Ready for another installment of my own Reality Check
\nexperience outside the United States?<\/p>\n
I had always taken for granted, even when I lived in Remember back a couple weeks ago when I talked about being Yay! After more than a month in transit, my shipment and my Uh, no. You see, it was Christmas Vacation! How could it Christmas came and went, and I was ready to go pick up my Customers? I thought all I had to do was pick up my things. But never fear! For the low, low price of $600 for the On January 6, after hemorrhaging money to customs and I need to say this again. These were not commercial goods, I bet you\u2019re wondering if I had any money left at this point Nicaragua has nothing concrete in its Constitution that Ready for another installment of my own Reality Check experience outside the United States? I had always taken for granted, even when I lived in Nicaragua as a teen and young adult, that if I purchased something online or had … Continue reading
\nNicaragua as a teen and young adult, that if I purchased something online or
\nhad something shipped to me, with very few exceptions it would arrive as
\nplanned and be delivered to me. It must be that outrageous idea that my stuff
\nis actually mine<\/em>. You know, that
\nsilly notion about property rights? Well, I must have been out of my mind to
\nthink that the Nicaraguan government cares anything about your stuff actually being
\nyours.<\/p>\n
\nextorted by Nicaraguan customs officials and brokers? That was just the tip of
\nthe iceberg. When I arrived in Nicaragua, thinking that all my papers were in
\norder because I had paid the broker $1500 for arranging the import papers with
\nthe Nicaraguan consulate, I was informed by the same broker that now I needed
\nto pay another $1500 to \u201carrange\u201d things with the Ministry of Sticky Fing, uh,
\nFinance inside Nicaragua. Oh, and by the way, I now needed to provide proof of
\nhaving been outside the country for 10 years as opposed to the 5 they had
\npreviously stated. Uh, since I had already arrived and my entire life was on
\nthe ocean on its way to port, I wasn\u2019t exactly in a position where I had the
\nchoice to walk away. I worked it out, paid of course, and then waited for my
\nthings to arrive, presumably duty free, into the country.<\/p>\n
\nvehicles arrived on December 21st<\/sup>! So, I just went to the designated
\ncustoms warehouse, picked up my stuff, and took it home.<\/p>\n
\noccur to me to ship anything to arrive in December? Customs was on vacay and so
\nI had to wait until after Christmas to even see my things. My things.<\/em> Did I mention that my kids\u2019 Christmas presents were in
\nthat shipment? Off I went, to the toy store, to buy a bunch of new presents,
\nbecause a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old don\u2019t understand that Santa got held up
\nby customs.<\/p>\n
\nstuff now, thank you. Ooooh, no. Didn\u2019t I know that New Years was coming and
\nthat customs was only working certain days, and on those days they closed at
\n1pm (more like noon) and I had to wait behind other customers?<\/p>\n
\nSilly me, I had to wait for all the paperwork to be done, pay $8000 in taxes on
\nthe second vehicle (in cash) and wait for inspection. Whaaa? That\u2019s when I
\nfound out about the \u201ctraffic light.\u201d You see, customs runs all shipments
\nthrough a supposedly random light. If it comes out green, you\u2019re good to go,
\nyellow, and they do a light inspection, and if red, then you get the full
\ncavity search. Did I mention that 99% of the time it turns out red? Guess what
\nlight I got?<\/p>\n
\nshipment and first vehicle and another $300 for the second vehicle (paid in
\ncash), I could have the light changed to green! Did I mention this was not
\noptional? A red light and refusing to pay the \u201cfee\u201d resulted in maybe never
\nseeing your stuff again, as they would be sure to find some reason to delay
\nand\/or find a reason to confiscate or hold your shipment with additional \u201cfines\u201d
\nto be paid. I bet you can guess what I ended up doing.<\/p>\n
\nfretting to no end, I finally was able to take my things and my cars home. My
\ngood friend, a true Godsend, who managed the warehouse, actually gave me a break and
\nwaived the warehouse fee while ensuring that my goods were safe. The one break I got the whole time.<\/p>\n
\nthey were my own things. Old things. Clothes, furniture, toys. I own them. And
\nyet, until I took them home, I was never sure if I was ever going to be able
\nto. Some people have left their things abandoned in customs, to be auctioned (you
\nshould have seen the graveyard of abandoned cars in the customs parking lot)
\nbecause they could not pay the arbitrary and exorbitant price to get their own
\nproperty back. Can you imagine shipping something to yourself and not being
\nsure if the government is going to try and extort you for it, or just
\noutright steal it from you?<\/p>\n
\nto actually invest in my businesses. Well, apparently customs thought I did,
\nbecause now I had to import some equipment for my company, and that was a lot
\nof fun, too. I\u2019ll leave that one for next time.<\/p>\n
\ndefends property rights, and that\u2019s why customs is able to do these things to
\npeople. I wasn\u2019t the first, and certainly not the only one. My friends have
\ntold me customs horror stories, which I\u2019ll relate in my next post as well. I am
\nvery thankful for my 4th<\/sup> and 6th<\/sup> Amendment rights, and
\nagain marvel at the foresight and wisdom of the founders. However, even in a
\ncountry where owning (and keeping) property is a fundamental right, things
\nhappen all the time that violate our property rights here in the U.S.A. That
\ncomes later in my story. In the meantime, think about whether your<\/em> property is actually yours, and
\nwhether our government is protecting our property rights as it should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"