Dear Sir,

I would like to warn the foreign community that a BBVA Bancomer ATM recently ate my cash card and officials at the bank would not give it back to me.  They told me that  U.S. cards would be destroyed if retained by the machine.

Walter Januszko

Editor’s note: It is our understanding that cards retained by an ATM attached to a bank will only be returned by staff if the card is emitted by the parent bank.  In the past, bank staff would gladly retrieve the card and return it to the owner.  However, we understand that nowadays many ATMs are maintained by outside personnel, and that bank staff at branches have no way to access them to retrieve swallowed cards.  In these cases, getting them back is likely to be more complicated.  Remember, if a person’s card is swallowed up at an ATM that is not attached to a bank branch, there is absolutely no way that it will be returned.  Anyone who has their card swallowed should immediately call their bank’s customer service hotline to freeze the account.

Dear Sir,

While driving recently from Vista del Lago to the Pemex station in San Juan Tecomatlan we saw a young man lying on the Carreterra straddling the center line. He appeared to be sleeping. Two men, in separate vehicles, moved him to the side of the road.

We passed by again after we had gassed up and were returning home. An older man who lives in the house to the south of where the boy was lying was attempting to assist the boy. We stopped and he told us that Chapala police officers had driven into Poncitlan territory and deposited the boy in the middle of the highway. They then apparently turned around and left for home.

Soon, other locals had become involved as they tired to determine who the young man was and what his problem was.

We hope this works out for the best and consider it another example of why to not call the Chapala police force for help.

Alan Henningsgaard