Kungfoolss
5/02/2003 1:43pm,
Avenida 1 robbers slash Salvation Army collector
Aug. 6, 2002
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The most recently disclosed victim of the Avenida 1 robbers is a Salvation Army employee. A squad of robbers caught up with the man at the corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 11, cut his throat and took the little blue donation box emblazoned with the emblem of the Salvation Army. This happened July 18, a weeknight, about 10: 30 to 11 p.m., the man disclosed over the weekend. Although police got a complaint, the crime was overlooked by reporters until the man returned to work.
The man who collects for the Salvation Army is well-known in the downtown. He visits any number of seedy bars seeking donations for the religious group that, among other things, maintains shelters for homeless children. However, he asked that his name not be used because he did not want publicity associated with being a crime victim. The man willingly showed customers in a downtown cafe the scar where robbers slashed his throat nearly ear to ear. The wound was not sufficiently deep to cause death and missed the major arteries. The line of torn flesh runs just below the Adam’s apple. The crooks got about 6.000 colons, he said, about $16.50.
The man was on his rounds seeking donations that night, and he walked east on the south side of Avenida 1. Two men confronted him at the corner with Calle 9 in front of a darkened music store, but because the man is a black belt in karate, he said he thought he could protect himself. But as he began to use martial arts moves, two more men attacked him from behind. He was hospitalized for a time.
The area is well within one guard position at a business along the north side of Avenida 1. The downtown police delegation is just a half a block east. The site of the attack is well within the general travel area of North America toursts. The new victim is the latest in a long series of attacks on North Americans and Costa Ricans along Avenida 1, attacks that police seem unable to prevent. This is the first attack so far east. Usually the criminals mug their victims between Calle 7 and Calle 9. Anywhere from 30 to 50 North Americans have been mugged along the avenida or half a block to either side during the last year. An untold number of Costa Ricans have met the same fate. Typically, the robbers use a choke hold.
This is the first incident in which a victim was cut with a knife, although others have suffered serious injuries to their neck and head due to the choke hold and subsequent collapse to the sidewalk.
http://www.amcostarica.com/080602.htm
Aug. 6, 2002
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The most recently disclosed victim of the Avenida 1 robbers is a Salvation Army employee. A squad of robbers caught up with the man at the corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 11, cut his throat and took the little blue donation box emblazoned with the emblem of the Salvation Army. This happened July 18, a weeknight, about 10: 30 to 11 p.m., the man disclosed over the weekend. Although police got a complaint, the crime was overlooked by reporters until the man returned to work.
The man who collects for the Salvation Army is well-known in the downtown. He visits any number of seedy bars seeking donations for the religious group that, among other things, maintains shelters for homeless children. However, he asked that his name not be used because he did not want publicity associated with being a crime victim. The man willingly showed customers in a downtown cafe the scar where robbers slashed his throat nearly ear to ear. The wound was not sufficiently deep to cause death and missed the major arteries. The line of torn flesh runs just below the Adam’s apple. The crooks got about 6.000 colons, he said, about $16.50.
The man was on his rounds seeking donations that night, and he walked east on the south side of Avenida 1. Two men confronted him at the corner with Calle 9 in front of a darkened music store, but because the man is a black belt in karate, he said he thought he could protect himself. But as he began to use martial arts moves, two more men attacked him from behind. He was hospitalized for a time.
The area is well within one guard position at a business along the north side of Avenida 1. The downtown police delegation is just a half a block east. The site of the attack is well within the general travel area of North America toursts. The new victim is the latest in a long series of attacks on North Americans and Costa Ricans along Avenida 1, attacks that police seem unable to prevent. This is the first attack so far east. Usually the criminals mug their victims between Calle 7 and Calle 9. Anywhere from 30 to 50 North Americans have been mugged along the avenida or half a block to either side during the last year. An untold number of Costa Ricans have met the same fate. Typically, the robbers use a choke hold.
This is the first incident in which a victim was cut with a knife, although others have suffered serious injuries to their neck and head due to the choke hold and subsequent collapse to the sidewalk.
http://www.amcostarica.com/080602.htm