BajaNomad

Interesting encounters

Lee - 3-23-2025 at 02:03 PM

This is an encounter I think about every now and then.

About 8am, coming into Cabo on 19, parked N. of the Marina near the Parque Miramar. Stopped to get coffee and saw a sign that read ''30 minutes parking.''

I set the timer on my watch and walked a block to the cafe, hung out for a bit, and walked back to my car. Checked my watch and I was 25 minutes into the 30 minutes. Standing on the sidewalk across from my car was a cop with a screw driver in his hand. He was ready to take my license plate. I smiled, he didn't, and I drove off.

(Not sure what he would have done as he wouldn't have the special ''bit'' to get the plate off.)

Not a great story but one that showed me there's stuff going on that I'm not always aware of.

Anyone with a story to share?

4x4abc - 3-23-2025 at 06:10 PM

everybody is after you (your money) as a Gringo in La Paz.

mtgoat666 - 3-23-2025 at 08:13 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Lee  
This is an encounter I think about every now and then.

About 8am, coming into Cabo on 19, parked N. of the Marina near the Parque Miramar. Stopped to get coffee and saw a sign that read ''30 minutes parking.''

I set the timer on my watch and walked a block to the cafe, hung out for a bit, and walked back to my car. Checked my watch and I was 25 minutes into the 30 minutes. Standing on the sidewalk across from my car was a cop with a screw driver in his hand. He was ready to take my license plate. I smiled, he didn't, and I drove off.

(Not sure what he would have done as he wouldn't have the special ''bit'' to get the plate off.)

Not a great story but one that showed me there's stuff going on that I'm not always aware of.

Anyone with a story to share?


When I was four I stepped on a bee.

When I was young my hand got slammed in the doors of several cars, including a ‘69 gmc travel all, and several 60s vintage Mercedes

I have lost track of how many parking tickets i gave received. Price of living in the city.

AKgringo - 3-24-2025 at 10:56 AM

A couple of years ago, I was returning to my car in the La Paz Walmart parking lot, and was met by two young men who showed me that a windshield wiper blade on my Kia was damaged!

They just happened to have some used ones and could replace it for me right then (for a price higher than a new blade in Walmart). I am pretty sure that they had just sabotaged the almost new blade on my car, and had probably just stolen their used blades in the same parking lot because they noticed the store security heading our way and took off!

wiltonh - 3-24-2025 at 04:45 PM

Several years ago we parked our pickup in the Walmart parking lot. We had two old iPhone that we left connected to power in the center console. They were out of sight and being guarded by our small dog.

When we returned the back window had been opened with some sort of knife and the two phones stolen out of the console. The dog probably licked them rather than being any kind of deterrent. Later we found out that if you leave the Bluetooth turned on it is sending our a signal that can tell someone what kind of phone and where it is located.

It seems to me that if you spend the 200 pesos to have a guy wash your vehicle, the chance of getting broken into gets much less.

[Edited on 3-24-2025 by wiltonh]

[Edited on 3-24-2025 by wiltonh]

Lee - 3-31-2025 at 04:01 PM

Quote: Originally posted by wiltonh  
Several years ago we parked our pickup in the Walmart parking lot. We had two old iPhone that we left connected to power in the center console. They were out of sight and being guarded by our small dog.

When we returned the back window had been opened with some sort of knife and the two phones stolen out of the console. The dog probably licked them rather than being any kind of deterrent. Later we found out that if you leave the Bluetooth turned on it is sending our a signal that can tell someone what kind of phone and where it is located.

It seems to me that if you spend the 200 pesos to have a guy wash your vehicle, the chance of getting broken into gets much less.

[Edited on 3-24-2025 by wiltonh]


Didn't know Bluetooth would allow this.

My car has a keyless ignition and as long as the key is on me, car will start by pushing a button. I read that the key fob can be accessed from a device thief's have access to allowing them to access my car.

Bought this pouch https://buyersguide.org/Faraday-bag/t/best? and keep my key in it when not in my car. Reviews seemed mix -- it works for a few months then doesn't work for some.

Think thief's in MX would have access to a device that'll allow them to get into my car.

wiltonh - 4-5-2025 at 02:38 PM

They broke in through a back window to get into the pickup. It was a 2002 Ford Crew Cab and the back window is not very secure.

Later I read that devices were available to search for Bluetooth. At that point I went onto eBay and found that they cost less than $50.

There was no other way for the thieves to have known the phones were there as they were not in view of any window. They reached in from the back window and opened the center console. Nothing else in the pickup was touched.

Over the next few days they tried a number of times to get into the phones and each time a message was sent to our new phones. It was not much of a loss as the battery was almost dead on one and the other was even older.

[Edited on 4-5-2025 by wiltonh]

Lee - 4-8-2025 at 09:14 AM

Quote: Originally posted by wiltonh  
They broke in through a back window to get into the pickup. It was a 2002 Ford Crew Cab and the back window is not very secure.

