Tuesday night I had a great workout. As usual I walked home the 2 blocks from the gym. As I arrived there was a car parked in front of the apartment gate entrance, which is not uncommon. It belonged to the lady in apt 101. Beyond the gate was some overgrown brush and complete darkness. If you own an empty plot you are required to keep it fenced and trimmed. The one beside the building was not. Anyway, when I opened the gate a short fellow jumped out from behind the car with a pistol pointed at my face. He was quick to tell me he just wanted to rob the apartments and not hurt anyone but if he had to kill me for screwing up, he would. Without taking the gun off me he motioned over to his friends. Out of the brush came 2 more guys and 2 girls. One of them had another weapon that I saw, a .38 caliber revolver. I don’t know if anyone else was concealing a weapon.
They took me into the lobby asking about a doorman and cameras. There were none and we proceeded upstairs. I told them things could go badly if they didn’t let me tell my wife what was happening before barging through the door at dinner time. I opened the door and told my wife we were being robbed. She looked at me from the sink smiling with a plate in her hand as the kids ate at the table. She saw a short guy behind me and thought it was our friend from the gym. I stared at her and said, “Lu, I’m serious.”
As the 5 poured into the kitchen Lu grabbed baby Gabi and followed orders to take herself and the kids to the bathroom where they stayed. I walked through the house and complied with whatever they asked. They took whatever they felt was valuable including money, jewelry, a MacBook, my Sony flatscreen, Nike shoes, my kids toys and dolls and even raided the fridge. One of the cows drank my son Lucas’ chocolate milk. That was messed up. I actually asked her, incredulously, if she was going to drink the children’s milk. She rolled her eyes and put back the three chocolate milk boxes she was holding and finished slurping the rest of the box she was drinking.
So they filled my backpacks and my new UFC bag with my new UFC hats and hoody along with the rest of the stuff I mentioned. They took my iTouch, iPod and other small electronic devices. Sunglasses, HDMI cables and even some flip-flops all became targets. They finally finished and decided they needed a ride out. By now everyone was crying because they didn’t want me to be taken.
After they loaded everything into the car they told me to drive them to another neighborhood which bordered a slum. It was hard not to wonder if I would be coming back or not. After all they hadn’t hidden their faces and we were going to be close to “disappear-land.” In the end, they had me turn down a couple of streets in the fairly nice neighborhood before the slum. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Is it now?” I thought maybe I should try to take them and at least not go down without a fight. After all would they start a crossfire while they were all in the car? I held my breath for a second and waited to see what they decided to do since they were arguing about how exactly to proceed with leaving the car carrying bags full of my stuff and a TV.
A taxi dropped a lady off right in front of us and they decided to catch the cab. They made me help get the stuff out of the trunk and chatted up a storm acting like they were my old friends who were buying my TV off of me. The cabby glanced over at me with an investigative look. It wasn’t his first barn dance. He knew something was up but I could only give him my best I’m-sorry-and-good-luck-with-this look. They piled in and waited for me to leave before them.
I returned home to several of my friends and neighbors at my house with my family. The crooks had asked me to knock on all of my neighbors’ doors but I had told them I was new here and had never met them and that they might be suspicious if I came calling for the first time at 10:30pm on a Tuesday night for no apparent reason, especially if my voice cracked or sounded strange. They had bought it and left without door hopping. My neighbors were grateful.
The police came later and the next day I filed a police report and looked at some mugshots. I don’t have very high hopes of justice being served but I did my part and got out alive. I guess there’s that comfort… My wife was already having some difficulty adjusting to Rio. Now, she is 100% sure she will not live here another day. Guess we’re moving back to our hometown away from the big cities. We’ll see how things go in that scenario. I’m not sure where that puts team training and stuff but I’ll be with my family and I think I’ll make it work. I’ll just take it as another adventure…
All the best from the Wilsons
Chris, Luciana, Lucas and Gabriela