Job Discussion Forums

mtiz · Joined: 18 May 2014 Posts: 41

I'm a (fairly) young female from the States, working in Mexico City. I've been here almost ten months teaching English. I've been robbed at gunpoint twice. I'm seriously so tired of being scared to death by robberies, also with losing money/cellphones constantly. I'm honestly so fed up with the city.

My husband is Mexican so I'm pretty much here for good so I've got to find a solution. We have spent a lot of time in other parts of Mexico and Central America and have never been robbed until here. Where can we go that is safer? Or is Mexico just doomed to be a haven for crime forever? I feel like peseros/combis = dangerous, taxis = dangerous, walking = dangerous, even owning your own car = dangerous. I am emotionally and physically exhausted from being scared all the time.

Have you experienced this in Mexico City or a different city? Do you think I am targeted because I am a foreigner or is this a similar experience for locals? Are there places that are technically "safer" than the DF? Please share your experiences/advice.

notamiss · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:36 pm Post subject:

All the evidence I’ve seen suggests that in general you are not targeted for being a foreigner, and that it’s the same or worse for locals. But who knows? Even if the above is true in general, in any one particular instance, your being a foreigner may have made a difference – someone would have to ask the perpetrators to know for sure.
Further, if being a foreigner had any positive effect on other occasions, you’d never know, since they would have passed you by.
In 17 years in Mexico City, I haven’t had any of your bad experiences. I am sorry that this happened to you, and I can imagine that it is very traumatizing. Probably there are better and worse areas, but again, who knows? The one time I was mugged (no weapon visible), it was on the sidewalk of a busy, open avenue at midday, a few blocks from my home.

Rose Cohen · Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 43 Location: Mexico

Mtiz, I'm so sorry to hear about your traumatic experiences in Mexico City. Though I haven't lived here as long as notamiss (I moved here permanently in 2007), nothing like that has happened to me either. Since I'm semi-retired, no doubt I don't run around the city as much as you do, which may help to keep me safe, but I do take public transportation when I leave my neighborhood near El Angel to go to the Centro Histórico or other parts of the city. I doubt that being a foreigner has much to do with why you were targeted by the creeps who held you up. In fact, how would they know you were a foreigner in the first place? Mexicans do come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors, especially in Mexico City. Wink

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 7:36 pm Post subject: Re: Getting Robbed in Mexico City

Rose Cohen · Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 43 Location: Mexico

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 2:45 am Post subject:

I lived in Mexico City for many years and never had that experience either. I was pickpocketed in the Metro once, and pickpocketed while walking down the street once. Ironically, both times were in trendy or safe areas. I used the Metro daily, as well as micros and taxis. Towards the end of living in Mexico City I did quit taking micros and used the Metrobus a lot more and taxis from sitios. I always felt safer in my own neighborhood because I felt like I had people I could turn to, places to run in case of a problem. Some things you might want to consider - don't take a purse with you when you go out, I think that is seen as an attractive, easy target. Just take what you are going to use/spend in your pants pockets, if possible, or a small travel kind of purse that you can tuck into your shirt. A lot of neighborhoods that are considered trendy/safe really aren't. Almost all the most popular areas were on Chilango magazine's list of most dangerous areas. If moving out of DF is an option do your homework, we moved to the state of Zacatecas a couple of years ago to a very (then) quiet and peaceful area that is now on the edge of more dangerous areas, and will, more likely than not, soon spill over to where we live now. We have actually considered moving BACK to Mexico City for safety reasons, though things look as quiet and peace here as ever. So sorry you have had such scary experiences, I don't blame you for being scared.

notamiss · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 4:33 pm Post subject:

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:28 pm Post subject:

Rose Cohen · Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 43 Location: Mexico

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 8:25 am Post subject: Re: Getting Robbed in Mexico City

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 9:07 am Post subject: Re: Getting Robbed in Mexico City

MotherF · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 2:46 pm Post subject:

I've found that blending has more to do with how you move and the styles you wear than the color of your hair.
Many of my Mexican friends have been pickpockeded or mugged, or express kidnapped in Mexico city. They are easy to spot as "provincials" and targeted.

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 5:47 pm Post subject:

Rose Cohen · Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 43 Location: Mexico

hobo6 · Joined: 16 Aug 2013 Posts: 27

Well, the OP hasn't even returned, so who knows if these posts are a waste of time. But I agree with the post a few above about how you look when you go outside. That was going to be my first question - just exactly what do you look like when you go out on the street? I lived here for 2 years between 2008-2010, 5 months in 2012 and now I'm back again and going on month 7. Nothing bad has happened to me in MC. During my first 2 times here, I took the metro daily going to my students. This time around, due to bad knees, I try to stay out of the metro stations, but I still take them almost every day. I take the metrobus, and a couple of times a week, the micros.

Like Beagle, my students have told me first and second hand stories of being robbed by individuals or the police. If they're first hand stories, I believe them. I know that perhaps I've been lucky and I don't doubt that at some point, my time will come up and I'll be robbed. Honestly, I don't know how I'll react when it happens, because I'm a tough chick, but I've never had a gun or knife put to my face.

As for me, I'm in my early 40's, and walk the way my personality is - with confidence and a don't F with me attitude. I almost never take taxis (in any country due to the crazy drivers), and my only serious precaution here in DF is not to take micros at night due to the increased probability of being robbed (I've had enough students tell me stories about this). But I'm a tourist on Sundays and sometimes during the week and I look like a foreigner due to my clothes - sports sandals, Chinese foldable hat, small "purse" made by the indigenous, sunglasses and if it's warm out (not much this year), shorts. So if anything, I have a big X written all over me for them to come and get me.

Predators (if they aren't high) always know what type of people to go after just by looking at them from a distance. I have a difficult time that you've been robbed twice in such a short amount of time, so I would like to know how you're dressed and how you walk when you're out and about. It just doesn't make sense. Perhaps the perpetrators know you or know a person who knows you.