Yep. You read the title correctly. I ran down a thief…or a robber…or burglar…or whatever you want to call him. Some man tried to steal my friends stuff and I wasn’t having it.
So this is what happened:
It was just like any other travel day. Our team packed up all of our belongings from our host home that morning, loaded into the van, and went to the bus station to get our tickets for our 14 hour bus ride to northern Peru.
Before getting on our bus, our hosts warned us to keep all of our daypacks close to us (preferably in our lap or under our seat). And he warned us if we put our backpacks in the overhead compartment to keep an eye on them because people are known to steal gringo’s (aka “white people”) backpacks when the bus stops.
This month alone, one guy on our squad had thousands of dollars of professional camera equipment stolen. (You can read more about it here http://mattcotov.theworldrace.org/post/why-im-not-making-films-anymore ). Another girl on our squad had her backpack stolen a few days ago. And to top things off, we had just received a security update for crime and theft in some of the cities our squad is going to in Ecuador.
So we made it to the bus station. Loaded up on our bus to Lima and we were off.
I was sitting next to Caitlin, and Caleigh was sitting in the seat on the other side of the aisle by herself.
Caleigh put her daypack in the overhead compartment where I had clear eyesight on it. Her daypack contained her laptop, wallet, passport, Bible, journal…and many other valuables.
As we began our bus journey to Lima, we all began watching the new episode of our squad-favorite show, Designated Survivor, on our phones.
We came to a bus stop to let some passengers out and all of our eyes were glued to our phones (because Designated Survivor is the best!!!! Just being honest…).
I don’t even know how the thought crossed my mind, but as the passengers were getting off the bus I decided to look up and see if Caleigh’s backpack was still in the overhead compartment…..
It was gone.
Simultaneously, Caitlin saw the man who had taken her backpack walking out the bus door and he put it underneath his jacket to hide it.
I ripped the headphones out of my ears, jumped up, and yelled at Caleigh that her backpack had been stolen.
As I was pushing my way out of the bus door, Caitlin (who was sitting by the window) yelled that she saw the man who took her backpack and that he turned left out the bus door.
The man who had taken her backpack slyly swiped it and put it underneath a jacket to hide it.
As he was walking down the sidewalk about 30 yards away with his back to us, he put the backpack over his shoulder as he walked away.
Thank God I am close to 6 ft. tall because I could see over all of the people on the sidewalk, and I spotted Caleigh’s daypack and immediately started sprinting down the sidewalk after the thief. Yeah boy, you better run!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adrenaline kicked in big time. I might have pushed people out of my way on the sidewalk…I honestly can’t remember. But I was screaming, “HEY!!!! HEYYYYYYY!!!!!” (That’s the best I could do…I don’t speak Spanish…)
As I came upon the thief (seriously so petty), his back was turned to me and he put Caleigh’s daypack in an empty taxi (I think the taxi driver was his sidekick). I paused for a quick second before reaching into the taxi to grab her backpack, because I was scared of what he could have been holding in his hand since his back was to me.
I was thinking in an instant, “He could be holding a knife or gun and turn and attack me.” Hey Dad, thanks for the personal safety skillz!!! #karate
Then Caleigh ran up behind me and I smacked him really hard in the back (adrenaline brings out the best in me…..) and grabbed her daypack out of the taxi. The thief never even turned around (thank God). He just kept walking away super fast because I had caused a scene and everyone on the sidewalk was staring at us.
We went back on the bus, and my hands were shaking and I was breathing super heavy because #adrenalinerush.
What a day.
All is well and our team is never putting our daypacks in the overhead compartments on overseas buses ever again.
Thank you Jesus for keeping us all safe!!!
