Ransom Coverage is one of those odd insurance plans that covers what happens to other people.
I’m just a normal middle class white guy. I don’t look rich. I’m not flamboyant. I’m not wearing some Audemars Piquet Special Royal Oak watch worth $200,000 like a famous soccer player. But, in the middle of the night, after going to a club in a sketchy part of the city (and there are those), I was walking kind of gingerly, not drunk, but carefully out of the club and toward the main street so I could grab a cab.
I have read all the warnings in those guidebooks (are they all written by 50 year old expats or 19 year old hitchhikers? Who goes to all these Yoga classes and coffee shops, anyway.) to pay attention to your surroundings, don’t get drunk at clubs/bars, don’t do this or that. But in the end none of that matters. If someone wants you, they’re going to get you. Your number is up.
As I looked around the parking lot of the club, I chose a path dead center from the door way to the main street about a 1/2 a block from the parking lot exits. It was well lit and I certainly wasn’t thinking of my Kidnap and Ransom benefit as a van from behind me, with no lights on, literally speed up in like 2 seconds with the side door open, already.
As I heard the gravel being rolled on behind me, I had just turned my head as two guys on either side of the van, grabbed my neck and shoulders and sort of flipped me into the van. They have had to of practiced that move for months or done it a dozen times, because there was nothing I could do. And I’m definitely 200lbs and definitely very physical when it comes to knowing how to wrestle or box.
But your first reaction isn’t to fight. It’s to flee. And when someone, in this case two guys (I never saw them, but I heard them…and they weren’t of the opposite sex — to me) grab you throw you onto the floor of the van and both put their weight on you to hold you down, wrap a blanket or bag on your head and rope your waist and hands behind your back like rodeo cowboys (I can almost imagine them throwing their hands in the air and yelling “TIME!”), don’t tell me you could have fought back or you would have done X.
Bull. You would have been like me: Shocked and Scared and trying to figure out “why me!?”
When I was sat up in the corner of the van, one guy went through my pockets and grabbed my phone.
The next thing he said was “Who do we call to get the money?”.
I’m thinking to my self “Who? What? Ask me that one more time?”
I was then kicked really hard, which really hurt.
Again. “Who do we call to get the money”. It wasn’t a question any more. I thought about it for a bit.
I had one ATM card on me. After tipping and cabs, I used to have about $120 in my pocket. Used to, because they had it now. The cash and the ATM. I’d left everything else: My ID. My Passport. My wallet and credit cards.
All my cash was in the hotel. It wasn’t much. Hell, I didn’t have much to begin with.
I’m not sure if these criminals do any research on their victims other than look for people who look like they know people who have money or are OBVIOUSLY AMERICANS. And doesn’t every AMERICAN have money?
Let’s stop there. Shall we?
Ask yourself. You’re in the same situation. What are you going to do? Who are you going to LET THEM CALL?
WHICH NUMBER DO YOU GIVE THE CRIMINAL THAT HAS YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS.
That’s why you need Kidnap and Ransom Insurance. It’s not because you’re a Getty. It’s because you and your family do not have the expertise, the connections and probably not the money to fix this problem.
It’s not like you hand the killers your Travel Insurance Kidnap and Ransom Card or Tell them your Travel Blog URL.
No. Someone. Anyone that you know, before you leave: Mom. Dad. Your brother. Sister. Ex-Girlfriends. Someone needs to know that you’re going on a trip and IF something happens, here are the emergency numbers for THEM. Not you. You have those when you get in NORMAL EMERGENCIES. Being Kidnapped or Ransomed and needing Kidnap/Ransom Insurance is quite different than losing your luggage or Passport.
