I was laying here, my bag was right next to me. A guy literally came,
snatched it. Something a little different today. This is my boyfriend,
Jalil. Sometimes you see him on Instagram,
but I asked him to sit with me here so that we could both share a story of what
happened yesterday. We've had a very relaxing morning, but we're just like,
ah, so insanely lucky that today we've also not been dealing with a bunch of
insanity. Um, yeah. So anyway,
we're going to share the story about what happened.
We both work remotely and we've been working remotely this week.
Yesterday in the afternoon, instead of taking a nap,
I said it's the best hours of the day. We should go to the beach.
And of course with me being on Instagram and wanting to take photos,
and by the way, he's usually the guy taking the photos.
I brought like all of my equipment. I brought this camera, I bought my,
brought my phone, I brought my wallet. What did you have? I had my wallet,
my phone. Um, but we had car keys, house keys,
like literally everything with us, uh, speakers, all that stuff.
And we decided to go to a beach called Carillo. Yup.
And it's known for being beautiful, but nothing is there.
So essentially it was an empty beach and I thought it'd be a great plan to go
there and just have a little snooze.
So we got there yesterday afternoon around 2-2:30.
I did my photo shoot as per usual. Jalil took the photos.
Okay. And it was beautiful. There was no one around. Um, it was great.
Then what did we do? Jalil had a speaker and I said,
let's go for a dip in the water. So with all of our stuff in my backpack,
all of our towels,
we walked out to where the water was left it on the sand and then we went and
took a dip for five minutes. Yeah.
And like our stuff was how it's far enough away,
probably a couple of hundred meters.
We were watching it from the water and there was a mom nearby with her kids.
We could have asked her to watch our stuff. Um, didn't.
Um, so yeah, we had our pile of everything there,
thousands of dollars worth of equipment and we went for a dip, walked back,
grabbed our stuff and everything was great.
So then we decided to lay our blankets down in the shade and have a little
snooze and well I think we weren't going to go to and take a nap per se,
but we just wanted to relax in the shade and it's really beautiful surrounded by
Palm trees. And, um,
so we just laid our towels down and decided to hang out.
I'd turn the music off just cause it's beautiful to hear the ocean and like,
you know, the weeds, the leaves rustling. So that was kind of the, the setting.
Yeah. And I had brought another bathing suit. I can't remember why. I guess,
cause I didn't to lay in a wet bathing suit. So once we lay down the blanket,
I looked around to see if we were actually alone and in the distance I saw a guy
in a red shirt sitting there watching us. So I thought, okay,
I'm not going to change into my dry bathing suit.
There's someone here and um Jalil laid down,
closed his eyes. I also laid down next to him and I had my phone up,
like holding it like this. I was texting one of my, uh,
team members actually,
and all of a sudden like,
I don't, it, it happens so fast, so I don't even know if I saw the guy coming.
But all of a sudden the guy in the red shirt was next to me with my black bag,
my backpack right next to my hip cause I'm laying down and he's just there
looking at me and snatching it, grabbing it. And uh,
I think my first instinct or first reaction was I yelled, Hey,
like as loud, kind of like a scream. But it was just like, Hey. Right. Yeah.
And that's what woke you up? Yeah. I mean I was, you know,
I wasn't completely asleep or anything, but I just heard you screaming.
I didn't even see it out of the corner of my eye,
but I just immediately got up and realized that this guy was taking off with the
backpack that had literally everything in it and it would have made, you know,
the last few days in,
in Costa Rica very challenging to kind of um,
navigate.
Yeah. Cause I was normally wearing a Fanny pack,
a Fanny pack that had everything, but the Fanny pack was in the backpack.
This guy had been watching us, who knows for how long.
Like probably when we were doing the photo shoot,
he could have seen we had a camera.
He might've actually seen us when we were in the water and our pile of stuff was
just there and maybe he was,
maybe he would have tried to take it then he was laying down. I was laying down,
I wasn't asleep.
Like I was on my phone and the guy crept up right behind us and my bag was not
on me,
but it was right at my hip and all of a sudden he's just there snatching it.
So I scream, Hey, um, I don't know if I said anything else.
Um, it wasn't like "help" or it wasn't like "that's ours." It's just like,
"Hey!" Then faster than I got up, Jalil got up, amazingly,
and started running after him and he bolted. So he had a plan. He,
he ran through the rest of the palms to the road and I don't,
I think I ran like 10 or 20 feet, but then I, I stopped because I thought, well,
what if there's more people here to take the rest of our stuff?
And I kind of lost track of what was on our blanket.
It was only my phone in my hand and our speaker.
But once I made that decision to hang back, I'm like, Oh,
what else do we have here? It was too late to catch them. So Jalil,
like immediately, I don't know how, but from when I screamed,
he jumped up and was probably like 10 feet behind the guy.
Yeah, he probably had like a 15 foot jump on us, 10-15 feet.
