A tourist from the United States reported being the victim of a mugging near Zicatela Beach Friday — by local police.
The post by a TripAdvisor user, published on Saturday afternoon, said he was “near Playa Zicatela . . . smoking a cigar, listening to the waves.”
The 55-year-old man wrote that he made sure to be in a well-lit area, so that he would not “get in any risky situation.”
Then he was approached by what he described as “five very dark black figures,” but soon realized they were five police officers patrolling the beach.
Being “calm, innocent, and 100% sober,” the man felt he had nothing to be concerned about. But the police had other ideas.
“The five officers surrounded me, flashing lights in my eyes and asking me if was smoking marijuana. One male officer started going through all my pockets looking for drugs while the other interrogated me.”
Yet another one of the alleged police officers grabbed his cigar “and they started to smell it. I must have said ‘only tobacco’ 10 times.”
Finished with their search, the police told the visitor to go back to his hotel. Once there he realized they had taken all his money, which amounted to about US $35.
“The police robbed me! Some people have no shame,” concluded the post by the Denver, Colorado, native.
There have been two replies to the post since it was published, one agreeing that “there are some crooked cops” here, while another suggested “it could have been worse.”
The original poster replied, questioning whether he and other tourists and residents of Puerto Escondido “should be grateful that the police are only robbing innocent tourists, rather than wrongfully arresting, beating, or executing them.”
El Sol de Puerto
