Colombia Expat Forum

TRNTNDR
Joined 2016
Posts: 80

2 years ago

Mugged in Medellin

2 years ago

This is not necessarily a popular topic, but I feel that I should post it nevertheless. We should acknowledge the bad with the good aspects of Colombia.

For the first time after living here for almost 13 years, with good and bad experiences - mostly good I have to admit - I’m for the first time seriously contemplating whether I should move on. Here’s why.

Two weeks ago today, at 11 am, I was walking with my bike up the hill towards my building. It’s a steep hill, off Ave el Poblado, but a secluded street, and at my age (77) I can’t bike up it. There was a man, at a guess in his mid 30’s, dressed in clean shorts and t-shirt behind me. Always aware of my surroundings, I decided to pause and let him pass me, which he did. We exchanged greetings as he passed me. I noticed he had a plastic bag over his shoulder and was rummaging in the garbage receptacles as he went ahead of me up the hill. I continued walking up after him.

A couple of minutes later I saw him coming back towards me. As he went to pass me our eyes met and my “alert” antenna went off. Within a split second he grabbed for my bike. On reflection I realized that I should have let him have it, but my automatic reflex was to hang on to it with both hands. So we each had both of our hands on the bike and we’re pulling hard in the opposite direction, refusing to let go.

Obviously, given our respective ages, there was only going to be one winner, but having resisted initially my decision was at what point do I let go? I was on home ground and started yelling for help (the street was deserted) Eventually help arrived, but not before we had both hit the ground and each of us had cuts, abrasions and torn and filthy clothes. By then I’d had to let go and he had taken off down the hill towards Ave el Poblado on the bike.

I wasn’t seriously hurt, thank goodness, but did end up in the Urgencias having my wounds cleaned and dressed. By good fortune the chain had come off in the struggle, and a passerby gave chase and recovered the bike, as once the thief (it transpired that he was a Venezuelan) hit the bottom of the hill he couldn’t cycle any further with a loose chain, and was running off with the bike.

End of story, only it wasn’t. That same Saturday night, a female friend was getting out of a taxi at Terminal del Norte, on her way to catch a bus to her family finca, and she too was mugged by 2 Venezuelans, who ripped her gold chain off her neck and took off into the crowd. This is someone who is always on the alert and constantly reminding me not to be careless.

On reflection these two incidents, on the same day, have shaken me up quite badly, and for the first time I’m giving serious consideration to whether this is the place where I want live the rest of my life. As I said, I’ve had mostly good but some other bad experiences since I moved here (notably a negative experience of the corrupt justice system) but this is the first time I’ve begun to really question the advisability of living in Colombia.

In posting this let me be clear that I’m not looking for advice or even comments about my stupidity in resisting the original encounter. I know of all that. I’m merely posting so that others can learn, if they need to, from my experience. Never ever let your guard down.

The decision on what to do and whether or not to stay here is mine and mine alone to make., and I will do it after proper reflection and consideration of all of the alternatives.

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