And he was just like, he was in shoes.
The biggest difference was that he was in shoes and I was barefoot.
And from the beach there's this like section of Palm trees that backs onto a
road and the road's like really nice. Um,
and then it's separated by a small section of grass and trees.
And then the next road I'm heading in the opposite direction.
And he had basically there was a path to a gate that was on the other side of
both lanes and he kinda took off in that direction and there was kind of this
dirt gravel road and I'm not sure it looks like it may be a farm,
but it's mostly jungle in there.
And there was a gate that was slightly left open and uh,
he just took off in that direction. Um,
and then started veering to the right into some really heavy bush that leads
into the jungle. And, um,
he had another guy with him that must've opened the gate or something for him,
but I saw another guy in a blue shirt. So I just, you know,
at that moment it's probably not a great idea to chase after these guys because
you don't know if they could have weapons or if you know anything could happen
and um, but obviously at that point you're not thinking.
It's mostly just adrenaline and knowing you're pretty hooped if um,
if you don't get that bag back, not to mention, you got to give it an effort.
I would never let that just fly.
Well I found it amazing cause I was in shock hanging back by the blanket
watching this happen and Jalil's running as fast as he can.
You are a soccer player so you have some running background - running as fast as
he can in bare feet yelling at the same time.
Like all of that takes so much energy because he was actually catching up to the
guy too, which I, I couldn't see that from where I was standing.
And I think the way we sat on the beach was directly in front of this gate on
the other side of the road and everything else to the jungle was barbed wire.
And so he just had a really good path to come up behind us,
take the stuff and run through the gate.
And so Jalil is running on through like across the the road of cars.
There could have been cars coming. Yeah, I'm really lucky I didn't get hit.
And then consider what if there was traffic and maybe that guy's buddy was like,
you know, waiting for a clearing in the road for anyway. I don't know,
but this guy's yelling, what are you yelling? We need that.
Definitely some Spanish swear words. And
I dunno, I guess kind of angry with pleading with him being like, look,
you know, if it was just a couple of dollars and you know,
stuff that is easily replaceable. Sure.
That's not a big deal and it's probably not worth risking it. But you know,
our rental car key's in there,
our access to the house is in there are, you know,
I think you were yelling like, "we need that", "That's ours."
Yeah. Amidst the swears. Yeah. Amidst the swears and of course you're angry,
right? Like it's a violation of your space. But also, you know,
you realize that he's got to be pretty desperate to do something like that,
but at the same time, like it's, it's not going to be, um,
something that you just let go. Um, so, but yeah, it wasn't really clear,
clear thought.
And I've managed to close the gap on him probably to about like three or four
feet. And I just remember thinking,
trying to get him before he gets into the heavy jungle because at that point
then you don't know what's behind it. And, and I was just like,
I can't do this with no shoes. And, um,
I was going to just either make a die for him, I don't know what,
but that was just trying to get within ideally arms reach and just grab his,
his shirt. Um, and as I gained on him, uh,
he basically just dropped the bag and then his buddy had already disappeared
into the thick Bush and he literally did the same thing.
And I don't know why he thought maybe he felt like that I was gaining on him,
but fortunately dropped the bag. Um, and, you know,
I just grabbed it and,
and kinda just stood there a little bit and just to see if there was anyone else
around. Um, and you know, I mean like it's,
it's not uncommon to have pickpockets and stuff like that in any country, right.
So, um, but just them knowing the terrain a little bit better is, is,
is definitely worrying and then it puts you at a disadvantage,
especially if you're outnumbered. But super lucky that he dropped it.
So we were just here on an empty beach laying down.
I was laying here, my bag was right next to me. A guy literally came,
snatched it. I was, I was, as I was on my phone, ran across the street,
Jalil was sleeping,
he had enough energy and adrenaline to run across the street across to that gate
in his bare feet, which are now bloody and catch up to the guy.
The guy dropped my bag. It literally has everything in it.
So you think you're on an empty beach and he was over there the whole time
watching me.
Yeah. Like all odds were not in our favor at that point.
I - why do you think he dropped it? Yeah,
he had a friend and you must've been super close to him at that point and he
dropped it before he got into the Bush. I,
I'd like to think that it was a little bit of morality maybe,
but that's probably too kind. Um, I don't know. I mean, it wasn't, it was,
you know, reasonably heavy. It's like at least 15 pounds,
but that shouldn't throw you off. Um,
so he was just juggling at one hand and kind of dropped it.
And then it was at that point that I just snatched it back up and was,
look how to look around and kind of got my bearings back. And then...
'Lucky' is not even a description of what happened.
I don't even know how that happened. I mean,
in, in so many ways, the decisions we made, like he,
he could have grabbed or stolen from us at any point,
especially when we were in the water.
If he ran and booked it on the sand to grab our stuff,
like we wouldn't have been able to get any anyway.
