QCOSTARICA – Stopping cars to search them for drugs and other contraband – “retenes” in Spanish – is all in a day’s work for border police.
But when they stopped a car two kilometers from the Nicaraguan border Thursday, the driver became very nervous.
He had a right to be. He was carrying a six-month-old “mula” (mule in Spanish) in the cramped trunk of the small car driven by a 28 year old Nicaraguan man, identified only by his last name, Martinez, a resident of Chilamate de Nicaragua.
Chief of border police in Cuatro Esquinas de Pocosol in San Carlos, in the north of the country, Max Mendez, told La Nacion that the animal was very “uncomfortable.”
So the mule was freed and it was the driver’s turn to be uncomfortable — in jail.
This reporter remembers the case some decades ago when a cow was rescued from the back seat of a taxi.
The animal had been stolen but the thieves did not have a truck to transport the loot. It too was released but with even more difficulty.
The cow had the last laugh — renamed Milagro (Miracle) — she became a legend and likely remained alive longer than most cattle because of her celebrity.
Article by iNews.co.cr, with editing by the Q!