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Dat is al een tijdje geleden gebeurd
| quote: | A robbery, just like in the movies!
Thursday, March 31 - 2005
Mid afternoon in Sao Paolo. Lunch time at a nice restaurant in the Jardins area, the shopping/cool district of the city. The atendees are the promoters of that night's event, 2 excutives from Nokia - S. America, the manager of Lov.e club in SP, the tour organizer, Ferry Corsten and myself.
After a great meal, we took a 100 meter stroll to the main record store in town just to check it out. Shortly after, we walk to the car (a dark window Chevy (Opel) Omega). The driver and the tour organizer sitting in the front, and myself, the Lov.e manager and ferry in the back.
About 10 mins later, while dring to the hotel, we stop at a traffic light on a busy 3 lane street in a residential neighborhood in the Jardim Paulista area (the fanciest in the city). We are about 5 cars from the crossing, in the middle lane.
All of a sudden, a motorcycle pulls up next to us. 2 guys with helmets on. The guy in the back knocks on the driver's side window with a silver 9 mm gun. We are all freaked out, he starts screaming in Portugese, and we just have no idea what is going on. The driver gives him his watch, but he keeps screaming. Instinctivelly, both Ferry and myself take our watches off and throw them under the seats infront of us.
The guy is really persistant, reaches out and opens the back door. As I am sitting behind the driver, I end up with the barrel in my face, about 1/2 inch from my forehead. I just gave him my computer that was in my lap, and he just threw it on the ground. They were not after the coputer. Ferry offered him his credit card - and still no interest on their end. They were solely after our watches. Apparently, we were both spotted with nice watches, and were followed around the city.
It had already been 45 secs, and they were very pissed off for our 'lack of cooperation'. So the guy cocks the gun, and fires. No shot, but afterwards i realised that due to misfiring, the bullet ended up in my lap (too scared to even notice when it happened).
He ends up reaching under the seat, and takes my watch. By now, the whole street has cleared. All the cars are stopped 50 meters behind us, not wanting to get in the line of possible shooting.
And just out of the blue, the bike speeds away and is gone. I guess he got too delayed, and ended up with only 1/2 of his 'catch' for the day. Good bye to my special Rolex, but a new b-day for me (in the driver's words, March 31 should be the second celebration of my b-day, as technically I should have been shot dead).
It was an experience that I hope to never go through again. It's one thing to be robbed, but the way this happened was unusual, even for the streets of SP. I have been shot before, when I was in the military, but I also shot back, and was never helpless like in this situation and totally in the mercy of some cocked up kid. The fact that it happend in such an organized manner, and that they even used the gun was the scariest part.
Long live Brasil ;-) |
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