So we were just like insanely lucky and in utter,
utter shock when Jalil came back with all of our stuff and just over the last 24
hours, like I haven't been able to stop replaying. Well first of all,
that moment of him being there, all of a sudden it's not,
it didn't feel like um, a physical attack.
It didn't seem like he wanted to like touch me.
But it was just definitely that feeling of violation,
personal violation with uh, yeah, it was just the,
I've never had that happen before. So it was very, very bizarre.
And normally I'm really paranoid. And the funny thing is I'm normally paranoid,
paranoid at busy tourist beaches cause there's so many people around.
And the other day we had gone to that beach with a friend and he had said like,
you can leave your stuff on the sand, it's safe. There's no one here.
So I kind of had that in my mind and as much as my bag was next to me,
I wasn't like strapping it around my leg. I wasn't,
I didn't think to look again when I saw him in the distance and the red shirt,
I didn't think like, Ooh, let's keep an eye on him.
So now going forward I'm going to be
more paranoid.
And especially for around beaches where they're,
they feel empty. Um, that's probably not the first time that guy has done that.
Um,
yeah, I think like the lesson, like obviously again, we're super,
super lucky and you know,
frankly kind of dumb to bring that much stuff to the beach.
It's not something we usually do.
We just go out with maybe a little bit of cash and you know,
and just go enjoy the water.
But we just thought it'd be better to have our stuff and didn't want to
necessarily leave it in the car either.
Yeah. The rental company said don't leave anything in the car. So that's,
and that's why I thought we'll keep it in my backpack,
but most of our friends here have like attested to the fact that that beach is
normally pretty safe. It's usually where a lot of local families go and,
and kind of have picnics and chill out and there are little pockets of people,
but the beach is so big and it basically, you know, it is empty.
And um, I think, you know,
probably it was just a little bit unfortunate that we got targeted, but, um,
I'm sure that it's not the only time that he's probably tried something like
that. Um, but that being said, you know, it's again,
like just being vigilant, um, I don't necessarily share paranoia, but um,
being vigilant is probably a good policy and um, you know,
yeah, there's a lot of lessons I'm taking away from it.
I just am in this utter state of reliving it. And also just like,
I cannot believe that we are continuing a happy vacation because had we lost all
that stuff, it would, I don't even want to think about what we could've,
we basically only would've had our passports and our laptops at home. So,
so lucky.
And we do have another upcoming trip around Mexico and that's going to be a bit
of a unique trip because we're going to be living in a van.
And so this experience is already making me prepare for "what do I do?
What do I not bring?" You know, it's making me think,
especially because I work in the Instagram space where there is a lot of
equipment. We're digital nomads. We have a lot of tech. Um,
our phones alone, like my, his phone was in the backpack.
That phone alone is like $1,500, you know, and it's not even the money per se,
it's just the, the fact that you're out somewhere remote and hooped.
Like the rental car companies two hours drive away.
So getting an extra key for just something like that is basically a half day
effort in and of itself, if it's even possible.
So it just would have been a giant inconvenience. Um,
and you know, I,
I think it's good karma because we actually bought a bottle of wine for this
family that's traveling from Patagonia to Alaska and it's a husband, wife,
and their daughter, and they're from Argentina. And the night before,
because we're going on our van trip, um, you know, I was just like, they were,
um, doing something so awesome and amazing and we went to the store,
bought the bottle of wine and, uh, you know,
a big chocolate bar for the girl and the daughter. And, uh,
so I figure it's like a little bit of good karma, uh,
that came back to us yesterday. Um, so, but yeah, I mean, look,
Costa Rica is normally an incredibly safe place to travel.
We've both traveled all over Central America. Um, you know,
it can happen anywhere, right? But, um, this is our third time in Costa Rica.
Like it's, it's by and large, very safe. The people are incredible,
things like this happen all over the world. It's not just here, but um,
just I think unique that we were able to get back in that manner, um,
with only a few scratches, which is good.
His feet were bleeding afterwards. Um,
I think that's when you actually felt it when you came back with the bag that
you were cut up. But yeah, like if that's, that's what we walked away with.
It's just not, it's just insanely lucky. I can't keep not saying that.
So I'll be a lot smarter and I won't let my guard down in places where I think
we are safe.
Like I think that's the bottom line is I'm really paranoid around busy places,
but places where you feel like there's no one else. Like I'm not gonna,
I'm not gonna relax. And also everything's going to be in a Fanny pack.
Everything's going to be on me that's valuable.
No laptops to the beach. So lots of lessons learned.
Hope you enjoyed my brief cameo. Bye guys.
You're not going to make a return ever again.
Only if you have interesting stories to share.
This is the guy from Fyre festival going on video.
[clapping and music]
We have a tendency to, uh, have some interesting travel experiences. Yeah.
Lucky enough. All right. Thanks for joining me on my channel.
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