Senor Pescado said:
Update - My secretary has spoken with Rosie who is assisting in getting the car released. Apparently, my secreatary already gave the clerk $1,000.00 US cash - she doesn't have a receipt and therefore that money is all but gone. Rosie has arranged the impound fee and hopefully the car will be out of impound by today - However, it still steams me that my secretary is out the extra $1,000.00. I know its her fault for not getting a receipt, however, she is a young nieve person who was in a state of panic, not speaking the foreign language and didn't know what to do. Apparently, they gave her until tommorrow (thurs.) to come up with the rest of the money. I think many of us would've handled things differently, but i understand why she did what she did. She does have the name of the clerk that she gave the money to and i told her to make some sort of complaint, but i don't really expect that to go anywhere.
Thank You Rosie for your help.
Hi Geoffrey, I'm happy to be of service, but in the interest of fairness, the way you stated things on this forum is not exactly the way they occurred according to your secretary. I do understand, though, that people make mistakes and she will certainly get her car back, I'll see to that in the morning.
Normally I would hesitate to post details, because of confidentiality, but since you've posted, there are some corrections that must be made:
1. Her car was taken by a friend of hers. She says she was unaware of this and therefore reported it stolen.
2. The friend (for some mysterious reason) left her here without transportation and headed back to the States. Unfortunately, he was drunk at the time. When he got pulled over in Sonoyta, he was driving drunk and attempting to leave this country in a car that had been reported stolen.
3. The fine for his offense would have been over $3,000 dollars, but because by then she was pleading for his release and trying to straighten the mess out, he was fined only $1,000 for his drunk driving and taking someone's car without permission. This is cheap compared to what it would have cost him in the States, and they cut him some slack.
4. Her car (which is financed, so she doesn't have title) had been impounded. She didn't know to contact me or the Visitor Assistance office, so while at the police station, she met up with a guy (someone just hanging around outside) who offered to translate for her. She was given an amount to get the car released and told that it had to be done by Thursday or she'd lose the car. I believe the deadline was invented by the bozo she met on the street, and not from anyone in an official capacity. He was lying to her...undoubtedly in an attempt to hopefully profit from her misfortune.
5. I spoke with her several times today. She has already sent me what amounts to a fraction of the amount she was cited and she'll get her car back tomorrow. She was never in danger of losing it. She asked me if I'd talked to the guy she had dealt with, and I pointed out that no, I went straight to the top.
6. Later in the day, she called the director for International Relations (a friend of mine) to ask about getting the money back for her friend's fine. When he called me to get the story, I filled him in and promised him that I would delay my trip to Phoenix until later tomorrow, just so I can be here to be extra-sure her car is returned to her.
7. You say she's "out" the $1,000 and that she should have gotten a receipt. I already explained to her that in the same way her friend wouldn't get his bail/fine money returned in Phoenix, it isn't going to happen here. It was a fair amount for a drunk driving offense. The stolen-car charge was dropped.
8. The amount she's paying to get her car back includes towing and impound as well as a fine for filing a false police report, since she dropped the stolen vehicle charge against her friend.
Like you, I hope she learns something from this...but it isn't about questioning the authorities so much as it's about keeping her keys away from drunken friends and knowing who to call next time if she hits another snag.
I'm glad you thought to have her call me, and hope that eventually word will get out and others in similar situations will just carry my number around with them...not for me, but the Visitor Assistance office (I'm a volunteer) will become much stronger as we become more known for being of service.