Dangerous purse-snatching incident

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mstevens

Toadfish. Splendid is implied but not guaranteed.
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I'm not a Mexico alarmist and do not want to make people unduly worried about safety on the island, but this is important.

My wife is currently at the Clinica San Miguel with a badly-fractured clavicle after an attempted purse-snatching. A "kid" on a scooter rode up alongside her and tried to grab her purse and made her crash her own scooter. They told her that there's currently a woman in the hospital with a skull fracture after a very similar incident. She was told that there have been a lot of these and that the number is going up. They don't seem necessarily to be targeting tourists - her beat-up scooter and local clothing wouldn't make her stand out as a gringa - but she is 50 and the other woman she heard about was said to be "older" so they may be going after seemingly easy targets.

I don't yet know where this happened. Given her goal, it probably wasn't in a very touristy area.

Yes, we know scooters are inherently dangerous. Given my understanding of what happened, it's still likely she would have been knocked down and possibly injured even if she'd been walking. She's a good rider with extensive experience on a Vespa and her own Ducati at home. This was not an example of the typical crash causes (rider unfamiliar with Cozumel, wet or poorly-repaired roads, scooter in poor repair or with bad tires or brakes, inexperienced rider, traffic, reckless car driver, etc.) This was a malicious criminal attack that happened to occur while she was riding.

We don't know if they're targeting women on scooters particularly or if it's just that the punks are using a scooter to make their grabs.

For all that, they did not actually get her bag, even though she would have given it up to prevent the crash.
 
Mark, sorry to hear this, please extend my wishes for a speedy recovery. Looks like stashing the handbag may be a good idea for scooter riding gals.
 
I just got off the phone with my wife, who's made it back to the house. She's beat up but, apart from the fracture, OK.

She's the first gringa they've seen at the hospital, but they told her they've been getting more everday of women injured in incidents just like this. The woman with the skull fracture actually turns out to have a significant traumatic brain injury.

I still don't know where it happened.

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I have 0 faith in the local police handling the problem unfortunately....... :(

Me, too, but I don't know what police would be able to do here, either - the would-be snatchers zoomed off. There are thousands of young men on scooters most of whom are minding their own business, so unless a cop happens to witness one of these events I'm not really sure what they could do.
 
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I am very sorry to hear about what happened. I met your wife when she stopped by the house the first part of May and I sharpened your new machete.

I see most of the ladies riding scooters in my neighborhood put their purses at their feet so makes it much harder to grab. If it's on your shoulder much easier for someone to grab or cause you to wreck.

Hope your wife makes a speedy recovery.
 
SOOO sorry to hear this! Awhile ago, one of the girls that works in Dailene's store told me to be careful about this as well - they had heard of this. Since then, I ALWAYS put my purse inside the scooter if I am on my scooter so it is not visible - I have nothing but my helmet on - well and clothes of course!

Wishing her a very speedy recovery and I hope that they catch these little bastards!!!! Sorry for the explicative - but it REALLY pisses me off!!! Get a job and WORK for your money and belongings rather than stealing!
 
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