Police check or shakedown?
Whoa, just got my second police stop in Colombia. First was a few years ago in Medellin on a deserted street late at night. Easy to be lullled into complacency here in Cartagena as it is a safe tourist area. My buddy and I were passing the LDV / Exito complex on the corner of Hotel Dann when two police officer on a motorcycle came up the street from the El Muelle restaurant. It was about 6:30 pm.
Officer did a pat down of my shorts and reached very close to my groin. It was a male officer so the touch wasn't really welcomed.
He felt each pocket and got me to remove the contents one at a time. Had a key in my back pocket, a candy a couple of coins in my front. He actually sniffed the candy and gave it back, dropping one on the ground and he bent over to pick it up for me. In my front left pocket I pulled out a money clip with my credit and debit cards and about 20 mill. He turned it over several times to examine it. It's a money clip! What nefarious thing was he looking for? He never said a word throughout the whole search even when I asked if everything was ok but instead he drifted to his partner to look for any signal. My buddy said his officer did they same as if they were trying to agree what to do next.
My buddy thinks it was a shakedown attempt. Both police were male and in their early 20s. Why my buddy thinks this is that in other places such as Germany, he was stopped in the RLD, the police there was very polite and explained exactly why they stopped him. I. E. It's a place where crime exists, he was wearing a hoodie etc etc. Quite professional. Whereas tonight, he took out his money clip that also had money wrapped around it. After putting it back in his pocket and moving to other pockets, the officer asked him to take the money clip out again and wanted to see what credit cards were in it. Why does that matter? Neither of them asked to look at our ID, though if he did, I had my driver's license as one of my cards in the clip. Perhaps their assessment that I was only carrying 20 mill and my buddy only had 70 mill on him and that we were in a well lit, well travelled area made them decide it was not worth it? True other recent posts talk about doing searches to keep the rift raft out, but we were dressed like anyone else. So were they only doing their job? If so, why all the interest in the money clips?
Looking for a specific girl
Hi,
In early Dec I was in CTG for an overnight trip, while there I struck up a conversation with a working girl in the afternoon at the Exito across from the Dann. She was slim by Colombian standards, maybe mid twenties with light skin and blonde hair, spoke fairly good English. I was in a hurry and copied her number down wrong, this is probably a shot in the dark but if anyone knows her and can PM me her contact info or main hangout I would appreciate it.