Pinned from TOB Update

Posted Today, 05:27 PM
On Sunday May 6th 2012 as I came down at night from a hike on the mountains above Ajijic near the Tepalo waterfalls, I ran into a group of 3 or 4 gangsters that had kidnapped 4 people (3 young men and a young woman). One of the gangsters shot one of my dogs and threatened to shoot me too. They joined me to the group and forced us to hike up the mountain through the bushes off the trails. A couple of times they made us sit on the ground. Way up the mountain they made us all lie down for several hours at gunpoint. Meanwhile the gangsters were constantly receiving cell phone calls or text messages and sometimes they were joking and laughing amongst each other. I also picked up fragments of their whispered conversations about shooting and dumping us. All I could do was pray to God that I would be unharmed and that my family would be OK. Many times when they neared me from behind I thought they were about to finish us off. After a long and chilly wait all night, their cell phone batteries were running low. They suddenly tied the hands of the woman and me and we were miraculously left behind. They warned us not to come down before 9 or 10 am. The other three young men were taken away. Their bodies showed up a few days later among the 18 butchered corpses discovered in Ixtlahuacan. They were the three waiters from San Juan Cosala. As the gangsters took all of my belongings, including my ID, I was worried that their cell leader might send them or other gangsters looking for me as a witness (even though I never saw any of their faces), so our family went hiding at a friend’s house where we spent the nights until we were able to leave the country last Sunday (thanks so much guys, that was a tremendous blessing and a great act of hospitality!). Meanwhile we tried as best as we could to sell our belongings and get organized to move out of Mexico. With this situation on hand and the rapid escalation of violence and crime in the area, we no longer felt Lakeside could offer us a safe environment to raise a family and have reasonable business prospects. Our family of 6 had lived at Lakeside for 13 years and we loved it. Two of our children were born at Lakeside.

There have been lots of rumors about this event. One of them apparently came from the police chief, who said during the meeting on the Ajijic plaza that the tugs had told me they let me go because they don’t mean harm to foreigners. Fact is they never said such a thing and this might create a false sense of security among the foreign community at Lakeside. From my very first encounter with the kidnappers, I had always looked down to avoid looking at their faces. I repeatedly told them I hadn’t seen any of their faces and asked them not to harm me because I had a family. I suspect that maybe they let the woman and me go because of limited transportation capability. And God answers prayer!

Some people pointed out that my hiking on the mountains after dark was very imprudent. I had done it for years, though, and never had felt in danger before. That night, however, I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and I met my destiny.

Now we’ve arrived safely at our new home far away from Mexico and are starting a new life. I want to express my deep felt gratitude to all the lovely people who went out of their way to help us out, to the new friends we made, to all the people who bought some of our stuff, to the folks who adopted my dog Daisy and my two cats. I also thank the gangsters for letting me go unharmed. I pray they will understand the immense evil they have committed and will repent and turn their lives around, while accepting the just punishment for their wrongdoing.

I also thank the moderator of this board for helping with filtering out any information in posts that might have given clues about our identity or whereabouts during the past month.

I ask for forgiveness to the young woman and (unfortunately too late) to the 3 young men, because in my ignorance and despair I mistakenly blamed them for being involved in criminal activities, which caused all of us to end up in the situation we found ourselves in. Yet, they were innocent, just like me. May they rest in peace and their loved ones once again find peace also.

Greetings to all the friends we left behind and to all our customers who allowed us to make a living during all these years. We will miss you.

Sincerely,

Edited

David wrote:I hope the OP put it on Lakeside Crime too. Edited, it was not cool to name the poster.