I it is Christmas eve - in the afternoon. I am in the bordertown of Reynosa at a cyber-cafe.
Pronounced ´´ceebert - cough - eh.´´ The trip started off on a bad note. My brother-in-law was pulled over by the ´transitos,´ in his truck and I was the only passenger. It was about 2 a.m. His offense was not coming to a complete stop. Like anybody in Mexico does ? The young light-complected policeman immediately asked my ¨cuñado¨ out of the car. They were gone for an unusually long time. The cop came back alone and demanded 1,000 pesos from me - nearly 100 dollars. I said I don´t have any money and subtly indicated it would be better for them to take him to jail and keep the truck. I doubt his truck would sell for a hundred dollars in the states, and I wouldn´t pay a nickel to bail my worthless brother-in-law out of jail. At that point, my only concern was it would take me at least an hour to walk home. I was very tired from the long drive from Houston, and it was cold, and I didn´t think I would need a sweater on this trip. Another 30 minutes passed, it seemed. I convinced them to lower the price from 100 dollars to $ 20. They agreed. But that was were I screwed up. The $ 20 was hidden in my wallet in a zipped up area, and I couldn´t open it without them seeing that I had another $ 150 which was nearly all the money I had budgeted for this short weekend trip. So, I said to myself - ¨screw it - I will just walk back.¨ So I told the police that the $ 20 was back at the houseñ and they could follow us to get it. The 2 of them became irate and started digging thru the car taking whatever change they could steal - probably about 20 cents in all. Then a 3rd came out of the car - a female. At that point, I was confused and surprised by the shake-down that we were getting. It seemed paranoia had take over them. They began yanking out the papers in my brother-in-law´s wallet. This alarmed me, because I was certain that I was going to lose my $ 173 dollars now. Suddenly they jumped with excitement. They found a very tiny piece of celaphane wrapper in his wallet, and I was very surprised to see that it was some sort of illegal drug. They immediately took him back to the car, and put him in the car. Which was a good thing, because I wanted to beat the $%*p out of him. They came back and put the thing in my face, and told me ¿ do you know your brother-in-law will get 10 years for this ? At that point, I was surprised that the tiny wrapper, appeared to be about 3 times larger than what I saw them pull out of the wallet. I told them I was unaware of his activities, and that I could not help him tonight with this problem. They left me standing there in the cold and it was very uncomfortable. There was only one street light nearby, and few cars passed us, all of which were being pulled over by other police units. Another long period passed with the 4 of them in the patrol car. The police came back, and told me that If I didn´t follow them to an ATM machine and pay them a take a 100 dollars out of my account that they were going to take him and the truck to jail. I don´t usually carry ATM cards, especially late at night in Mexico. And I don´t have any $ in the bank anyways. That was such a relief to hear them say that and I wanted to bust up laughing at the fools. I say that because they were clearly only interested in money, and their bluff seemed to be moronic. They put my hands on the car and frisked me and pulled out my wallet and told me to hold the wallet. I was so glad they didn´t sort thru my wallet like they did his. I had to hold back my smile. At that point a taxi had gone by and that gave me a Plan B. I figured I would try to walk a few blocks and then take a taxi once I was out of their sights. I managed to convince them that I had no money. I had just left my nieces wedding reception, and I was dressed up nice, so they figured I was rich. But they could tell my brother-in-law was a ¨vaquero¨ without a horse to his name. He is 50, but appears to be 70. He has a very low IQ and few teeth, all of which are not in the front of his mouth. I believe he acts dumb as a way to survive, but my wife claims he was born with a mental defect. I don´t believe him ( He could be like that character on the TV show - ¨Just Shoot Me,¨ who has a brother that fakes being stupid to get attention. ) Nevertheless, another long period passed. My brother-in-law came out of the car faster than I have ever seen him move. He grabbed 2 crappy flashlights - actually marine type spotlights - and returned back to the patrol car quickly. I said to myself - ¨that idea will never work.¨ He handed them the lights which would sell at a U.S. flea market for about 2 dollars each. and he quickly went back to his truck. I followed him in amazement. I got in the car and we drove home. He has lived in Reynosa for 50 years. I asked him - ¿how often does that happen? He said 2 times a year, sometimes 3. He said it was only that bad, because there was a gringo in the car. He said the policeman are just going to snort the drug and that they would never report the incident to their supervisors. I bet the crooked police give it to their cousins in the U.S. We both returned to the same area in the afternoon the next day, and there was not a policeman in sight. So I guess the moral to the story is to not drive in Mexico at night, especially in the bordertowns or down any deserted side streets. And to carry some junk fake gadget like a broken DVD player and use it to trade with the crooked ¨transitos.¨ I have been driving all over town today, by myself, and have seen few police man. So I think a person just has to be very careful how they drive and where and when they drive. This e-mail cost 10 pesos, about one dollar. Too be continued.... David Locklear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
