The Sartors were in La Paz in November to check on the work we are having done on our house. The day before we were leaving Bill made a U turn on Abasolo (a common practice for the natives). All of a sudden, the Policia Preventia came whoop-whooping behind us to pull us over…sheeet! We were in a well-marked rental car and chubby copper-policía gordo—surprise, surprise--started to shake us down. Bill's big mistake was pulling out my money clip. Bill learned after that how to handle the situation a little more persuasively (i.e., no big bills in the clip).

I (Bill) went down again in December to check on the work we are still having done. Still having done. Still having done. We are working on our PHD in Mexican patience (I digress).

Anyway, I was on Prieto Avenue headed for downtown and I rolled through a stop sign like you are supposed to do there, and guess what… my good amigo chubby copper pulls me over AGAIN (in my rent car). I asked what was wrong and he tells me that I didn’t come to a complete stop at the stop sign. It was everything I could do to keep from laughing and said, “You’re kidding, right?” He didn’t have a sense of humor and asked to see my license and started to go through his routine again. When he was through trying to shake me down, I reached into my bag and handed him my FM-3. His eyes got pretty big and he gave me my license and FM-3 back and told me to have a nice day.

He passed me the next day and blasted his horn and waved. It’s great to have friends on the police force!