Guest Column
Sometimes, timing is EVERYTHING!
By Tom Gatch
After leaving El Milagro, it was about 11:30am or so when we were passing through El Sauzel. I had just looked over to my left to drool as we drove by El Trailero and I began to dream about their carne asada tacos and toasty, grilled jalapeños, when I turned my head back to the right and saw a dark blue Izuzu Trooper with a halibut sticker on the bumper drive by us in the right lane. It was our trooper that had been stolen just a few weeks over a year ago from the Pyramid Resort while we were attending a Baja author's book signing. As you can probably imagine, we totally freaked out! Lynn quickly dug around in her purse for her cell phone, while I tried to remember the Baja emergency number (Let's see, 911, no that's in the U.S. Uh, 666? Nope, that's the sign of the devil. Ah, got it! ‘066’ ...THAT'S IT!)
The operator quickly passed me on to an English speaking officer who took down all the information and pulled up the previously filed theft report on his computer. The guy in our car had absolutely NO idea what was going on as I followed him while talking to the police. After he passed Punta Morro and we were able to determine that he was headed through the port instead of the road that takes you through the center of Ensenada, the officer assured me that they would have a 'greeting party' ready for him by the time he made it up to the Pemex station ...and that they did! As soon as he made that turn, police cars came flying out of practically every direction.
The driver of our Trooper was pulled wide-eyed from the vehicle with an automatic weapon in his face. Unlike similar situations in the U.S., the suspect was not forced face down on the pavement, nor kicked, nor abused in ANY way. He was simply frisked, cuffed and escorted into the back of one of the patrol cars. Their precision in execution and calm, professional demeanor was amazingly smooth. The 'take down' looked like something that had been planned for weeks, not the 4 or 5 minutes that it actually took to coordinate their efforts. One of the English speaking officers told us that they would expedite our drive to the police station with a special escort. They were extremely helpful and courteous as we waited for them to process all of the theft and arrest reports; they told us that the guy in our car said that he had purchased it from someone, and they promised to follow up on his source for acquiring the vehicle. In the meantime, they placed our Trooper in their impound unit cost free until we could get back to the U.S. and bring down our title (which we had stopped carrying around a LONG time ago, thinking that it was a 'lost cause') so that they could release it back to us. We are making a special trip down this Friday to do so, and we will drive it down to our place, pull it into the car port, put The Club on it, cover it and then register and insure it in Mexico when we finally move down there full time in about 9 months.
Anyhow, if anyone you run into in the future happens to start bad-mouthing the police in Baja while reciting a bunch of U.S. media 'horror' stories, you might want to relay this little tale to help mitigate their venom!
Tom Gatch is the author of Hooked on Baja: Where & How to Fish Mexico's Legendary Waters Available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-Baja-Mexicos-Legendary-Waters/dp/0881507261 Contact writer at: tlgatch@sbcglobal.net
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