Carlos, my Airbnb host, answered the door, and I tried to explain what had happened in my broken Spanish, but he could not fully understand me. So he called his son (about 15 years old) over to the door to help translate. Once Carlos got up to speed with what happened and about the GPS location, he said we must go there and then call the police. I thought it was a bit dangerous, but he said it was the only way to get my stuff back.  So I quickly changed clothes and hopped in his car.

We headed toward the GPS location somewhere downtown in Oaxaca city. We found an old motel where the GPS location pointed, and I was able to use the tracking app to pinpoint it between two rooms. At this point, we decided to call the police and waited 20 minutes for two police officers on a motorcycle with machine guns to show up. We explained everything to them, and I told them about the GPS device’s alarm siren that I could trigger when we were all ready. I started the siren, and after checking the first room with no luck we knew without a doubt that it was in the another room. We knocked on the door and it took some time before we were let into the room by a guy and a girl in their 30s. I could not believe what I saw. There were about 20 backpacks in the room with about a dozen cellphones, hard drives, some very expensive cameras, a pile of clothes half as tall as me, and old food and drugs everywhere in the bathroom. I feel like I was in a Hollywood drug cartel movie or a bad dream.

Long story short, I was able to get almost all of my stuff back. Once the police made sure I had all my stuff, I proceeded to leave with my Airbnb host and happened to notice the police were also leaving. To my shock, the police did nothing to them and let them keep all of the obvious stolen things we saw there. It was about 3 o’clock in the morning by the time we got back, and I could not stop thanking Carlos for being my hero that day. Ultimately, I was extremely thankful to get almost all my things back, and no one got hurt. Oaxaca is a wild city and one I will never forget!

The photo below is the only picture I took after everything, and I got home to see what I got back.  I am probably one of the only gringos to ever actually get their stuff back.