Trent Brock
I also had my passport and American Express
Traveler’s checks because I had to cash them to pay for my Spanish
and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) classes. Little did I know that the worst day of my life was in front of me. My parents might disagree, but I cannot think of anything worse.
I arrived to my Spanish class at 9:15 a.m. John
Bouse, the Director of the TEFL section at Canterbury English,
was there to meet the students. He told us that the professor
for our Spanish class was ill and would not be teaching the
first class. I was content with that because I had some things
I needed to do. Number one on the “To Do List” was to cash my
American Express Traveler’s checks. In orientation, Canterbury
instructed the students to go to BBVA (one of the many banks
in Madrid). Canterbury had worked out an agreement with a particular
BBVA on Calle de Fuencarral to cash the checks of its students.
I did not realize that the agreement was only with this particular
BBVA. I thought that we could go to any BBVA in Madrid; therefore,
I started off on my journey. I went to the only BBVA I knew,
which was on Gran Via. This is where many of the banks are in
Madrid.
I walked into the BBVA bank on Gran Via and spoke to the teller
in my very broken Spanish telling her that I wanted to cash
my traveler’s checks. She shook her finger at me and told me
no. I was totally dumbfounded. I did not know what to do. In
orientation, a point was made that if you attempt to open up
a bank account, but you are denied - just go to a bank down
the street. Eventually, a bank will open a bank account for
you. In my mind cashing traveler’s checks is similar to opening
a bank account so that is exactly what I did. I went to another
bank down the street. They wanted to charge me sixty euros to
cash 2,000 euros worth of traveler’s checks. I thought that
was a total rip off so I did not make the transaction. The next
bank denied me again. After going to four banks, the teller
told me that the paperwork had not been filled out correctly
so he would not cash the traveler’s checks. The only location
that would cash my checks was the American Express office. He
showed me where the office was on the map. It had taken me two
and a half hours to get to this point. I was frustrated so I
decided that when I got to the American Express office I was
not going through this again. I was definitely going to cash
all my checks!
I walked into the American Express office and cashed the checks
with no problems. I also had some American dollars to cash.
In total, I had approximately 3,000 euros cash in my backpack.
I put the money in my backpack because I had been warned about
pickpockets. I knew the exact route to get to Canterbury from
the American Express office. I knew that pulling a map out on
the street is the first sign of being a tourist. I was not about
to look like a tourist in the street with everything that I
owned in my backpack!
I started walking quickly down the sidewalk and got 100 yards
from the American Express office. All of a sudden - a surprise!
Something of a wet soggy consistency was on the back of my head
and my arms. I continued walking while beginning to examine
what was on my arms. Could this be crap?!? I smelled it. For
sure, it smelled like baby diarrhea. I started to fall into
a state of bewilderment and confusion. Am I really this unlucky?
(It was some much crap that it must have been a bird the size
of Dumbo the Elephant! No, just kidding. It was not that much,
but it was a lot). I was walking under the balconies of a six-story
apartment. Could someone have thrown the crap off the balconies
at a stupid tourist? Maybe it was an accident? Like a broken
record playing, I could not stop thinking, “Is my luck really
this bad?” I knew that I looked somewhat like a tourist by the
way that I dress and the big backpack I carry. I looked up,
but I did not see any birds in the sky or any people on their
balconies. My first thought, besides how disgusting, was that
I could not go to Canterbury with bird crap in my hair, on my
arms, on my shirt, and all over my backpack. How embarrassing!!
A large bald-headed gentleman wearing a suit was yelling something
in Spanish and looking up in the sky. It got my attention as
he started to walk up to me. He pulled out a waded-up napkin
and handed it to me. I began to wipe my head. I moved over into
the entrance of an apartment trying to wipe off everything.
The man was making gestures about how bad it smelled and still
looking into the sky and yelling occasionally. He motioned that
I should take off my shirt. I thought that would be a good idea
because I had an extra shirt in my backpack. He handed me another
napkin and gestured that he was leaving. I thought to myself
how polite that gentleman was.
