QCOSTARICA – Transitos (traffic officials) Gustavo Ordóñez and Daniel Picado became guardian angels of Ronny Picado Hernández an Uber driver, rescued from two alleged assailants who had a gun at him inside his car.
“When I saw those policemen on the road it was like seeing two angels, if they hadn’t been there who knows what would have happened. Their faces will never be forgotten,” said the driver.
The Transitos, with the help of officers from the Fuerza Publica (National Police), were able to detain the two suspects, identified by their surnames Lara Coto and Montoya Ramírez, aged 19 and 20.
Picado, a resident Heredia, said that the situation occurred when Saturday afternoon, March 20, near Tres Ríos, picked up the two men after receiving a request to make a trip to La Lima de Cartago.
Picado says the request was from a woman user when, on site he found the passengers were two men, still in their work clothes.
“A trip (requested by a woman) entered me through the platform 200 meters from the park. I went to the site and they beckoned me to come closer, I saw them with their clothes like full of paint and I thought they came from work, in their hands they had a bag of clothes. One rode in the front and the other in the back,” recalled the driver.
Arriving at La Lima, one of the men directed the driver to go down a lonely street, to a local grocery store to get change for a ¢20 thousand colones bill to pay for the fare.
“When I stopped, the one behind me grabbed my arm and told me to be calm, that if I cooperated nothing would happen, but if I did something wrong they would shoot me,” he explained.
At this point Picado was not the subject of their attack, rather they instructed him to head back to the highway, to return to the pick up point and to avoid pollice.
“They told me not to do anything stupid, that if I saw the police to follow from afar, I half looked back and saw something silver.
“When we were going through Ochomogo, I saw them (the Transitos) in the distance and little by little without arousing suspicion changed lanes.
“When I saw that I was close enough to the officers, I stopped short and yelled at them that I was being assaulted. I was very afraid when I did this, but I thought that if it happened directly, who knows what they would do to me,” Picado said.
The two Transitos were attending to a collision, but upon hearing Picado’s screams, they decided to dop everything and give chase to the suspects, who fled into a wooded area.
With the help of the “Linces”, the specialized police unit of the Fuerza Publica who had responded to the call, and a shootout, the suspected were in custody in less than 15 minutes.
Picado was grateful to officers who came to his aid. He said all he could think of his daughters and his faith in God to get him through the ordeal.
Fortunately, no one suffered any physical injury.
