(Almost) Locked Up Abroad

It was the first day of vacation and we were already running from the cops.

Just a few hours earlier, I had found 100 Bolivianos by the pool. So Mary Ashley and I got all cute, picked up a taxi and headed downtown to shop.

After looking around a bit and finding a pair of earrings we wanted, I handed the 100 Bs over to the vendor. She walked away, saying that she had to go get change. But, as she chatted it up with another vendor, we began to worry.

Then she motioned over a cop and I felt the blood drain from my face.

He held up our 100 Bs. bill in the sunlight a few times. Then made his way over to us. I knew it was going to be bad. Turns out, the money was counterfeit and the cop couldn’t care less that I had found it on the ground at our hotel and wasn’t a common criminal. I even said he could keep it. He didn’t like that option.

(side note - counterfeit bills were all over Bolivia at that point and we knew that simply being a foreigner was most likely the problem).

We continued to argue with the cop and even suggested they follow us to the hotel to pick up my dad since he had always told us to never trust the Bolivian cops or get in a car with them. But instead, the cop continued to step closer until he whistled for a taxi and reached for my arm. He tried to pull me forward and force me into the taxi, but I ripped my arm away and Mary Ashley and I took off running down the street while the cop called for backup.

I’m certain we outran them due to sheer terror. We finally got enough ahead to duck into a store to hide. We watched from the window as they lost us. While, at the same time, some type of noise kept growing louder and louder and all of a sudden, dozens of people dressed in all black, with white “scream” face masks and axes appeared. Mary Ashley started to act hysterical, assuming they had joined the cops and were here for us.

We hid there, prayed and waited for the “scream” parade to pass, then snuck out of the shop, jumped in a taxi and flew back to the hotel. For the rest of the week, we enjoyed vacation by the pool and didn’t venture out into the city alone again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mary Ashley…you’ll always be my partner in crime.