I’ve been to Colombia a couple of times. While on a road trip there, I did notice that people do swing into the opposite lane so they don’t have to turn the wheel and brake as much around turns. Therefore, its a great idea to sit where any hypothetical collision would hopefully be minimized.

Also, I caught a pickpocket in the Old City of Cartagena. I will go ahead and copy and paste it since there is room.

3 new friends (a group of female friends, one of whom had just arrived from New York that day), their 2 new friends (a swiss couple) and I had just finished eating at an Italian restaurant. A block or so down the street, near the restaurant I checked the time on my phone– 11:20 pm, August 2nd, 2010. We might have walked another block, and then crossed a street. I was walking in front of the 3 girls, and behind the Swiss couple, and I think I heard someone run up to us, and I turn around.

All I saw was a flash of light purple on the siloutte of an elongated figure in action. Suddenly I realized that this figure had just grabbed my friends purse and was running, so I bolted as fast as I could. I noticed someone sprinting behind me, the swiss guy, but couldnt think about hesitating or stopping. I ran maybe a 25 yards, right on the tail of the thief, and he slammed the door of a cab shut. I dont know if he locked the door, or was just holding it shut, but I tried to open it for a few split seconds, and when that failed, I started kicking the door, maybe 3 or 4 times, being pissed off that not only had this guy stolen someones purse, but that the thief was grinning inside the cab. Then the taxi took off, but suddenly another one appeared right next to me and opened its door.

I hopped in and yelled “COGELA COGELA!!“ “LA TAXISTA!!“ (Catch it! Catch it! The taxi driver!). Right about when my taxi started accelerating, a metrocop on a motorcycle sped up along side of us and took off after the first taxi with the thieves in it (he must have heard me kicking the door, and also I might have been yelling “Hey! HEY! HEEEYYYY!!“).

I took a second to reflect, and thought for a moment, “whoa, this is me.. I am in a car chase, after a thief, in cartagena…“ I opened my window and started yelling directions like “derecho! a la izquierda!! cogela!!“ (straight! to the left! catch it!!). We sped down narrow streets for maybe 3 or 4 blocks, Jason Bourne style–in a tiny yellow taxi– passed restaurants with groups of people sitting outside at tables, dining. Then, the city opened up into an area along the Old Citys massive 300 year old walls, and I saw the cop had the purse in his hand. There were maybe 15 or 20 pedestrians standing around looking confused, but I ran after the cop now since he had the purse. We ran up to the top of the corner platform of this massive fort-wall, and looked in both, north and west. The, the cop turned around and ran down, I ran after him. Some people were pointing towards this area where taxis were sitting lined up, and there was a bus. I followed the cop over to the bus, and now there were 4 or 5 cops.

From the sidewalk I saw two cops inside the back of the bus slapping and punching some guy who was sitting down in the back. They dragged him out and he had this thick band of sweat covering his forehead and dripping down his face, and he looked really nervous. Clearly it was the thief.

I said, ´´Tanto sudor! sí, es él!“ (so much sweat! yeah, thats him!) then I hopped on a motorcyle with a cop, and he took me to the taxi that I was chasing– although I didnt realize it at the time. I hopped in the taxi with 2 cops, and the taxi driver who was the get-away driver for the thief as I realized a few minutes later when I saw them sitting next to eachother at this open air police station in the middle of a cemetary maybe 1 kilometer from where they caught the guy, and right around the corner from my hostel.

The cops start smacking the thief around, and he was shouting at me to tell them that it wasnt him and that I got him confused. then a cop showed me the purse and asked me if i knew whose it was, and I told him it belongs to a new friend of mine. Then another cop showed me that they found a knife of the thief, not the slicing kind, but the stabbing kind–a dull edge, with a 3-4 inch blade.

A few minutes later, the same taxi driver that picked me up for the chase brought the 3 girls I had been walking with there to the cemetary police station and started interviewing the one whose purse was stolen.

At the same time, the thief was sweating, and seemed to be on the verge of tears, handcuffed there to the bottom of a wall. The cops had removed his shoes, and put them right outside the door. After a few minutes he realized this, and started asking for his shoes. The cops loved it when I told him, ´´What, these shoes? These are mine now. I´m robbing your shoes. These are mine, sorry.´´ That pissed him off, he seemed surprised that I would say or do such a thing, and started asking even more adamantly. The 6 or 7 cops immediately burst out laughing, and told me to keep them. Of course i just left them there, what would I do with them? I was just teasing him. He got his shoes back in the end.

The get-away driver was telling us hes sorry and to excuse him, and that the thief forced him to do help him. Yeah, right, then why wait for the guy to get out of the taxi, mug someone, and hop back in, then drive away as fast as possible? Its also a shame that this guy chose this profession, he spoke a bit of english and had a guide card as some sort of city or museum guide, 22 years old.

After hanging around this police station for 3 hours, they took us to the main station in town, and recieved some more testimony from the girl whose purse was stolen. Finally, 2 hours later, we were finished, 4:30 am in the morning.

As it turned out, they were part of a gang. The 22 yr old driver´s brother had been recently busted with a suitcase full of drugs in the same taxi he used as part of the mugging-team, and who also had a very long rap sheet and is in prison here in Cartagena. The 22 yr old driver had also previously been found to have been carrying a firearm without a permit/papers, in a taxi. We noticed at the cemetary station that he had a black berry. I asked him who he stole it from, and he said no one, its his, and to respect him. Then I mentioned that they are on a team, he and the thief, and he told me: no, dont say that, dont say that. The other guy, who grabbed the purse and ran, is 26, and maybe 5´8 about the same build as me, or maybe even a little more muscular. He will would get 2-4ish years for theft, and an extra two for having the knife. So, 4-6 years.

The cops mentioned that theft is their profession, and it didnt surprise me because they both had on pretty trendy clothes and good, clean shoes.

It was definitely an exciting night for me, and I was very glad that a cop had heard me yelling and kicking on the door of that taxi. Kicking the door broke open my $15 dollar shoes from urban outfitters, but they are cheap and lack durability anyways…

So yeah… that was what it was like being in a car chase in pursuit of a thief here in the most touristy area of Cartagena. We got two members of a thief gang off the street, so they will not be robbing anyone else for at least a few years.

It turns out all of that running, biking, and krav maga does eventually pay off.

While those people were left there stunned and dazed– the girls told me their friend whose purse he took was still holding the strap to her shoulder and just totally seized up and froze. My self, I started running. Is was when I was at full speed that I asked myself, “Wait a minute.. am I chasing this guy?”