Robbed

Well, it´s true what they say, it´s bloody dangerous here.

Last night we went to a salsa concert at Rombadroma here in Cali. It was a bit tedious to be honest. We got there early, before 9, and as always the best acts were kept til last. If I could dance salsa properly it may have been bearable, but as I can´t I decided to make a quick exit at about 1am, alone.

I left the club and took the first available taxi waiting outside. I told him my hotel and he sped off. A couple of minutes later he asked questions about directions which I didn´t understand, then seemed to take an odd turning into a very quiet area. Next thing I know, the car has stopped and in jump three men, two beside me, one in front. The guy to my right had a gun pressed to my neck.

They emptied my pockets and rifled through my wallet. I had some cash on me, about 300,000 pesos I think, 50 quid, my fake rolex, my ring, but they were most interested in my cards. I had three cards on me, my UK debit, a UK credit and a Chinese bank account that is unusable outside of China. They wanted my PIN numbers, but the only one I had was from my UK debit account. They drove me to 3 separate ATM machines and withdrew as much money as they could from my accounts. When they were done, they drove me to a quiet area and let me go. I walked to a brightly lit street, got another taxi to my hotel where the reception leant me some money to pay for the taxi plus called the police for me.

Yes, quite an adventure. During the whole incident I was coldly calm, the nerves only kicked in when I left the car. I was bloody stupid for taking a taxi alone at that time of night. I was at the club with my friend and her sister, but I decided to do my usual disappearing act and leave without them. When I was in Bogota I noticed that at night people would conspicuously write down the number of the taxi in full view of the taxista before they got in, I think as a message to him they´re being cautious and wont be an easy target. I was a very easy target, emphasised by my inability to understand the taxi drivers questions.

I had the gun pressed against my neck for 30 minutes or so. Mostly it wasn´t as terrifying as it sounds. I got the sense that they were quite professional, they didn´t seem to be high and they just wanted my money so no need to cause more trouble than necessary. Also, apart from the fact I shouldn´t have got myself in that mess to begin with, I handled the situation well. As I said I was very calm, and I gave them everything they wanted. Whilst they were rifling through my wallet, I explained the situation with each card: I know the PIN number for this card and it has a daily limit of 250 quid, i dont know the pin no my credit card, this is a chinese card and can´t be used outside of China, this credit card has expired. As I was telling them this, all of it true, I was worred they wouldn´t believe me
but they seemed to accept everything I was saying.

Several very strange things happened during those 30 minutes. After, they´d rifled through my wallet, they took all my card and papers, placed them back in the wallet and handed it back to me. They gave me back my asthma inhaler too. The tone of the conversation was strange too...it was so normal. You travel a lot? The UK is cold, right? You like the girls here in Colombia? What´s Hong Kong like? Is this your first time in Colombia? Third time? How many times have you been robbed here before? You´re very calm.

The only time I was seriously frightened was after we´d visited the 3rd ATM, probably about 20 minutes into the experience. The guy to my left, the biggest and most threatening one, but thankfully not the one with the gun, said to the other guys something like ´Vamos a la quarto´. Meaning something like ´Let´s go to the room´. When he said that, the other guys took a sharp intake of breath, meaning to me that that would be serious shit. Of course, the worse case scenario here, and I know now it´s a very real one for a gringo like me, is to be kidnapped. And people can be kidnapped for months in Colombia. Vamos a quarto meant to me, lets take him to the house. They didn´t, I don´t know what made them decide not to, if it was a real possibilty even, whether I´d done anything to discourage them, but for 10 minutes or so I thought that´s where I was going.

Anyway, that was my Tuesday, how was yours?