Day 73 in Itagui (5)

11/30/2012 19:57

It´s Christmas time. Which means my probabilities of getting robbed, literally, just tripled. My cousin Briane was walking home from work with a couple coworkers, and they each had each just cashed their generous checks. Right when they were about to walk into his house, 3 armed men with motor cycles cut them off. They took $1,500,000 pesos, about $850 dollars off my cousins coworkers. But my cousin escaped. He heard one man tell the other to shoot, but they didnt. My cousin ran into my aunt´s house on the second floor, but he was so freaked out and paranoid, he kept running, jumped off the balcony, and jumped into the river behind the house, and messed up his arm.

Thieves are getting there hands on weapons a bit more advanced than a simple gun. The new trend is simply to walk up to a guy, shove a map in his face, and ask them how to get to a certain location, for example. Well the map, or whatever it is thats shoved in your face, is a powder form of the date rape drug. It´s basicly the equivalent of the mind-wiping gadget in the Men in Black films. The criminal will tell you that your lost, and ask you to write down your adress so they can take you home. Then when they get there, they will make up a story. For example, they´ll say that there´s been a robery at a super market and they need to take all your money to a lab, for examination to make sure it´s not stolen. So you´ll stroll right into your house and give these guys every last peso you have. Then they tell you to just wait for them, and say they´ll be back with the money in a matter of hours. And they´ll just leave you at your doorstep, waiting for something that´ll never come, and that´s the best case scenario. They say it happened to a bethelite once here in Bogota and he dissapeared for 2 days. Then they found him 2 days later just standing at the Ecuadorian border. So as silly as it may sound, I´ve made it a habit not to inhale when im crossing paths with shady characters. (Photos added to PhotoGalleries Poblado and Itagui)

                            -D.V.