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it happened two years ago while i was staying in a nice aparthotel in the
ticabus-area. there are always many tourists from all over the world
in this area.
one evening at about 10 i wanted to go to the new irish pub which is
located just a couple of blocks from the apartotel. i knew that this
was a dangerous area and i was watching out for the worst. i had my
running shoes on and a maze in my pocket. it would not help against
guns, but against anything else. and i was watching out for groups and
would stay away from any gathering immediately. i am experienced in
dangerous zones in latin america, i know how to dress and how to
behave and i blend in physically somewhat.
when i took the first right into a dark alley i saw a policecar
rolling slowly with their lights off. i relaxed because of the
associated protection- what a mistake! they asked me where i would go
and i answered them: to the irish pub. they jumped out of the car and
asked to search me. i denied but they did nevertheless against my
protest by force-four against one. they took my money(did not carry
much cash of course) my maze, my bankcard and some files that i had
wrapped in my pocket. then they wanted to see my passport. i told
them that the passport was in my hotel room around the corner for
security reasons. they made me enter their car and drove me around the
corner to the entrance of my hotel. when we arrived, they let me exit.
as soon as i had reached the door of the hotel, they took off at full
speed with my personal property. the doorman of the hotel saw them
escape and took down their license plate.

the next day i complained with my embassy. the embassador told me that
he had written a complaint note to the police chief. i was supposed to
go there again and confirm what happened in front of the police chief.
when i was asked to do so, i had already left the country.

the same day i met a radio guy from a managua radio station. he was
stunned. then he took down all information including the license plate
in order to broadcast it all over managua(or even the country)
including the license plate number.

at the same evening i met the irish boys and a young couple who told
me and the other people who were gathering in one of those soda
gardens about their robberies. the irish boys got almost robbed in the
same situation as myself but as they were in a group, they ignored the
policemen and moved on. they told me that they had exactly the feeling
that they would get robbed but they pretended not to speak spanish and
just ignored them.
the young couple from england told me that they had to surrender their
money to a gunman who poined a gun to their had just one block from
there.

i went back to costa rica because i had no interest in more trouble.
i felt safe everywhere in nicaragua. not in managua and definitely not
in the ticabus-area. there are many crooks including policemen waiting
for targets. this should be common knowledge becasue it is exactly the
information that you get from any first -world embassy.