Foreigner caught stealing hours after being detained for threatening neighbors with machete

A Swedish man had the unique dishonor of being apprehended twice in the same day on Tuesday in Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula.

The 25-year-old man, identified only by the last name Andersson, was first detained in the Pacific coastal canton of Nandayure after officers from the National Police Force said he threatened his neighbors there with a machete. A police report said the suspect appeared to be under the influence of drugs: he was yelling that he saw pigs running around and he was going to kill them.

Coast Guard officials from Puerto Coyote in Nandayure detained the foreigner and handed him over to judicial authorities. However, he was almost immediately released because none of the neighbors presented a formal complaint, according to the National Police Force’s report.

Less than five hours later, police said, Andersson entered a store in the town center of Nicoya where he began reprimanding the cashiers before trying to rob various items. Andersson was captured in the middle of committing the crime, police said. They easily detained him and sent him to the Prosecutor’s Office for processing in the flagrancy courts.

Local police said that this is not Andersson’s first run-in with authorities, and that he has been detained before on various occasions on accusations of drug consumption, damaging property, and starting fights.