Quito Ecuador: U.S. Expat victim of attempted theft at gunpoint by driver of fake taxi

The following information was provided by an expatriate female residing in Quito Ecuador.

On July 2, 2014, in the area of Las Granja neighborhood, a female expat was accosted at gunpoint by a man driving what appeared to be a fake taxi. (The Expat requested that she not be identified for this report.)

1. Incident occurred at 6:20 am while victim (in her 50’s) was walking to work.
2. The street was Street was not busy at the time.
3. Victim observed the vehicle which was the color of a taxi with no taxi lighting make a u-turn around her on the opposite side of the street.
4. The driver parked his car on side of the street, exited, and went to his trunk.
5. The driver then started to run from a diagonal direction towards her.
6. As he approached her he displayed a handgun and began to tussle with her bag.
7. A vehicle then came from around the corner which startled the assailant and he then ran off. The would be robber did not get the victim’s bag.
8. At that time the victim began to run from the scene and then returned to her apartment.
9. Police were summoned and took a report. She indicated when she called 911 the operators spoke very limited English. The victim also stated that police suggested that she have the copies of her paperwork, visa, passport, notarized.
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