by Rod Hughes

Crime pays very well—at least until you get caught—appears the lesson to be learned from an alleged car thief captured at his luxurious mansion. The gates were so striong that authorities had to use a small tractor to bring them down during their raid.

According to police, the thief earned a million colones per day on an average—even at 500 colones per dollar, not bad wages for this country. His modus aparandi was simple. He pulled up beside the car he intended to steal from the parking lot, driving a respectable looking four-wheel-drive pickup. Then he calmly got out and went to work on the front doors of the target, using state-of-the-art tools that left no finger prints.

But the judicial police detectives got good images from security cameras at some parking lots. Now he will need his ill-gotten gains for lawyers.