Held Up by the Mexican Police

I was on my way overland from Texas to Costa Rica to help my previous boss set up a new school. His others had crashed and burned. Naturally I wanted to drive the same route I had always taken through Mexico. It seemed to be the shortest route. A cop in Monterrey had already robbed me because I didn’t have an outside Mirror on the Passenger side. Gee! Go figure. I had felt that this would be the only or the last time for Mexico. Little did I know.

If you look at a map of Mexico and look at the narrowest point there is a road going North-South. It was on that very road at KM 135 that the cops had set up a little guard shack with a string of lights. This was their base of operations to hold up weary travelers.

We got there and they began to search the car. We weren’t carrying Drugs, Arms or anything out of the ordinary for someone who was moving to another country. Then they got to the trunk of the car. I had a six-pack of Grosch Beer in the trunk, wrapped up in a plastic bag and put in a box. It was for a friend in Guatemala. Obviously we were not breaking any Open Container law from anyplace.

“Oh No Senor. This is not permitted in Mexico." Then they found some Vivarin in the glove compartment. So after they searched everything in the car he told me that I would have to pay a fine. $300 Dollars…The alternative was to impound my car, my documents and all my belongings and wait for the judge on Monday. Now this was on Friday at Midnight.

Let me look at my options. Spend the weekend in Jail and possibly not get out for a very long time or pay the $300 and be on my way. I chose the $300. The only other option was to grab his pistol and blow him away as well as his partner. That’s not really an option so I chose to stick with the $300.

Not only that, they let us keep the Beer and Vivarin.

Later on at a Gas station at a Cross Road we talked with a group of guys that were Caravan Drivers. They would buy 8 or 9 cars in the US and drive them down to Central America and sell them. They said, “Oh yea! Those cops rob people all the time. “ They seemed to have a reputation on the road of robbing travelers.

The kicker was that coming back we had to pass the same place. We got with another two cars that were also speeding along and at about 80 Mph. We all three blasted by the spot. Fortunately the cops were on the other side robbing someone else and didn’t really take notice. WHEW!!!!!! Slid by on another one.

Mugged in Kazakhstan, Part 3-The Trial

In spite of the fact that I was mugged at 3:30am and had no idea of who it was and could make no identification of the assailants, the Cop in Uralsk, Kazakhstan caught one of the Criminals. I’m in the Hospital all beat to crap and they were bringing in these video mug shots and I couldn’t recognize any of them.

So after I got home and was at home with the new girlfriend they came over and laid four coats on the floor and asked me to see if one was mine and there it was. I couldn’t believe it. Then about week or so later, they had ONE of the criminals and info on the other two. Wow! Those guys are good. It seems the head of the State Police for the State told everyone that if they didn’t catch them then they would all be fired. How did they find this guy?

Well, some guys saw the assault and chased one of the guys down and caught him. They took all his belongings including his pager. They also had a video from inside the club with them watching me and from outside the club with them waiting for me to come out and following me of. They guy they caught, in court , said he was home with his wife. His pager had a different story. They had her paging him and telling him to come home she was alone. Then the guys that caught him testified in court about it. He was cooked.

The Prosecuting Attorney, Cops and the Judge told me something to the effect, “We know this guy did it and he’s going to Prison. Here’s what you will say in court.” During the trial I used one of my students as an Interpreter. I was teaching at a Translators Institute so actual Courtroom experience seem like a good thing to throw on my student. She was a wonderful girl and we became good friends through the 11-month ordeal. We had many times in court and many times delayed and the actual court was held in the Judges chambers. Their side, our side, their side, our side.

In the end he was found Guilty and led away to spend the next three years in a prison that had reputations for TB, Lung disease and a whole host of other stuff that produced extensive coughing up of body fluids. Dark and damp would seem bright and dry to you or I. When we went to the court for the “Lead Away” session it was about –20F snow and Ice everywhere and both the Interpreter and I said, “It’s a great day to go to Prison.”