How ignoring safety rules
can get you robbed in Mexico City

This is a cautionary tale about how not to get infected with Gringo Overconfidence Syndrome and how to stick to common-sense guidelines in order not to get in trouble.

Perhaps it may appear contradictory that while in the previous article, I explained that Mexico is a relatively safe country for tourists, in this article I’ll describe in detail how I was assaulted and robbed. 

Keep in mind that in any country – be it Canada, the US, Spain, or Guatemala – you can get into trouble if you wander into the wrong places.

What is Gringo Overconfidence Syndrome? (GOS)

Here is how the thought process works for overconfident people such as myself.
“I’m 6’5 tall (198cm), muscular build, I look (and often act) fairly dominant, and I’m a Caucasian Canadian. Nobody would want or even attempt to mess with me or go against me. That’s just not going to happen!”.
GOS can have different variations such as “I’m an American, hence I’m untouchable and can go anywhere in the city” or “as a foreigner, I can do whatever I want…”.
Regardless of how you lull yourself into a state of false security – these thoughts are completely detached from reality and can never save you from getting into trouble.

Wandering around

I was enjoying a walk around the scenic historic center of Mexico City and decided to go a couple of blocks off the beaten path into the local flea market. Everything seemed normal, so I decided to go even further from the city center. In a couple of blocks, things started to look fairly dicey but since nothing nefarious was going on I thought it would be safe to continue on wandering. Block by block I went further away from the Zocalo city center and ended in a local urban park that looked like this:

As you can see, there are junkies lying on the ground and sketchy personalities walking around. This in itself should indicate a strong signal not to venture around there for any sane person in any city in the world. But not for those suffering from GOS, such as myself.

The Attack

Here is how the situation unfolded for me. I was walking across this sketchy park with an expensive camera in my hand as if nothing could touch me. Suddenly, I felt somebody’s hand on my neck. The next second I blacked out.
When I partially regained consciousness, I was lying flat on the ground, hands extended to different sides, with a bit of a blurred vision, heavy disorientation, and overall inability to grasp what just happened.

        To my own surprise, unconsciously, I started screaming like crazy “Help! Help! Help!”. With intense screaming came a better understanding of what just transpired and then intense fear engulfed me like a fire. I started standing up and saw three perpetrators running away. I stood up and started running away in the opposite direction of the busy street where I immediately felt safer.

What actually happened

When I got back to my hotel, I was able to regain more memory about the assault as more details emerged. So, what actually happened?

I was assaulted by three young men. They all approached me from behind as they began running toward me quickly and quietly. As they were young and short (especially compared to me), I would never see them as a threat if I saw them walking down the street.
The first one literally jumped on me and started suffocating me. As one of my friends who served in the army explained to me, it doesn’t matter how tall, muscular, or scary-looking the person is, the weak spots remain the same. It’s quite easy to suffocate the man so he would lose consciousness for a while – then he can be easily robbed.
It looks like the perpetrators were fairly inexperienced and I lost consciousness only for a second and was able to cling to my bag throughout the whole ordeal. If I was not able to, I would lose literally everything – my wallet with credit cards, my camera, my lenses, and my passport. This would have been a disaster as it was the day before my flight back to Canada.

Why in spite of everything I feel like I got lucky

Not a lot to cheer about but some positives nevertheless. As you might guess, it could have gotten much, much worse for me and I got off really easy. I could have gotten hurt, my credit card accounts could have been emptied, my documents could be lost and I could have had a hard time proving that I’m indeed who I am at the Canadian consulate and of course I would have missed my flight.

Another positive, I didn’t know that I was able to scream so loudly in public. I would never do that under normal conditions and I was confident I would not be able to do so under any circumstances for that matter. Nice to know that I can, it is an effective defense tool.
Some other lessons learned.

Some (obvious) lessons learned from the ordeal

• Worth repeating: screaming helps. As surprising as it sounds – it really does. It attracts attention and by doing so, scares away perpetrators. It seems to be the only thing that saved my ass in this situation.
• Don’t get cocky and overconfident. GOS is dangerous to your health and overall well-being.
• Most people tend to believe that muscular physical appearance or body size can be a deterrent when it comes to being assaulted. Not really. everyone has the same weak points that can be exploited during the assault, such as the breathing passage.
• When walking around in sketchy places the thought that “nothing happened to me so far” cannot be a confirmation that you are indeed in a safe place.
• Don’t flaunt your valuables, especially in places that look dicey and unsafe.
• Adventurism is not a bad thing but it should be carefully calculated and it should be based on knowledge of your surroundings, and not based on intuition.
• “Pushing the envelope” is not necessarily a sign of bravery. In some cases, it can be a sign of pure stupidity.
  And the most effective one – apply common sense and follow it. The same common sense that you would apply in your hometown in order to avoid unnecessary endangerment.

Wishing you safe travels!