Casual Theft

This is a form of crime in Costa Rica, that is not considered a crime.

Anything not locked down, or not closely guarded, can be claimed by someone else.

I mentioned this once to the owner of the local language school, who is from Holland. He told me this story:

One of his workers asked to borrow some welding equipment over the weekend. He let him borrow it, but on Monday, his worker told him someone has stolen the equipment from him. He did not believe this, and made his worker tell him what he had done with it. He said he had sold it to pawnshop, and told him which one it was. He had to go to that pawnshop, and pay to get his own equipment back!

He could not report him to the police, because legally, the theft of anything worth less than a certain amount, is not considered a theft!