Heads up if you layover in CUN
 

One of our guys managed to shake off an attempted kidnapping two days ago in CUN. This is what he has told us:

I believed Cancun was "safe" as I had never been there before OE the week before. Seemed like a regular tourist trap. It was very brazen, 12:30am walking back to hotel in a dark patch on the 1km walk 200 yards from hotel. It was the jerks in the pickup truck not sure if it was the tourista police as they were driving the new dodges. This was a crappy pickup with the rack in the back and 2 corrupt police officers. I figured they were federales. I made it very clear I was not getting in the truck for the life of me (literally) and when the other goon got out I figured it was gonna get ugly. They decided the crazy gringo was not worth it and I managed to take off. If they wanted to press the issue I figured a nightstick beating or a gun in the ribs but it wasn't quite isolated enough I guess. Obvious shakedown attempt as the first thing they asked was if I had "drugs". I can post my event report which has some more details. I believe they guys selling drugs in the tourist zone (I had half a dozen offers) are in cahoots with the cops. Think about it: an easy mark for sure. They picked me for some reason, probably because I was alone.

From the Event Report:

While on a RON in Cancun, Mexico, while returning to hotel after eating dinner I was a victim of an attempted abduction by 2 apparent members of the police force, in anycase they were in some sort of uniforms and were driving a dilapidated pickup truck. While walking the 5-10 minute walk to the Hyatt Cancun crew hotel, during a dark and somewhat isolated patch of sidewalk the truck pulled up next to me and a short mexican officer jumped out and was pushing me towards the open truck door. He said in broken english that I must get into the truck. This was a standard cab truck with a driver and I would have been sandwiched between the two. I refused multiple times. He asked me if I had any "drugs" on me. At this time I knew it was a setup and flately refused to get in the truck. The other officer got out and I figured I was going to have to fight for my life and I made that clear. I was about to take off running to the hotel which I figured I could make before they drove me down when they started to back off and realized I would not go quietly. I figured if this was a real arrest of somesort they would use proper police protocals, and in anycase would detain me. They did not do any of that and I knew it was a abduction attempt that would have resulted in extorsion of some sort by the officers with a bogus "drug" charge. I assume as I had seen their truck or one like it on the edge of the "strip" in Cancun that they marked me and others and intercepted them on the isolated path with no witnesses. This occurred several hundred yards from the hotel entrance. The security situation in Mexico is dire and completely unsafe. When you have the "cops" perpetrating the crimes there is no option available for personal safety.
I will be following up with this matter to ensure the safety of US Airways crews while in foreign countries

I have filed most of the reports still one or two left

Thanks for posting this info...could have been bad.:eek:

Still safer than downtown Philly or Houston.

Due to family ties, I travel to Mexico frequently. My rule in Mexico, since about 2007 (when things drastically got worse), is "nighttime = at home or at hotel". Period, the end.

Some "FYI"

I also carry a large amount of cash ($300) and ONLY cash and my Passport and DL as "walking around" documents. Wallet and credit cards is 1) Home or 2) Hotel safe deposit box.

Your hotel key, you know the little envelope it comes in with your room number? leave it in the room, write your room number on your palm and put key in another pocket not with money. Don't break out the wallet with your Hotel card and room number in plain view to the world unless you want some night visitors.

Most all express kidnappings are done to force you to drain all your ATM cards to the limit, then do it again the next day, to the limit, then maybe one more day.

If they kidnap me with the above items, hey, here is my $300, here, take it, yep I am American, here is my ID if I need it, sorry I can't sh1t an ATM card, have a nice day. They are a little less (a little) likely to harm a gringo.

Do not, repeat, do NOT, carry your fat wallet, stuffed with your five Gold AMEX cards and Platinum mastercard, around the streets nor reach for it when you pay for dinner and the waiter can advise his buddies. No watches either, of any kind.

Also, tone down any associations to big American corporate companies, as they may have kidnap-insurance and thus pay out to the kidnappers. Don't tell the waiter you are a "Piloto" or "Engineer at Exxon" or similar. Blue jeans, low key, low profile. You are on church mission or you are a tourist. Etc.

To the OP, Glad you are ok.

** Mexico has a lot of great things to offer, just "being a secure country" is not high on the list. I feel safer there than I do pumping gas into my car at night near Hobby, however.

FWIW I had an FAA inspector on my flight from CUN to FLL last November. He does repair station inspections or some such. He told me to be extremely careful in cancun that it was not safe at all. He further claimed that as a result of a drug bust at the airport that ended with a lot of drugs confiscated from an airplane the drug cartels had kidnapped and beheaded the airport manager and his replacement is now being guarded by a platoon of Mexican army soldiers.

CUN is about a safe a layover as we do. Done it dozens of times in the past 2 years. Never a worry. I worry much more in a lot of our domestic layovers.

The trend vector for Mexico, everywhere, is pegged to the bottom of the tape. Its not a matter of if but when. Everywhere there. The whole place is a rapidly collapsing narco state. Once safe areas are rapidly degrading. Its eazy to "feel safe" when nothing's happend, up until the second it happens and then its too late to feel safe. I'd do what satpak said with strong emphasis on self imposed lockdown as soon as the sun goes down if not sooner.

"Must be safe. Nothing ever happened to me!" Maybe you should nominate yourself as tool of the day.

I don't get it. Why carry so much cash? My rule of thumb in an iffy city is to carry $40 and a credit card. I don't know the pin to withdraw cash from my credit card. I could lose or give up all in my pocket without great loss.

All of us SOCAL surfers who used to go down to Baja....don't anymore.

To hell with mexico, not worth the risk.