A Christmas Border Wall take: In 1985, a couple of hoods robbed a bank in Yuma and got into a high-speed chase e/b on I-8 towards San Diego. @jimgreff
At some point they turned south and headed towards Mexico and the border fence. After crashing into the fence, they climbed over into Mexico and got into a shootout with Mexican police.
More like a shoot at, actually. It was September and the Mexican were celebrating Independence Day with a parade. There were lots of police along the route when they came over the fence.
Luckily, no one was hit, but they were arrested for illegal entry into Mexico: illegal aliens, not undocumented bank robbers.
They has on them the proceeds from the bank robbery and a full length raccoon coat that was taken in a house burglary.
As the F.B.I. agents assigned to the El Centro RA, my partner and I were called to the border by the MFJP to interview the suspects. We were met by the Commandante, who was wearing the Raccoon coat and holding the bag full of money.
The suspects refused to cooperate and were remanded to Mexican custody for violating the immigration statutes. The raccoon coat and money were held by the Mexicans as “evidence.”
A week later we were called back to Mexico and told the suspects wanted to confess. Apparently Mexican jail standards did not meet their expectations. They promptly confessed, saying they were treated fairly and never abused while in jail.
Upon crossing the border back into the U. S., one suspect spontaneously stated, “Man, I ain’t NEVER been beat like that in my life.” We took them for hamburgers before taking them to jail because they said they hadn’t been fed in seven days.
This story is apropos of nothing except that I have had a martini and am walking down memory lane. You can’t make these story’s up folks.
Postscript: For months afterwards, every time I saw the MFJP Commandante he was wearing that full length raccoon coat. #Evidence