While continuing to clean my shirt, a lady in a blue suit came
up to me seconds after the man left, flipped out her “Policia”
identification, and asked me what was going on. I tried to tell
her in my broken Spanish what had happened. While explaining,
I noticed in my peripheral the backpack. I realized that backpack
was not mine! IT WAS GONE! My laptop, camera, sunglasses, 3,000
euros, apartment keys, passport, credit cards. Everything that
I owned except for my clothes. While I was taking off my shirt
and preoccupied with cleaning my dirty shirt, the man had switched
my backpack with one that was very similar to mine: nylon, black,
and full of stuff.
The policewoman continues to question me while I am beginning
to go off the deep end. I instantly go into a state of panic.
I am looking down the street looking for the man, but he is
gone. The policewoman continues to try to settle me down. Finally,
she just shrugs her shoulders like there was nothing that she
could do. I began to go into shock - real shock. I could not
believe that I had been robbed like this. I have not ever even
been pickpocketed in my life. I consider myself a street-wise
person. I began to run up and down the streets looking for the
man and my backpack. I was hoping that maybe the robber had
gotten the money and computer and trashed the bag with my passport
and credit cards. I have been told that many times robbers only
take the light valuables and trash the bag quickly. They do
not want any altercations. I did not find anything. I was becoming
very unstable. I was beginning to have suicidal thoughts. The
only thing I knew to do was to go straight to the school.
When I arrived to the school, I went straight to the assistant
director of studies and told her that I had just been robbed.
She immediately went and got Richard Clarke, Director of Canterbury
English. I went directly into his office and told him the story.
Richard stopped everything he was doing. I became his main concern.
We began calling the credit card companies and cancelled all
of my credit cards. We called and filed a police report over
the phone. Richard called my roommate and told him I had been
robbed and needed some new keys. I could not talk to my roommate
because I did not know any Spanish. Richard coordinated with
my roommate that we would meet and get his keys. Richard allowed
me to call my parents and tell them what had happened. He gathered
the passport information necessary for me to get a new passport.
Richard gave me a student loan for 100 euros until my credit
cards got to Madrid. John Bouse personally loaned me 200 euros.
Richard took me to lunch and helped me talk through the entire
incident. He told me three stories about how he had been robbed
in Europe. The main point was that I was not hurt. Everything
stolen was material possessions that can be replaced. Richard
told me that Canterbury students are part of the Canterbury
family, and Canterbury is here to help in situations such as
this. After lunch, we met my roommate to get the apartment keys.
Richard had duplicate keys made for me. Then we went to the
police station. He explained everything to the police, and I
received the report. After hearing the story, the policeman
said that the woman in the blue suit was an imposter. She was
part of the scam. The policeman said that was one of the best
scams that he had heard of.
For the next few weeks, I had trouble sleeping. The robbery
would play over in my dreams. I kept playing the “What If?”
game in my mind. When I walked around the city, I kept wondering
if I would see the robber again, and what would I do? I really
did not eat much for the next month. I took the whole situation
pretty hard. I could not get over how stupid I was. I felt violated.
I still wonder if someone at one of the banks was part of the
robbery, or if the robber and his team had begun following early
in the morning. I will not ever find out.
If not for Richard Clarke, John Bouse, and my parents, I do
not know where I would be. I am truly grateful to all of them.
I look back almost three months later, and I do feel fortunate
that I was not hurt, but I must add that I am on a pretty tight
budget. With their help, mentally and financially, I have been
able to climb out of the hole that I was in. I am still in Madrid,
accomplishing what I set out to do: teaching English, learning
Spanish, and traveling Europe when I get time (and a little
bit of extra money!). I still have some debts to pay back, but
the point is - I will not let one bad situation ruin my overall
experience! A person cannot control every situation, but he
can control how he deals with it. I chose not to quit. I found
a way. I will have the final say in my future, not some robber
with two seconds of luck.
Apartments
Madrid - Several pages of renting experiences.
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