[Varbaiskkic]

i have read many stories about people getting pulled over by the little green men and getting ripped off by them.....how does one best deal with them. I have been told that when they are trying to wave you over at the side of the road...just wave back and keep on going. if you DONT do that...what is your best approach at dealing with them. I got pulled over once with a friend on a motor bike on the malecon while leaving the capital...ended up forking over 300 pesos....my friend called me an idiot and said i should have just kept my mouth shut and let him do the talking.

That was my first visit 5 years ago....i have since relied on guaguas

j

[HonjUopu]

Litle green men???? are we talking about martians???

[Varbaiskkic]

Litle green men???? are we talking about martians???

very funny azb

u kNOW what i am talking about

[UriyVlasov]

To avoid the anal probe. Any price is a good price. Ask Cartman.

[Varbaiskkic]

To avoid the anal probe. Any price is a good price. Ask Cartman.

you mean if i DONT pay?? i get to be analy probed????? and here i was actualy PAYING a sankie to do me such a favor.....ROFL!!!

[Smeaphvalialm]

In the 12 years that I have been here, I have only been stopped 4 times by "The little men in green". On 2 of these occasions I feigned lack of Spanish but laughed incessantly, joked in English & was soon put on my way as being too much of a problem to entice any money out of. Once I spoke in Soanish, got the story of he needed something to help him out & so I offered him a tourist magazine (in English) for him to show his friends - I was on my way in seconds after that!!! The other time I cheated a bit, I let the guy go on for a while telling me how hard life was at the moment (I had time to kill anyway) & how he was trying to support his family on the meagre pay he was getting & then I produced the "Consulado Britanico" (British Consulate) sign I used to carry in the car. This produced wonders - A BIG smile, a quick standing to attention & a salute to send me on my way. I regularly see that guy in town & he ALWAYS smiles & salutes even now & he knows darn well I no longer work in the Consulate offices!!!

Rumour has it that if, when you are flagged down, you give a couple of flashes on your lights to the man waving you down, that this informs him that you are police in plain clothes & that you are coming through. He may or may not believe you, but if you are travelling at 40 MPH, he isn't going to stand there & prevent your passage through just to check if you were telling the truth or not!! Not a system I have checked out for myself yet though!! - Grahame.

[HonjUopu]

Amet (little green men) is a fairly new entity in rep dominicana, before them was Policia Nacional. That police was ill equipped and had no means of chasing you down. I used to drive by them, and laugh it off. I would only stop in road blocks when they had their shot guns pointing at me. Then I would shake their hand and tell them I am a medico and they would let me go.
Now with these green men, I am more careful. These guys have walkie talkies and often have new cars and motor cycles to chase you down. I have only been stopped once because I hit one of the traffic police guys while looking at a passing girl in tight jeans. I didn't even see the guy who was directing the traffic. When I hit the brakes, it was too late. I bumped into him a little. He came at me screaming and pulled me out of the car to arrest me.
This is where you need your best BS that you can think of. I first acted really concerned and asked if he was OK. Then I told him that I was a doctor of the spine and asked if he was hurt and felt pain in his back. In other words, I threw him off his train of thoughts. Then I patted him on the back and told him that he had a dangerous job and with all those beautiful girls walking around, he is sure to get run over by a nut like myself. Then I gave him my card and asked him to come in for a free check up. Then I offered him a hand shake. At that point he recovered from my BS and told me "hey, but you hit me and now you want to shake my hand?" I laughed and forcefully took his hand and told him "now we are friends because we shook hands". He laughed and said, you are one crazy foreigner. Then he stopped the traffic and let me pass.
I have never been stopped by these little men other than that little incident. Now I have made friends with a supervisor near my area who takes care of me. I used to know a coronal but I am not sure if he is still in the same area.
So folks, all you need is a little humor and a smile to get off.
AZB

[VYholden]

They have waved at me to stop twice but I always just keep on driving, pretending that I didn't see him. I was never stopped even though they had radios.....If I would have gotten stopped, I would just speak english to them, I am sure they would get frustrated sooner or later.

[Erawise]

I was travelling by rental vannette a few years ago and was waived over by the policia of the day, when they see that we were all gringos they did not attempt tp extort any monies from us but one of the officers did request that we give him a ride. He rode in the back of our airconditioned van with one of my friends, where the two of them carried on a conversation (both uniligual) with a lot of pointing at the map and hand jestures, although we ere enjoying a few Presidentes he would only accept coca-cola from our cooler which turned out to be a good move because a little later were had to stop at a road block and this time the officer that approched the car had some type of automatic looking weapon in his best english he says "licence" so I pull out my Ontario DL and presented it to him he looks at it then says "money" I says "parque" he says "money" again and I says "parque money" he says "money" this time sort of shakes his gun (never pointed at me) and I says "money por nada no money por nada" he looks stunned hands me back my licence and says "go" and motions me through. I don't know if it is prudent to be as agressive as that with the current force but I was always told that as a tourist the police would allow me to get away with certain actions that might have been unaceptable for a Dominican. When looking back now (more than 10 years) I may not be so cocky now but It sure worked then. PS the entire time the officer that was riding with us was doing his best to hide and not be noticed but the police at the road block were well aware that he was there.

Another time,driving a 10 -15 year old VW beetle I was returning from El Seibo to the capital with a US peace corps friend of mine (fluent in Spanish but still gringa) on a quite Sunday after noon we were stopped and the officer did his best "it's so hot out here don't you have a cold drink in there for me" we happened to have about a bushel of freshly picked chinas and avacados and grapefruits with us and we filled his arms with a load he could barely carry , I have never seens a bigger smile om a police officer's face in my life.