Let's Not Meet~ Reddit Horror Stories

My Run In With The Mexican Cartel

So as a bit of background, I live about 20 minutes from the Mexican border leading into a city in Mexico called Reynosa.

It isn't odd to just hop into your vehicle and drive into Mexico for a bit of shopping and authentic Mexican food where I'm from. Obviously with things getting as bad as they've been (gang violence) and this whole Trump border wall talk, that's changed quite a bit, but pre 2010 things weren't as bad. Anyways, I have family in Reynosa so we'd periodically head on over for a visit from time to time. This was an all day thing because if there's one thing Hispanics and Mexicans like to do its talk for hours on end. We'd arrive at around 10am and typically begin the drive back home at midnight.

This particular day I want to say in the summer of 09 was like any other day. We visited family, and did some shopping. At around 11:30pm my mom gets a call from one of her cousins that a niece we had missed during our visit had gotten home. So wanting to see her before we left, we headed back over. Again, being as talkative as we are, the conversation stretched deep into the night. At around 2 in the morning I finally get frustrated and in an effort to get my mom to get the hint I want to leave, grab my younger brother and two sisters and lead them to our car turn it on for the A/C and lock the doors. Obviously everyone is exausted so we all knock out.

I'm suddenly awakened by a blinding light. It's legitimately startling and as I try to adjust to the light I catch a glimpse of my mom right in front of our car. She was standing right by my cousin and both had incredibly concerned looks on their face. I finally regain my eysight and realize the light is coming from behind me. I turn around to find a massive lifted Ford F-250, black paint job, and window tint so dark you couldn't tell who was inside.

I turn back to my mother and notice she now has tears in her eyes and it almost seems like shes pleading with the truck. It begins to flicker it's high beams filling our Nissan Altima with blinding light then immediately thrusting it back into darkness. The realization of whats going on begins to dawn on me. The Mexican Cartel known as the Zetas were notorious for kidnapping and murders throughout Reynosa and the surrounding cities and blacked out vehicles seemed to be their choice of transportation.

The truck begins to rev it's engines, almost like it's taunting my mother, daring her to move. I begin to reach for the handle to the door to go and comfort my mom and assess the situation. My mom immediately notices and mouths for me to stay put. I oblige, but the panic and helplessness of the situation begin to overwhelm me as I begin to fear for my family's life.

I will always remember what happened next. My mother suddenly sprinted for the drivers door. The second she moved I unlocked the car and heard the truck begin to shift into gear behind me. My mom basically tears the door from it's hinges open and flys in, flooring the gas pedal before the door is even fully closed. We haul ass down the bumpy unpaved road with the truck not far behind. I look at my mom and tears are just pouring from her face, she's crying out to God for help as were reaching speeds well over 80 miles per hour in a residential area. My mom obviously filled with adrenaline and the motherly instinct to protect her children drives like I've never seen her drive before. With the truck still in hot pursuit my mom tells me to buckle up. I turn back to the truck one last time to see the windows rolled down and men peering out, possibly recording or taking photos of the back of my mom's vehicle. My mom avoided traffic, nearly wrecking twice, but was determined to not stop until we reached the U.S. border.

About 5 miles away from the checkpoint the truck stopped following us. We were able to breath again. My mom just let everything out and broke down finally waking up the kids, blissfully ignorant to what had just occured. We hit a red light about a mile away from the checkpoint when another 2 blacked out trucks pulled up to the left and right of our vehicle. I'll always remember looking up to the truck on my right and seeing a man, about 26 years old smilling at me as they began flickering their lights the same way the first truck had. My mom didn't even wait for a green. She just floored it until we were on U.S. soil.

We reported the incident to the U.S. border patrol who took statements from us all but really couldn't do much else. We didn't go back to Mexico until 2014 when one of my aunt's passed away. We still go back to Mexico to this day, but it's so damn unsafe I hate it. Helicopters patrolling the air so low to the ground you can see the officers fingers on the triggers of their onboard turrets. Anyways, Mexican Cartel, let's not meet.