A Little Story about Being Robbed

Once upon a time,
about four months ago,
I was letting my car warm up
before getting out onto the main
highway. I was just going to
the local market and my wallet
laid in the seat beside me.
It's hot as blue blazes here so
I had my side windows down to
let the inside cool off.
Out of NO WHERE, this guy walks up,
starts talking to me in Spanish about
something having to do with my tire
on the driver's side. I said "no comprendo"
and he smiled and walked off. I noticed
a separate guy walking on the road about
four meters in front of him and didn't think
much of it... until I looked down and saw my
wallet wasn't there. Now, I believe in the
good in everyone and doubted myself. I went
back into my house to see if I had left it on
the counter. Then it HIT ME,
"the distraction robbers",
it's common here. I ran back out to my car
and about that time I saw the two guys getting
into a small car pulling over, way down the road.
I saw RED ...and being the Red-neck I can be,
I took off gunning for them in my big-ass 4x4 SUV,
blinking lights, blowing my horn. It was a sight.
They stopped and the driver got out and walked back
to my car acting like he didn't know what was up.
I told him to give me back my purse or I go to the
police. He went back to his car and walked back
with a black cap concealing something. I thought
for sure, it is a gun but then I remembered
Ticos are non-confrontational.
He apologized PROFUSELY and handed me my wallet.
I checked it and saw all my i.d., credit cards,
money, everything was there.
It even had my cloth police badge that was given to me for protection.
(The kind of badge the Fuerza wear on the sleeves of their shirts)
He looked so honest and swore he didn't know the guys
in his car stole my purse. I believed him and gave him
some "reward" money and told him he'd better leave town.
I got lucky that day.

The Moral to this story is in next post entitled "Lock-down"