Mugging in Buenos Aires
Log Book -
Argentina
Sunday, 14 February 2010 16:20
Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 21:23
Written by Delphine
I gather my courage to explain in this blog what happened 2 days ago.
Saturday, the 13 of February, 1:00PM : We decided to go to the Bombonera, the stadium of La Boca area, because we wanted to buy tickets for a soccer match (apparently, the atmosphere of a match in La Boca is unforgettable and exceptional). We arrived to the stadium and, bad luck, the tickets cashier was closed…There was a museum and a Bombonera souvenirs shop just behind us, we went inside to have a look at the souvenirs items. We left then the shop and we walked a little bit to take our bus to the city centre.
2:12PM : I felt 2 hands grabbing my shoulders strongly. I did not understand what was going on. I thought in myself that it was maybe one of our friends that we met in Buenos Aires. But finally, I saw a knife under my neck. I freaked out, I screamed, I fall on the ground and I grabbed the arms of the foreigner which were around my neck. Everything happened so quickly that it was hard to understand the situation. Maxime was beside me, he saw me threatened by two young men who were shouting « el dinero, el dinero »… A passer-by, a middle-aged woman, was witness of the scene, she called as loud as she could « Policia, Ayudala, Policia ». Maxime gave his wallet as quick as possible (his small wallet where we had only money for 2 or 3 days). But, I was still endangered with the knife closed to me, they said then « tu mochilla, tu mochilla ». This time, they asked for the bag that Maxime was wearing in front of him. Maxime gave his bag as well without trying to understand or negociate anything. When they obtained what they wanted, they run away. The woman advised us to run and follow them. I was stucked on the ground, my legs were cut by the fear and I could not move for a moment. I was chocked. Maxime wanted to catch them again but he did not want to leave me alone.
2:17PM : The woman told us that she knew where the both attackers lived. She showed their street and the building where they lived. Then, I asked her their names and surnames but, unfortunately for us, she realized that she talked already too much and that it could be dangerous for her to continue giving so many informations. She did not want to have problems because of that… So she explained us how to go to the police station and she left us alone on the street. We walked quickly to the police station which was only at 2 blocks of the accident.
We explained everything to the policemen: the knife, the robbery, the threats. They did not seem to be involved in this story. They asked us to take a sit and wait. I did not agree, I insisted telling them that the aggression happened only few minutes ago and that the yound men run in this direction so maybe we could have chance to catch them. I begged them to go and chase the attackers. But they did nothing… We were desperate… They asked us again to sit down and they told us that they are going to see what they can do (see what? They just needed to run, it was as simple as that)… we were upset and we did not understand why the police did not do anything.
2:30PM : It was only 10 minutes later that 2 officers asked us : « if you cross the attackers on the street, would you be able to recognize them? ». Maxime said yes immediately. The police finally agreed and took us to their car to drive around and see if we can see anything (it was way too late to do that…). During 15 minutes we were driving around for nothing and they really didn’t care for us. We saw a gut who saw everything and we told the police that we could stop here to ask the boy. Because he didn’t reach his majority yet, I was not a witness for the law. Fucking law. After the useless tour in the car we had to wait 3 hours to make a complaint…During this time the guys were enjoying the robbery. We were absolutely mad.
5.45PM: We asked the police if they could help us to get back to the hostel. Nothing. They laughed and told us “Tchao”. We didn’t have any money, nothing. We decided to take the bus and ask explain to the driver what just happened. Because he was a very nice guy he let us get in the bus and drove us nearby the hostel.
6.PM: the rush has started. We have now a lot of stuff to do. Call the insurance, call Mastercard…
8:00PM : Our 3 French friends (that we met in the youth hostel) have been aware very quickly about the aggression and they invited us to share a beer with them to cheer us up. We spent then the night with them around a “cerveza” but we were here our mind was away. We are now waiting for a call to get a new card and get a bit of money. We have to see for Max’s passport and find a solution for our camera. We are going to miss our plane to Ushuaia to do all this stuff.
Our trip will be different from now on.
We even thought, for a moment, of giving up and come back.
Lectrice de vos aventures, je pense bien à vous.j espère que cette malheureuse
expérience est derrière vous... Pour avoir voyagé un mois seule en argentine en
2005 j etais tres etonnée de voir que vous vous soyez faits agressés à la boca,
tres touristique, mais effectivement, qui craint....
bravo pour ce que vous faites en tt cas!
En ce qui me concerne, nous partons avec mon ami un moi en perou bolivie en mai.
votre blog va nous permettre d avoir quelques infos :-)
a bientot et bon courage pour les malheureuses peripeties passées et les
heureuses qui arrivent au bout du monde
aurelie