Brazil court tells US swimmers Lochte, Feigen to stay put

[forkol]

16. Yeah, they are not going to find the Taxi driver....

I've been to Rio many, many times, but I went around 2 years ago, and I had my debit/credit card hit badly on that trip. Normally, I'm pretty good about the security on that and typically use well-know banks there, but it did get hit. Just to cover my butt with my credit union, I filed a police report with Rio Tourist Police.

It was very frustrating, and a waste of time. I brought documentation (which I translated into Portuguese), which they copied, and they kept asking me to provide the same documentation over an over for about 6 months after I got back to the US. Also, they have very few English-speaking investigators (and my investigator's English was not very good), even though this was Rio Tourist Police! My Portuguese was good enough to talk to him about it. I feel if they could investigated this, they could have possibly caught the person because I was able to work with the credit card processor and get details about what was purchased and even an ID number. My Credit union gave me a hassle too, but I reminded them about the Credit Protection Act, so the funds were restored after some amount of work.

I think their story at least makes sense, and it could be a cover up by Rio Police. It's a well-known scam that 'police' will pull over taxis in tourist areas and basically try to pin something on the passengers, who will then be 'encouraged' to pay the 'fine' right there. I've taken taxis from Copa to Central City and have seen it done to other passengers. When they have setup roadblocks on the highway, most of my taxi drivers drive right through it. When I've asked them why they didn't stop, they tell me it's a tourist shakedown. Even if we had to slow down, my taxi has been waived through after the 'police' notice I'm not white, so they think you don't have any money.

There's also no way to track a taxi, especially at night, because they usually will not call their pickups in, especially from the tourist areas. They are supposed to use their meters, but getting them to do it, more so doing it at night, can be a challenge. They will give you an inflated price, or show you a supposedly 'official company' document listing prices if they say their meter is 'broken'. And those that do use their meters, the meters have been 'hacked' to give inflated prices per kilometer.

So, yeah, I think the taxi guy is involved, and won't come forward ever. He's part of it.