Yeah, when I was 17 in Cancun on spring break. Three of us got caught smoking weed by a Mexican cop. He made no pretense about it, he just pointed to each of us and said 50 dollars. Greedy bastard wanted 50 dollars from each of us, but we either didn’t have it or acted like we didn’t have it and gave him something like 20-30 bucks each.
I was asked by a German police officer if I wanted to pay him for a ticket instead of mailing it in. The price was lower if I paid then. I thought it was a bribe. Then he gave me a receipt so I guess it wasn’t. I was guilty so I couldn’t complain about it. That is the closest I have come to giving a bribe. No that close now that I look at it.
Many, many times. The most recent I can think of is when I was coming into Indonesia and they wouldn’t stamp my passport because it was full and they said they can’t cover other stamps (whatever). I asked if there was a processing fee I could pay and put a five on the desk. Stamp, stamp and on my way.
hmmm, this is a loaded question. “Bribe” has such a, dare I say, *negative *connotation. I’ve lived in Asia 20+ years and there is a bribery culture in many Asian countries. That said, I personally have had many an encounter in a grey area (special fees, fees for foreigners, fees to expedite paperwork, etc). Most of the time, as a fast talking white dude that speaks pretty good Chinese, I avoid the whole potential issue.
I’ve been involved in a court case where the other party bribed the judges and I got a pretty weak judgement.
Also, there are plenty of gullible managers fresh off the boat that get fed a line about bribes needed to close the deal (usually it’s the employee of the manager) and then allow this to happen.
I just realized that a cop solicited me for a bribe a few years back.
Pulled me over for “not stopping at an intersection”.
I now realize that his remarks that I didn’t need to go to court were a hint.:smack:
In Germany you have, in some circumstances, to pay the ticket right there and then. Failure to carry enough money to pay the ticket is, in itself, an offence.
I’ve bribed Mexican cops. The usual. Stopped for speeding. The police officers were quite clear about what was expected. I paid and went on my way. Twice, on two separate trips. Somewhere near Merida, if I remember right.
Does my wife count?
This was almost 20 years ago and it was the only moving violation I was cited for in 2 years of living there. I was definately given a choice. Paying it immediately was cheaper but I had the option to pay later.
If the kid peed in the potty and they had dry pants, they got an M&M. That’s all I got, but I have three potty-trained kids!
At Vegas shows back in the 90s, most definitely. You used to have to line up for the shows because the tickets didn’t have assigned seats like they tend to now. I remember going to see the show Splash with four friends at the Riviera in about 1993 over New Years. I was one of the first people in line, and got seated by the guy at the door at a table all the way in the back corner. Needless to say, I palmed him $40 and said we’d really appreciate it if we could get something closer, and magically, one of the ‘reserved tables’ front and center opened up. How about that?
I used to work at a semiconductor factory that required me to interview workers regarding process improvement initiatives. This usually involved things that ultimately made their jobs harder, so they were always reluctant to talk to us. But, if you offered to take the workers to lunch at McDonalds, they would go out of their way to help you. Likewise, the line supervisor was always busy and never had time to talk me. But when I found out it was his birthday and he was a big time hunter, I got him two boxes of ammo as a gift, and from that point on, he ALWAYS made time for me.
I don’t have personal experience but some aquaintances of mine that travel in Central America told me the “going rate” is usually roughly the cost of dinner for two at a local restaurant. The “bribee” would start higher but that was the rule of thumb of what was reasonable.
I was a forklift driver on a receiving dock at one time. A truck driver got mixed up on his delivery sequence and showed up with our stuff in the nose and some other places stuff (1/2 a trailer) on the back. He offered me twenty bucks to pull off the other companies stuff, then ours and then reload the other stuff. We weren’t supposed to do that but it would have meant six hours of additional driving for him. It was a slow day so I went ahead and did it but ended up not taking his money.
Sort-of.
Spring Break, Daytona Beach, 1990. Some friends and I were in the LONG line to get into one of the then-popular nightclubs, GB Reefs. A friend notices a limo and asks about the price to tour around town for a while. A few seconds later his Visa pops out and off we go.
An hour or so later, he brings us back to GB Reefs. We step out of the limo, the doorman sees us, and lets us straight through the door. A patron in line complains, and the doorman says “See that limo? That belongs to my boss. Anyone who steps out of that limo gets in without having to wait in line.”
If she does count it, you’d better have the right amount.
I was on my way to Cincinnati for a baseball game when the alternator failed. I showed up, unannounced at a Chevy dealer in Batesville for help. It looked like we’d have to wait til the next day for the repair. I explained to the service manager we had tix to the game, and I asked, “Are you vulnerable to bribes?” He shuffled another job to the next day, and got our repair done. When the paperwork was done, I shook his hand with a $20 bill. He smiled and gave it back. “Have a good time at the game,” he said.
When I was homeless on the streets of NYC, I would often offer a theatre person $2 to $5 to see the second half of the show after intermission.
I’ve seen the second half of over 100 shows.
In Vegas our hotel room was listed as having an 80something percent rate on the “slip the clerk 20 bucks for an upgrade” trick. I tried it (I’m sure I turned beet red) and I don’t know if we got much of an upgrade, but I heard a ton of people complaining about their rooms with regard to noise from the nightclubs downstairs, and we were just fine. So it might have helped.
In about 1986, our church youth group went to a village near Ensenada to work on a church building. We were taking a donated upright piano and of course a pickup truck loaded with food.
The border police said we would set up a grocery store and not pay taxes. They also had something against the piano that I’m sure they also made up. The pastor doing the interfacing (his college Spanish was pretty good) finally asked if there was a fee he could pay upfront to get the piano in. I think the fee turned out to be 20 USD (of course).
The driver of the pickup was another pastor who took advantage of the distraction of the arrival of buses of tourists and sped off into Tijuana. He knew he was heading south and that the main highway was to his west, so he just jumped around TJ and then went west, hitting the highway and finding us later. I’ve always admired him more for that.
Oh, my missionary-kid friend told me this one:
Dad is signaled by Kenyan cop on bicycle. Despite being in a car, Dad pulls over out of ethics. Cop walks up, unscrewing big flashlight (where cops often kept their “fine money”). Dad tells him that there won’t be any bribe money, because “we’re Christians.” Cop brightens: “So am I!”
Oh, and my missionary friend from college, now in Sierra Leone, asked me to send school books in small packages, because apparently the post office employees are liable to “tax” a “rich American who can obviously afford it” when turning over large packages. That one made me honestly mad.
Yeah, you don’t just say, “Can I bribe you?” You ask a leading question like, “Is there some way we can resolve this? Can I pay a fee instead of doing X?” Or something like that.
I have paid a few bribes, mostly during the 6 years I lived in Lebanon. When we had our personal belongings shipped there in 2000, I had to pay some bribes in the port to get them shaken loose. More recently, when I visited in January Lebanon and was held incommunicado in jail, I bribed a jail trustee to call my wife so she could get things sorted.
In my humble opinion this is not a bribe but a tax. In argentina if you make an statement to the Police you have to pay a small fee (you get a receipt). That’s because, in many cases the police act as notaries.
You may find it strange but, on the other hand, I find it pretty strange that in the US you don’t have a public health system.
Waaaaay back when I worked as a buyer for Mobil Oil, bribes were added into the purchase orders when dealing with Pertamina (Indonesia).