto Jimenez to Carate. As Tiffany mentioned earlier, the colectivo bus is not a bus at all, but rather an old pickup truck with a homemade wooden seating area in place of the bed. Colectivo basically translates to: stop along the way for any person on the side of the road, deliver groceries and other supplies, and serve as the school bus in the area. So, this meant a 2.5 hour trip to cover less than 35 miles. During this time we met Reed. After a few minutes of small talk I discovered Reed lived at 518 W. Mifflin St., just two doors down from me at 514 W. Mifflin in Madison. Not only was he two doors down, but also lived there at the same time. The timing was easy to reference since this was the year of the famous Mifflin Street Block Party riot (chairs, tables, couches, and a car on fire, fire department responded, but was pushed back by the crowd, so finally police arrived in riot gear to clear out the area). I found it odd that Reed lived only two doors down and I never knew him. Turns out he is a rich, spoiled trust fund kid, with a huge ego, and an anger management problem...hence I probably did not take the time to get to know him back then. Well, he married into a family which owns the La Leona Ecolodge near Corcovado (600 feet from the ranger station by the same name). We stayed at this amazing lodge at the one of the most beautiful locations we have encountered yet. Also staying at the ecolodge was a group of 20 high school kids (once again a large group impacts our stay) from Wisconsin and a couple from Missouri. Geoff, the guy we met from Missouri is a hard-core backpacker and climber...he slept in a hammock every night while the rest of us were in raised tents with comfortable raised beds. So, over the course of our stay we got to know Reed better and disliked him more and more over time. Finally we had to say goodbye to this amazing place and take the "stop every 20 minutes in the old homemade pickup truck" ride back to Puerto Jimenez. After hiking 30 minutes along the beach we arrived at the colectivo bus ticket office/restaurant/store. A few minutes later Reed came speed walking up and looked quite upset. He approached Geoff and calmly asked "Geoff, did you steal my camera", to this Geoff replied an obvious "No." This is when Reed completely lost it. He became aggressive and began emptying the contents of Geoff´s bag and making threats. I then asked, "Why do you suspect Geoff", to which Reed replied "Oh, I don´t know, did you steal my camera." I assured Reed I had my own camera and did not steal his, but to feed his insanity I offered my backpack up for the crazy search as well. Off course, the camera was not in Geoff´s backpack. Reed made a quiet and empty apology and walked off to hide over by the beach. On the trip back to Puerto Jimenez the four of us discussed the surreal incident for a few minutes, forgot about it, and enjoyed the rest of the ride. When we pulled in Puerto Jimenez two police officers were waiting for us. Upon exiting the truck, we were asked to empty all our bags in the ongoing mad search for Reed´s precious camera. Reed´s wife or girlfriend was also present to identify the “stolen camera.” After searching three of our bags and some discussion as to why we were being searched in the first place, the police gave up and apologized. Tiffany must look innocent because they didn´t search her bag. It was at this point that we agreed Reed´s insanity reached a new level. We tried to get in contact with him and eventually Geoff emailed him, but no reply as of yet. So, our encounter with the police was actually quite pleasant when compared to the insanity of Reed.