Can anyone confirm whether some 3rd hand information I heard today is true? A Dutch guy told me that a Dutch friend of his went to the police recently to report a serious crime/fraud and was asked "so would you like to make a report?"...."yes" he replied..."ok, that will be 10 Euros please".

Is this true? You now have to pay 10 Euros to get the police to investigate a crime...please tell me this is a joke or I will think this country really has gone nuts

well last year, about a month after moving here (Cascais), a policeman knocked on our door to ask if we would like to make a donation! …. said they would keep an eye on our place. ...

Where I come from, they call that a protection racket.


you've gotta laugh

Evening Digger. You know in some bizarre way that doesn't surprise me so much Unfortunately...

But I think this Dutch guy was under the impression that the 10 Euros was for the form/paperwork involved to make the statement and the admin costs etc. I wonder if some little, old Portuguese lady (for example) wanted to report a theft that they would make her pay 10 Euros too

Yer...you definately do have to

in some bizarre way, it wouldn’t surprise me if you had to go to another dept. to take a senha to buy a form for 12 centimos to fill in ….. to report a crime, then take it to the sergeant in the café next door….

Now that really is bizarre

Cost me €10 to get my accident report for last month's fender-bender.

Looks to me like any piece of paper that has gone through the hands of an officer will cost you €10 to obtain. Public service indeed...

So the phrase "crime doesn't pay" isn't quite true here is it?

"Public service"...not going to start on that one this morning...don't want to start the day stressed

we had our rented villa broken into 2yrs ago (left the shutter open on the front of the villa....idiot) Rang the villa agency, only a mobile phone stolen + broken window. 10 mins later the lady from the agency was there, 20 mins later two policemen (one of whom spoke reasonable english....). They took a full report and were very pleasant, only accepted iced water when offered a drink! They got a call about another break in as we talked and shot off to see to that. 1hr later they came back with a mobile they had found at that scene (in the bushes) wondering if it might be ours (no such luck, the guy had swapped sim cards....). During that time the villa people had the window reglazed. Bloody good service!
The police asked us to go to the station up the hill by the beach within 5 days to pick up a copy of their report (had to sign about 5 sheets !) for our insurance. NO charge at all. I found them very efficient at responding and well mannered, have things changed in the last couple of years? I have been over several years now (and will be over later this year) and that is the only instance of crime I have seen (apart from my driving...!) I have walked back from bars at 4am and not had the slightest problem...lovely place!