Later I read that devices were available to search for Bluetooth. At that point I went onto eBay and found that they cost less than $50.

There was no other way for the thieves to have known the phones were there as they were not in view of any window. They reached in from the back window and opened the center console. Nothing else in the pickup was touched.

Over the next few days they tried a number of times to get into the phones and each time a message was sent to our new phones. It was not much of a loss as the battery was almost dead on one and the other was even older.

[Edited on 4-5-2025 by wiltonh]


Easy enough to prevent thief's from stealing your phones by turning off bluetooth. I only have one phone so it's easy enough to have it on me.

Devices that can find the FOB signal for my keyless car is another concern. A few posts back, I posted the Faraday pouch I use religiously. I tested the pouch initially since reviews read that they are good for months and then stop working. It did work in the beginning. With key in the pouch, door would not unlock and car wouldn't start.

Some years ago, a neighbor in Pescadero had his laptop stolen from his vehicle at the Cabo Costco. I use to ask a worker outside Costco (helping elder gringoes with groceries to their car) to watch my car with surfboard on top. Now I ask for a worker to watch the car every time I shop there. I'm superstitious.

I'm convinced there are thief's at the Walmart parking lot in La Paz profiling cars that park further from the building. Harald might attest to this. No way to track these break in's as it's not reported and nothing can be done anyway.

4x4abc - 4-8-2025 at 11:57 AM

yup - Walmart La Paz is bad. Very bad!
as a response, Walmart put up signs that they are not responsible for anything that might happen in the parking lot

haven't seen any reports lately
but that is due to the fact that I was banned from the local expat groups
because my posts were too negative
right, who wants to read about break ins at Walmart
very trumpish
unwelcome messengers are removed
now it is back to sunny paradise

bajaric - 4-10-2025 at 02:22 PM

Around 1987 I took a road trip driving south from San Felipe, accompanied by my girlfriend. Back then the road was a bone-jarring stretch of steep grades and rough dirt roads, but my F150 made it over the grades with no issues and we dropped down to the shoreline in front of a little Island called El Huerfanito.

We continued driving south until we saw a side road leading towards the sea. We followed this road to a bluff overlooking a small beach. A steep ramp dropped down to the beach from the bluff so I drove down to the bottom to camp next to the beach. I took a walk along the shoreline, casting lures out to schools of fish that were breezing on the surface (mullet?) but had no takers. Where I got back to the truck I saw that another truck was parked up on the bluff above us, and two guys were sitting up there, staring down at us.

We had encountered very little traffic along the road and it seemed a bit odd that these two gentlemen should happen to have parked their truck in the same place that we had decided to camp. And there they sat, staring, passing a big brown bottle of beer back and forth, just us and them way out there in the middle of nowhere. They reminded me of a couple of vultures. I decided to scramble up the bluff and have a little chat. Their appearance was somewhat disconcerting; two swarthy guys with unshaven faces, bushy uncombed hair, dirty clothing, and sullen stares. I attempted to communicate with them in broken Spanish, explaining that I was interested in prospecting for gold*. The response was a look of warning and a few phrases that I could not understand, other than one word: "Peligroso". Danger.

I put on my best happy gringo face and retreated back down to the truck. The sun was going down and it was getting dark. And these guys would not leave. I began to assume the worst. Frankly, I panicked. I parked the blond girlfriend in the front seat and handed her a knife. Then I hastily tossed our stuff in the back of the truck, started the engine, and made a run for the ramp. The rear wheels were spinning and we almost didn't make it out of there. But the truck came through and we shot past the two men and back towards the main highway. I put the pedal to the metal and we just hauled ass out of there in the dark, headlights illuminating a little stretch of dirt road in front of us and driving like it was the Baja 1000 until we were miles and miles away.

Finally it seemed like the coast was clear and we could see no signs of pursuit, so we pulled off the road and parked near a house that we saw by the beach and turned off the headlights. Almost immediately we heard a voice shout out in English "Hey you cant park there". I answered, "Please, we just escaped from the Banditos". So an older American guy came out and we started talking.

He seemed a little skeptical that we had encountered banditos. He was a former Colonel in the military who had retired at a place, I believe called Nachos camp, and lived there in peace. Everyone called him the Colonel. Anyway, we got to be friends and he let us stay there. I heard he later married a Mexican lady, which was pretty incredible considering the guy was about 80 years old.

They next day we continued south, slogging along mile after mile of rocky dirt roads, almost in a trance, until we finally got back to Highway 1 at Chapala. To this day I do not know of those two guys had ill intentions, or if they were just a couple of ranch hands who were concerned that the place we had decided to camp would soon be underwater!



*On that trip we were trying to find Arroyo Miramar, an old placer mining area. We did not find it on that trip but in later years I spent many days hiking and exploring there. Arroyo Miramar is described in my book, The Gold of Northern Baja by Jens Tobias (pen name) available on Amazon.