Holy Spit!

Well, my recent Madrid trip goes down as one of the most interesting I have ever had.  We got a late start because our plane we were taking had diverted into Oklahoma City on the way to Dallas with a medical emergency.  In the end, we were about 3 hours late getting into Madrid the next day.  I had planned to try to cover a lot of ground but we arrived so late, it was almost 1pm when we got to the hotel.  So plans changed, and after a quick trip to the MaxCoop (Grocery Store) for provisions, the whole crew decided to meet at 6 for dinner.  Roxanna, one of my co-workers knew of a Beer Hall called La Fabrica, a few bus stops down from the hotel that served good food and drink (which I would skip because I was not drinking).

The restaurant is off Plaza Castellana, an area along the main road to the Prado populated with many government buildings.  It's an easy trip with the frequent busses going past the hotel.  We paused for a group shot.  I had my finger on my lip because I was trying to cover up a cold sore I had, so everyone else gave me a sympathy finger.

The restaurant serves a great selection of "comida castellana" or Spanish cuisine.  I had the fried "setas" or mushrooms followed up "mejillones" or steamed muscles in olive oil and garlic. The food was amazing and they even had non-alcoholic beer!

The fun evening all came to a grinding halt when a young gypsy woman came into the restaurant with a paper that stated she was poor and needed money.  She took advantage of the large size of our party and the fact that we were getting ready to settle our bills.  The gypsy set her paper down on the table on top of Roxanna's wallet and then quickly took back the paper with the wallet underneath.

Roxanna realized it about 30 seconds later.  I knew right away she had been pickpocketed, so I jumped up and ran outside and down the street after the "gitana".  When I caught up with her I told her in Spanish to give me back my friend's wallet.  She said she didn't have it and I screamed at her to give it to me and grabbed her.  She then proceeded to spit on my face.  I was so stunned (no one has ever spit on me before) that I just stopped, at which point she and her co-conspirator took off.

I made my way back to the restaurant, without the wallet.  I went into the bathroom to clean up and we waited for the police to come.  When they arrived we gave them our statements.  Luckily, it was just Roxy's layover wallet so there was no passport or I.D. in it.  But she did have two credit cards, about 80 Euros and her iPhone.

We went back to the hotel and worked on canceling everything.  Luckily, Linda, our purser had the same bank and I had the same VISA card, so we were able to use the phone numbers we had to call and cancel everything.  The Chase Bank card was the hardest to cancel because they would not accept the charges on the International Collect number they post.  We did everything using the Skype on my phone, but we had a poor connection and the calls kept dropping.  It only added to the frustration level.  It took about two hours, but we finally got everything taken care of.

Next we made our way to the local police precinct to get a copy of the police report so Roxanna would have something on paper in case she had issues with the banks or her cell phone company.

We gave our statements to the intake officer and then he put together a report for us.  We walked back to the hotel mentally and physically exhausted.  I think it was after midnight when I finally made it to bed.

Lessons learned: be mindful of our wallet, don't take more than you need (i.e. take a debit card, small amount of local currency, and a photocopy of our I.D), and when the gypsies come to your table, make sure you have secured your personal belongings.