Kidknapped, Assaulted & Mugged - My First Experience Of Crime In Ecuador

Eye In Pain

Over the last few years I have traveled a fair bit of this planet. Along that journey, I have been to some areas of the world that people would describe as being a little dangerous. Yet over that time I have experienced very little in terms of crime, with the only incident being in Vietnam, where I had my camera pick-pocketed out of my bag.

They say that South America can be a haven for crime and often against tourists, but a lot of it is to do with where you go and how you behave. From travellers I meet, Quito is often cited as one of the more dangerous cities to visit and many of those people have just made the trip down from Columbia. Of course you hear the stories too. Often back-packers are robbed and mugged here in Quito as im sure they are all over the world. Although Ive never personally experienced it, im sure London is a pretty dangerous place if you walk down the wrong street at night. Most of the cases of crime that I have heard here in Ecuador are from people not being very street-wise. You will often hear of stories where a girl, walking down the street at night has had her camera stolen, which she was wearing round her neck. I mean - your just asking for trouble really. I always think of myself as being pretty careful, and so after 6 and a half months of living in this city I had not experienced a single incident of trouble or crime. However, it was complacency that would get me into a situation - which I hope no-one finds themselves in.......................

I dont normally go out on a week night but after some strong persuasion, I was forced (yeah right) to go out for a night on the town, in the bar haven area of the Mariscal. It was a Wednesdasy night and myself along with a whole group of people decided to go to the club - Bungalow 6. It was pretty rubbish so at about 1.30am me and my friend Leanne decided to call it a night. We were both pretty drunk to be fair and casually jumped into a the back of a taxi. I was delighted at how cheap the driver was quoting, just $2 to get home. In 6 and a half months I have never been offered such a cheap price to get back from the Mariscal at night.......................

Halfway through the journey, the taxi driver slows down. Normally taxi drivers never slow down at night, most will even drive through red lights just to get you back, as stopping can be pretty dangerous. Where this driver stopped too was pretty unusual, there was no need to slow down where he did - something wasn´t right.......................

A second later, two men jumped in, one either side of the taxi so me and Leanne were now trapped in the back of this taxi, sandwhiched in the middle with no escape. They both had screwdrivers which they held to both our stomach´s and neck´s. They poked and scratched us with them to show that they meant business. The driver was told to keep moving. We were being kidnapped.....................

The guy who was on my side then pulled out a small spray can of MACE, opened my left eye and sprayed directly into it. He did not spray my right eye. Within 4 or 5 seconds you cant see a thing. There is no point trying to open your eye - its impossible. Ten seconds later it streamed with water and then my nose started to run. Because of this I never once saw the criminal who was sitting next to me. During the whole journey I only got a glimpse of the guy sitting next to Leanne once, but it was breif and I would never of been able to identify him.........................

During this time the guys started to sift through our things. They took my mobile phone (worth very little) and about $15 in cash. They didn´t want anything that wasn´t worth monetary value, hence they let me keep my keys to the hostal. They took Leanne´s camera and a few other belongings. I didn´t know this at the time as I couldn´t really see anything but Leanne told me after that she was touched (everywhere) during this journey. Some people in this world are very sick.......................

Despite it being quite a blur, the whole event must have lasted about 10 minutes, before they drove us out to a quiet part of Quito, opened the door and kicked us both out with nothing. They got back in the taxi and drove off. Leanne at this point was a screaming mess and I still couldn´t open my left eye. Everytime I tried, the fresh air would make it burn and sting. It was pretty painful. We were now in the middle of no-where, probablly a dodgy part of town, so we didn´t want to hang around. It was dead quiet, but luckily, after a few minutes another taxi driver went by. I hailed him down and soon enough we were back in the hostal. I paid him with money that I had in my room............................

I had to wash my eye out about 5 times and about an hour of waiting before my eye could be opened. It was still pretty sore. We also found out that somehow they had managed to miss Leanne´s money, $30, which earlier that night she had moved from its usual spot (her bra) and put in her back pocket. In terms of value, these criminals didnt really get their hands on too much. I guess they will just go back and do it all again though..............................

The next morning I noticed that I had some scratch marks on my stomach and arms. They wernt serious - I didn´t even notice them at the time. It took until that afternoon before my eye was fully back to normal. Leanne was not sprayed with MACE nor was she hurt with the screwdriver. We later headed to the Police Station to write our reports. It was purely for insurance purposes, so Leanne could get money for her camera. For me it was solely to have a souvenir of the horrific event. We filled out two forms in English. The policeman didnt even read them. He just signed and stamped them both before sending us on our way. Any tourist could go in there and get a police report whether you had been a victim of crime or not. I believe they just file away their copy of the report but they may as well put them straight into the bin. They were never going to do anything about it as this sort of thing happens probably most days. To be fair, we couldnt give them much information about these guys anyway.......................

The whole event was pretty scary, but we were both fine a few days later. After hearing this tale, many have said, "oh you have to come home straight away, its not safe out there". No one said this to me during the first 6 and a half months I had been here. It´s a natural reaction I guess, but you cant let things like this ruin everything else in your life. These things unfortunately happen. I had certainly become complacent here. The lack of trouble resulted me jumping into any old taxi on that night. Legitimate taxi´s have orange number plates and a 3 or 4 digit code on the side. If you take these, your chances of coming to harm are masively reduced. There are so many taxis though that are not legitimate and these are the ones you have to be careful about getting in to. The only thing I could tell you about the taxi that we got in that night is that it was yellow. Stupid I know. Also, if something seems too good to be true then it usually is. A taxi from the Mariscal at night never costs $2 - I should have known something was up.................................

After all is said and done, there are some positives out of all this. Both me and Leanne were not seriously hurt, this could have turned out a lot worse. We will also both be a lot more careful in future. I certainly wont be getting complacent again, especially about which taxi´s I get into. The story of us both has now been told a hundred times or more around the hostals. Everyone knows it and passes it on to newcomers who dont know the city. Hopefully it will be just the advise that they need not to make mistakes like we did that night. Finally, it should hopefully be advise on how to respond when facing such a situation. We both remained very calm, let them take what they wanted and walked, relatively unharmed. Many people I have spoken to after said they would have tried to take these guys on, but when people have weapons and are desperate, like these men both surely were, then they will be willing to go far. Only in extreme circumstances, when in the most dire situation, should you attempt to become the hero. In this case, it was unnessary to take risks which could of seen us both come out of this situation in a far worse state...................................

Over the next few days, I actually had a lot of anger towards Ecuadorians. I know thats wrong but I actually couldnt help it. It took me a while, but I eventually got over it and carried on with life as normal. With one horrible incident now behind me, along came another................England Vs Germany in the World Cup. Some-one, give me a brake!!!