REACT…La Llamada de Extorsión…THE EXTORTION CALL

Today, I’m also sharing something I wrote a while back… when I was still living in Mexico City

“Mom, mom, help me please! Some men have me trapped in their van and they want to talk to you!” said the voice…clearly a young man…”who is this?” I asked “mom, help me please, talk to them!” …”who is this?” I asked again…

…

Last night, a family from this fire-breathing dragon of a city became the victim of extortion of the worst kind. I know, any kind is awful, complete and absolute abuse, but when the extortionist use a family member, to be precise, one of your children as bait, well, to me this tops the list.

You may be wondering how I know this, how can I say with so much certainty that this happened. Sadly, because it’s a fact in this place, it happens every day, it’s so common that it only hits the news when it has happened to a well-known person. But last night it didn’t happen to a person in politics, or to someone from the showbiz scene, or a wealthy entrepreneur, NO, it happened to a person as ordinary as you and me.

So if it happened to John and Jane Doe’s family, then how do I know?

Because the extortionist called my home first. Now that is a phone call only prayer stopped from being repeated in my mind over and over again. It was terrible. Up to now, I had thought that the worse phone call I could receive had been when my mom called me, 11 years ago, to tell me my grandmother had just passed away. That phone call totally paralyzed me, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move.

But last night, I wanted to scream, I wanted to run; thank God my husband was next to me. When i realized what the call was about, I hung up and immediately felt the room spin. I caught my breath and told my husband what had just happened, what the voice had said…and suddenly, the phone rang again, this time he lifted the receiver and hug up without saying anything. I didn’t understand what he had done or why, he just turned to me and said, with all the peace he could gather, “they won’t call again” … and they didn’t. We just sat there, me crying and him holding me tight, as if he were  trying to squeeze those awful images and the sound of the young man’s voice out of my head.

They use a young person, a teenage boy in this case, and have him ask for help from whoever answers the phone call…when he heard a woman’s voice he immediately said MOM… all the while all I could think was why is he calling me MOM if both my children are in bed in the room next to ours?…plus far from being the age he sounds like…How did they get my phone number?…Are they watching us?… Are we in danger?…Are our children in danger?…

I think my husband knew what was going through my mind… “Cielo, they just start dialing numbers and go for it at the first sound of a voice on the other end of the line…this wasn’t intended for us…they won’t call again, I promise” “Yeah” I thought, “but they will give it another try and maybe the next person that answers does have a teenage boy who went out with his friends tonight and hasn’t gotten home yet, and all hell will break loose in that family”

…

this hasn’t happened again

later I found out that there is a phone number we’re supposed to call,

from there they track the call and do what has to be done to those people

…

The Extortion Call…a true story

in response to the Daily Prompt: Unknown Caller

hugs people

btw, featured image from The SpiritualCoach.com