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Mission Not So Impossible

I had an adventure and a half this morning!

My riding friend Sue emailed yesterday to ask if I could go to town today to act as a translator. I cannot remember the last time I’ve been to town and could do very well with a few hours away from my desk, so I was glad for the excuse to take off. I met her at 9:30 this morning and got the scoop on what we were off to do.

By way of background, she’s friends with a guy named Rus who had come to Isla for a few weeks from Minnesota and stayed in the apartment next to him. I met him once and he’s super nice. Rus uses his iPad to take pictures and while in Maz one day he set it down and forgot it! He had years worth of pictures on it and was devastated. He put up reward posters in the area where he lost it (Centro between the Mercado and Olas Altas), but nothing came of it.

When he got home, he called Apple and they told him how to activate the Find My iPad feature so that a message would pop up on the lock screen saying the iPad is lost and giving contact information (I need to make sure I have that working on my own iOS devices!).

Incredibly enough, someone had turned the iPad in to the police!!!!! Soon as that notification showed up on the lock screen, a very lovely lady named Marisela who works for the police called Rus in Minnesota to let him know she had his iPad. Rus then asked Sue to go pick it up. Sue had other friends of hers call Marisela to get an address and then asked me to go with her to be a translator.

Which brings us to this morning. The information on a scrap of paper was almost meaningless to me, but I did understand that we were heading into the Juárez colonia. I said our best bet would be to give the paper to a pulmonía driver and see if he could figure it out. Our driver, Mario, looked at it for a bit and saw a street name. That was good enough for him and off we went. Sue and I go to Juárez regularly, so we knew we were in the right neighbourhood and not getting taken for a ride.

We got to the street and he asked a few people if they could get us to Marisela from the rest of the information on the paper. No. Sue had Marisela’s number and I had my phone with money on it so I asked Mario if he would speak to her if I dialed on my phone. Sure. He got hold of her and started with “Marisela? Good. I’m a pulmonía driver and I’ve got a couple of Gringos looking for you…” Sue and I got that bit and burst out laughing. He talked for a bit and said “Aaaaah” a lot, which was a good sign.

Mario hung up, handed me back the phone, and drove a couple more blocks to where we needed to be. We really were “right there” and we had made the right decision to trust a pulmonía driver. This is where we learned that we were going to a community police station for the first time! We were shocked! We’d already asked Mario to wait for us and had made it clear as we were driving around that we were prepared to pay, so he told us where he’d be waiting and wished us good luck.

I asked a police officer outside about Marisela, but he didn’t seem too keen to help. It was an older gentleman in civilian clothing sitting across from him who took pity on us and led us in to Marisela’s office.

Sue had been told to come with ID, so we figured she’d show her passport, get the iPad, and we’d be on our way. No. I have no idea how long we were in that stuffy room, but it was a while! Marisela got all of Sue’s details to make sure they matched up with her information, was happy to see her number on Sue’s phone in an email from Rus, and then asked us for Rus’ address and birthday. Hmmm… Thankfully, Sue’s phone is set up to call the States easily so she called him and left a message. He called right back with the missing information. Sue then had to sign for the iPad and, get this, give her thumb print! They were thorough! Finally, we had to pose for pictures together with the iPad and also with Marisela, probably for their Facebook page or bulletin board. Whew!

Sue was a bit stressed during all of this, but I was having a blast. One thing was clear, there was no way she would have made it without translator. As she said, she would have been driving around in aimless circles and it would have been a waste of her time and money.

The iPad finally secure in her purse, we headed out and Mario whisked us back to the Playa Sur embarcadero. We’d determined the trip would be worth $300 to Mario, which is what he quoted us when we arrived, but we gave him $400. The trip had started off with him being a little uneasy and very likely wondering if it would be worth his time, but he was laughing with us at the end and left very happy and sufficiently compensated for nearly two hours of his time.

As soon as we got to Sue’s place, she sent Rus a picture of us holding his iPad. He’s a happy guy!

The iPad’s not home yet, though, of course. Sue is taking it home to Lethbridge with her, where she will courier it to Rus in Minnesota. But it’s safe and sound for now and he’ll have it in about eight weeks.

The takeaway from this story is that there are some really good people out there. This happy ending would not have been possible without the good Samaritan turning the iPad in to the authorities. And Apple deserves some credit for having a method to get its devices home when they fall in the hands of good people.

It was an awesome morning. Thanks, Sue, for asking me to be your translator on this fun adventure!

20 thoughts on “Mission Not So Impossible”

  1. The honesty of Mexican people is surprising. Once in a small village I was buying a new belt from a wandering salesman. As I tried them on for size I hung my $1000 Nikon 35mm camera on a park bench. I bought a belt and we wandered off. 15 – 20 minutes later I realize I had left my camera behind! I ran back to the square and there was the salesman, standing beside the bench guarding the camera. “I knew you would be back but no matter, no one here would take your camera” he said. That camera probably represented two months pay for him, maybe more.

    • That last sentence explains your first. It is people who don’t have money who understand the value of it and the devastation of losing something expensive.

      • Absolutely! Another time I picked up our laundry and the woman chased me down the street to return $400 pesos I had left in a pocket. I had not even noticed it missing but to her it represented many hours of work in a hot, noisy laundry. I gave her $100 pesos of it as a tip and thought later I should have given her more, probably half.

        • One thing that I’m learning the more I talk with Mexicans is that we Gringos need to be careful about upsetting the economy. Sure $200 to you would not have been a bank breaker, but it would have set a precedent that Gringos have dollar signs on their foreheads. The more this happens, the more the “Gringo Tax” goes up. We already pay more than locals do for many things and often tip generously on top of of that. I definitely need to speak to more people about this subject and write a post. One thing a few people have told me is that a tip that might make me feel “cheap” is often already more than the person could have hoped for.

  4. Rae,

    Your Comment about red wine. IF you get to Bulgaria try their Merlot. I like most red wines but really loved the Bulgarian Merlot. There was a period of time while I was there and inflation was rampant that I was buying bottles of it at a price (in US $) that would not have paid for the bottle much less the wine.

  6. Well rus should not feel too bad… I have unfortunately done the same thing with TWO iPads here in the U.S. One I got back after 3 months, one I didn’t though I knew who got it ( surveillance video.) I felt stupid the first time…. Really REALLY stupid the second. My wife was none too happy with me.

    The find my iPhone (iPad) experience is significantly improved since the first one I lost.

      • Yes… VERY lucky. I was quite surprised… It happened at a Walmart and I had gone back to that store and they said they didn’t have it. About three months later (maybe it was longer) the assistant manager called and asked some questions and told me they had it and it turns out they had it all along. I did appreciate the effort this manager put in to finding who it belonged to (he had actually contacted Apple) but they had my info if they had only used the system they had set up for something like this.

  8. Rus, get a tether for your stuff, man! Or are you one of God’s means to display the human condition of inter-connectedness? Just remember–we never did get the cell phone back in Adams, MN

    The Par ShooterTJSTJS

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