Mexican Police
MrMagoo1999
I booked a hotel room right on Avenido Revolucion on a Saturday night and prepared for the quick 30-minute drive across the border. I got to TJ in the early afternoon, checked into my hotel and spent a few hours walking around the tourist area. Eventually I headed a few blocks off the main tourist spots for a nice seafood dinner. Dinner was great and affordable leaving me in a fine mood to explore the other side of town. I knew from friends where the main action was and decided that I would take a casual stroll down to the Hong Kong area.
Walking down Avenido Revolucion you notice a considerable dip in the neighborhood demographic as soon as you cross over the railroad tracks. The street hookers are mixed in with the drug addicts right alongside the pimps and dealers. Of course, the 80% of the people are just going about their daily routine. It really is only a short trot and I personally like a little seediness when I am going out for a night so I didn't mind.
Before I knew it, I had turned onto the strip with the true TJ nightlife and was only about 2 blocks away from Hong Kong's, my destination for the evening. Within the first block a police car pulled up beside me headed the opposite direction. I just kept strolling down the sidewalk. The street was well lit and there were plenty of locals around going about their evening. At this point I wasn’t too concerned. Keep in mind it was only about 9 pm but already dark out. Things changed quickly when the two Mexican Police officers jump out of their squad car and headed right towards me.
My two new acquaintances tell me to stop. They tell me they need to search me and to put my hands on the car. I have traveled all over the world and been extorted by the local police countless times. It is always for a small amount of money, and I have always considered it a price of being able to travel. However, these two officers were going about the whole thing differently and I had my guard on high alert. Although I was probably less than 1/4 of a mile from the US border, I knew the stakes were a little bit higher this time.
The initial contact we had they were very insistent that I go to their car. I decided right there and then that no matter what I happened I was not going to get in their squad car. After quite a bit of back and forth with the cops I finally agreed to take the 4 or 5 steps towards their squad car. (I mean really when do you get to negotiate whether the police are going to search you or not.) I made it very clear that I was not getting inside but only going there to let them check my pockets. Once at their car I had one officer start to reach in my pockets to start their search. In our initial negotiations they said as long as I didn't have any drugs or anything bad it would be fine. I knew the only things in my pocket were my cell phone, one small limit CC, a California driver's license and cash stored in multiple places on my body which consisted of several hundred US dollars and the equivalent of about forty dollars in Mexican Pesos. I wasn't worried about what I had in my pockets at that moment I was worried about what would end up in my pockets once these two started reaching their hands in them.
The more vocal cop reached in my front right pocket and came back out with about $100 US and $40 in pesos. I turned to look at him and slapped his hand. I shit you not I actually slapped the guy's hand. We were both a little stunned by my actions and just kind of froze. He recovered quickly and told me not to do that while placing my cash on the trunk of his car. I quickly grabbed my cash off of the trunk while his hand was in my other front pocket pulling out my phone. Initially I was a little scared and was worried about kidnapping, planting drugs, etc. At this point I knew this was not much more than a shake down, so I grabbed my phone out of his hand.
For some reason the mood turned at that point and became very lighthearted. I wasn't sure why the sudden change, but I was happy for it. The cops wanted to know where I was headed. I told them Hong Kong which we could easily see from where we were standing. They then started to say something about the place in Spanish which I did not understand and quickly got translated. “Lot’s of big pussy’s there!”
Everyone in a much better mood I knew it was my time to exit and grabbed my belongings. Headed the 4 or 5 steps back to the sidewalk I reached in pockets and pulled out my money. Immediately I noticed all of my pesos were gone. I turned around to see cop in the driver’s seat getting into their looking at me for my reaction. I simply pointed at the guy wagged my finger in shame and gave him a smirk that said I know what you did. With a quick guilty smile he ducked his head into the car and headed off.
Hong Kong was only a few short blocks away and was my next stop even if my pockets where a little lighter than before. HK was everything I had heard about and made the slight detour with the police worth it.
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8 comments
You handled this well. Probably good that you made some bold moves during the interaction and didn’t show too much weakness. It’s a fine line.
OTOH, we are each responsible for our own safety. If your Spidey Sense is telling you not to do something, it is smart to listen. An odd thing is that when we focus on a specific fear, we send out some kind of signal to the universe that makes it happen. I am to a point that if I were to die tomorrow, my last words will be, "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
And if you change your mind, maybe we can time it so we can meet and I can show you around in person. My first trip was solo. I walked across the border in the late morning and had a hotel room on the US side. (After spending about four months on forums and YouTube doing research.) The idea was that if I hated it or felt unsafe, I could get back over the border in a matter of minutes. Spent a few hours in HK and went back to the US side well before dark. The next day I went back again on the same schedule. Met some very cool people and had sex with several HOT chicas. Now, seven years later, I am an addict. I go for a few days and I am burnt out, vowing that it will be my last trip for at least a year. About 23 hours later I am making plans for my next trip...the following month. This has become an addiction that I do not want cured.
(dang seri/spell check.)