Dear Sir,
Kudos to those considerate police I met in Guadalajara last month! They pulled me over apparently to search for drugs. I suppose a septuagenarian driving alone at night must have seemed suspect.
Anyway, positioned in the traditional search position (“hands on trunk” and “spread ‘em”), I experienced my first pat down. The officer on my left did the pat down while the officer on my right engaged me in conversation.
After patting me down, the officer removed my wallet and went forward to search inside of the car. Finding nothing, he returned my wallet to my back pocket. Both officers shook my hand, wished me a good evening and sped off, leaving a slightly addled old man standing there in the dark. I managed to continue on to Chapala without further delay.
On returning home, however, I discovered that there only a 100-peso bill remained in my wallet. What happened to the other 700 pesos? It took a moment to comprehend qué pasó.
I then realized how lucky I was not to have lost credit cards, identification documents, nor to have been threatened or roughed up by common street crooks, who certainly would not have been classy enough to leave me some gas money.
Kudos to you guys in black who protect us from the really, really bad guys. You’ve got class!
Robert Case, Chapala