Phone Extortion

[Fusilado Kent]

First I'd like to say the site is great Bill, and I regret not registering till now, especially since my first post is somewhat grim. With the recent assualts between Sangre de Cristo and the Presa, general terror mongering of the US media, and very real issues plaguing the country right now I don't want to add to some sort of pessimistic chicken little view of GTO getting unsafe. I do want to know if anyone else, especially long-time residents, have experienced something similar.

A couple of months a ago I recieved a phone call from a man identifying himself as a officer in the Zetas. He had my name and phone number (which of course anyone with a phone book could have) and informed me that several carloads of armed men were on their way to my house. He said I could pay for protection, I don't recall the amount. The whole time I gave the impression that my spanish was not up to snuff (which given the speed he was talking was actually true). I also told him I didn't have the money (also true) and eventually hung up. When I looked up info about this on the net, it seemed to match pretty well with the scams run out of prisons here, but without the kidnapping element. I was shaken, but after talking to a friend in the government eventually decided it was a fluke.

Then today this afternoon I once more got a phone asking for me by name. This time when I flubbed my Spanish the caller spoke in English and asked me if I had heard of reports that armed men in 4 trucks were on my street. I told him no and said I had to go to work before hanging up. He tried calling back from a private number three more times.

I know these sorts of things have typically excluded foreigners unless they have been invloved in the drug trade, have Mexican familes, or have been just spectacularly unlucky. But needless to say I'm a bit shakin by the whole thing and am wondering what peoples thoughts are on whether I'm taking this too lightly or too seriously.

On a side note of bad timing my girlfriends dad had just arrived when the first phonecall came, and her mom is here visiting now. Just what I need while trying to explain how safe this city is...