BajaNews
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ENSENADA POLICE DEPARTMENT: An Open Letter of Thanks
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/baja-4-u/2012/mar/29/e...
Tom Gatch
March 29, 2012
We are living during very trying times. Stateside gasoline prices are headed through the roof while, with the correlated rise in the cost of goods and
services, Americans with a desire to take a vacation are finding that they are increasingly difficult to afford.
In past decades, many southern Californians might have chosen to enjoy a getaway closer to home in Baja, where blue waters, uncrowded beaches, great
seafood and fine wines are highly accessible and reasonably priced. Unfortunately, the recent wave of alarmist publicity generated by the U.S. State
Department and certain media interests north of the border has focused upon a few relatively isolated acts of drug cartel related violence in Mexico,
which has correspondingly caused tourism in Baja California to plummet.
Sadly, the most often maligned are Mexican law enforcement officers, who are generally characterized as being corrupt, or even cooperative with
criminal elements. I am happy to report however, that recent personal experience has proven to me that this unfair portrayal is quite often far from
the truth. Although the following event took place a couple of years back, the recollection of this incident and all of the attendant implications
still remain graphically etched in my memory.
We had headed south from San Diego to spend a few days at our casita in Punta Banda, but first made a stop at The El Milagro real estate development
just south of Puerto Nuevo where I planned to do a little surf fishing. The weather turned out to be rather stormy that day, so we had to forget about
the angling portion of our visit and instead dropped by their office to chat for a few minutes.
Sometimes, timing is EVERYTHING!
After leaving El Milagro, it was about 11:30am or so when we were passing through El Sauzal. I had just looked over to my left to drool as we drove by
El Trailero and I began to dream about their carne asada tacos and toasty, grilled jalapeños, when I turned my head back to the right and saw a dark
blue Izuzu Trooper with a halibut sticker on the bumper drive by us in the right lane. It was our trooper that had been stolen just a few weeks over a
year ago from the Pyramid Resort while we were attending a book signing. As you can probably imagine, we totally freaked out! Lynn quickly dug around
in her purse for her cell phone, while I tried to remember the Baja emergency number (Let's see, 911, no that's in the U.S. Uh, 666? Nope, that's the
sign of the devil. Ah, got it! ‘066’ ...THAT'S IT!)
The operator quickly passed me on to an English speaking officer who took down all the information and pulled up the previously filed theft report on
his computer. The guy in our car had absolutely NO idea what was going on as I followed him while talking to the police. After he passed Punta Morro
and we were able to determine that he was headed through the port instead of the road that takes you through the center of Ensenada, the officer
assured me that they would have a 'greeting party' ready for him by the time he made it up to the Pemex station ...and that they did! As soon as he
made that turn, police cars came flying out of practically every direction.
The driver of our Trooper was pulled wide-eyed from the vehicle with an automatic weapon in his face. Unlike similar situations in the U.S., the
suspect was not forced face down on the pavement, nor kicked, nor abused in ANY way. He was simply frisked, cuffed and escorted into the back of one
of the patrol cars. Their precision in execution and calm, professional demeanor was amazingly smooth. The 'take down' looked like something that had
been planned for weeks, not the 4 or 5 minutes that it actually took to coordinate their efforts.
One of the English speaking officers told us that they would expedite our drive to the police station with a special escort. They were extremely
helpful and courteous as we waited for them to process all of the theft and arrest reports; they told us that the guy in our car said that he had
purchased it from someone, and they promised to follow up on his source for acquiring the vehicle. In the meantime, they placed our Trooper in their
impound unit cost free until we could get back to the U.S. and bring down our title (which we had stopped carrying around a LONG time ago, thinking
that it was a 'lost cause') so that they could release it back to us. On a trip to Ensenada the following weekend we were finally able to reclaim our
stolen vehicle.
Of course, there will always be people who, immediately upon hearing a story of this nature, will become cynically doubtful claiming that my happy
tale was simply an isolated incident, and that Mexican police are more likely to be bad than good. There are several one word responses that I could
come up with to counter such a claim, but the most printable one I can offer is ‘nonsense’!
To us, there is one undeniable fact that remains prominent in regard to this amazing incident. Thanks to the quick, incredibly efficient actions of
the Ensenada Police Department along with the assistance of the Department Commandante and the Juzgado de Primero Penal in Ensenada, we finally got
our long lost Isuzu Trooper back.
[Edited on 4-3-2012 by BajaNews]
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lizard lips
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EXCELLENT! I love to hear positive stories like this Tom!
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gnukid
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Very nice!
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BajaBlanca
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great story and you are very lucky !!!!! make sure you play the lotto - you just never know .... like you said: TIMING IS EVERYTHING.
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goldhuntress
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Talk about serendipity! Nice post, I do enjoy a good story.
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larryC
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So often the good stories get brushed aside and the horror stories get the most press. I'm glad that this person took the time to thank the Ensenada
police dept. in an open letter in a public forum.
Larry
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rts551
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Great news. Kudos to the Police as well as the author for thanking them publicly.
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mes1952
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Having lived both in Tijuana and Rosarito, I have always had good experiences with the police. I think they are probably nicer to females than males.
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David K
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I remember the incident at the Pyramid Resort Booksigning... This is great... I hope Keri sees this!!
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BajaGringo
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Have you gotten any followup info? Chances are the guy they caught driving it may be just as much a victim as you if he bought the car from those who
originally stole it.
Just saying...
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durrelllrobert
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Tom - are you sure that wasn't a flounder? Sounds like that what the theif was doing:
Definition of FLOUNDER
intransitive verb
1: to struggle to move or obtain footing : thrash about wildly
2: to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually
 Good on you for the article
[Edited on 4-3-2012 by durrelllrobert]
Bob Durrell
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaGringo
Have you gotten any followup info? |
I don't think this happened recently. It's been a little while.
Anyway.....the story is so far from what one would expect here....or there. Makes me wonder what motivated the police.
Not questioning anything else. I know Tom and what he says is good for me.
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by durrelllrobert
Tom - are you sure |
Saw Tom the other day and asked him if he read the Nomad board....and doesn't, but intends to start when time permits.
Soooo....he probably won't see your question, Bob.
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DENNIS
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Just lifted this off of Fulano's site and it may answer my above question concerning the extraordinary attention give him by the Ensenada police.
I don't know what it entails, nor the accuracy of Fulano's statement, but it fits neatly into a hole in the fabric of the story.
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"Fulano wonders when Tom Glatch is going to point out that he happened to be working for the mayor of Rosarito when this occured?"
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DaliDali
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"Unlike similar situations in the U.S., the suspect was not forced face down on the pavement, nor kicked, nor abused in ANY way"
It should be pointed out that the driver of this Trooper was not participating in a high speed chase, running signal lights, forcing other drivers off
the road, tossing objects out the window and showing complete and gross disregard for the safety of other vehicles on the road.
Had this been the case with "Senor Troopergate", I feel very confident that Ensenadas finest would have introduced him to the minute particles that
infest concrete and asphalt pavement.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DaliDali
"Unlike similar situations in the U.S., the suspect was not forced face down on the pavement, nor kicked, nor abused in ANY way"
It should be pointed out that the driver of this Trooper was not participating in a high speed chase, running signal lights, forcing other drivers off
the road, tossing objects out the window and showing complete and gross disregard for the safety of other vehicles on the road.
Had this been the case with "Senor Troopergate", I feel very confident that Ensenadas finest would have introduced him to the minute particles that
infest concrete and asphalt pavement. |
Hear Hear!!!!!!! I was going to say something similar. You saved me the trouble. 
Barry
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