While attending a baby shower the car we were driving was victim to a hit & run. Unfortunately, the car was one my mom had rented for her two month stay in Nicaragua. We had heard that you need to make a police report before moving the car. Regrettably, this happened on a Sunday when the Nicaraguan’s enjoy a leisure day and move at an even slower than usual.

We discovered our car at about 7:15pm. Soon after, we had the restaurant we were at call the police for us. They finally arrived at 8:30pm. They wanted a copy of my license, Circulation, and Seguro (insurance). Of course, they couldn’t make the copies they needed themselves, so they drove me to a cyber cafe in a tuk tuk to make the copies. Once back at the car with the copies and after some confusion and questioning, they told me to drive the car to the police station. When we showed up, the police at the station wondered why we were there, so apparently we were not expected and no one made a call to alert them to our arrival or any of the information we’d already given. I mistakenly didn’t make copies of all cards front & back, so my husband and I had to go get more copies and come back to the station. Finally the police officer made the report, repeatedly asking a lot of the same questions. For some reason the fact that we were in a restaurant and didn’t see or hear the car when it got hit was very confusing to the police. After the report was made I signed it and was able to take the car. He told me that the report would be available 2 days later in Rivas for me to get a copy. I would need to pay the bank $C100 and then take the receipt to the police station in Rivas.

The next day we told the guy we use for all of our miscellaneous car needs what had happened. We explained that we needed our police report to submit to my mom’s credit card so the insurance would cover the damages. He mistakenly thought we needed a forged police report and we were all confused when he said it would cost $50. Once we got that figured out he said he’d make some calls and get us our report. Weeks went by and many confusing stories before we had the police report in hand. We ended up paying $C400 total, but from the sound of it, it wasn’t just a quick trip to the bank and then a nearby police station…but it never is.

Now the battle begins with my mom’s credit card insurance. A word of warning – when you opt not to use the rental car company insurance because your credit card says it will cover, make sure you read the fine print. My mom’s fine print says that it won’t cover if the car is rented for over 31 days. Unfortunately this accident happened after my mom was in Nicaragua 32 days.