I really was surprised that nothing showed up on any news outlets myself. I haven't talked to the B-I-L since it happened - I wanted to question him more closely (or have my wife do it) but life goes on and he's busy working.
He's mostly recovered from what my wife says - he's 20, a bit naive, and while freaked out by what he saw he's also youthfully-immortal so it's pretty easy to get over something like that. He's really pissed off about his phone though! He bought a nice phone via payments through my wife's bank account and now he has to make the payments on thin air. However, Personal blocked the chip and the phone itself so it apparently can't be used again (don't know much about that).
On another note, and on the chance of reducing my credibility by spouting what would seem to many, maybe, as unsubstantiated stories (this will make two in three days now, and I don't think this one will make any news):
I went out to McDonald's tonight to get a couple of burgers. The wife is out with friends, the cousin was at school and the sister-in-law is getting ready for a graduation party - I didn't feel like cooking.
I walked out of my apartment and up the street, started walking across Plaza San Martin, when I see the cousin coming toward me from the other side of the Plaza, waving. I think she's saying hello, a "well met!" so I wave back. She starts beckoning to me and hurries towards me, and then I can see there's something wrong. She was crying and obviously distraught.
She was coming home from school tonight (she's studying to be a psychiatric therapist and is at the end of her third year). She had a bus transfer a block or so away from Pelegrini and 25 de Mayo. As she's walking to get to the stop for her next bus, she notices three guys in front of a pizza shop. Two about 18-20 and one around 10-12. The young one is eating a pizza.
As she nears them, the three stand up and move towards her. She's immediately suspicious and looks around for help, but the only place apparently that's open or with people obviously around is the pizza shop. The two older boys move towards her, but the young one runs up and grabs her purse and starts yanking on it.
She starts hollering for help, wrenches her purse from the kid and hits him with it (YOU GO GIRL!). The other two must have been taken by surprise because it takes a moment for them to react. In that moment, she runs into the pizza shop. Inside were the workers (a guy behind the counter, a woman at a register and a cook in the back). There are a few customers in the store. As she enters, two more guys sitting at the table stand up and start moving towards her. The others that were outside are now standing in the door. Turns out the two that rose up at the table are compatriots of the three outside and they begin to shout at her, tell her to give up the purse.
At that moment, another guy sitting alone, somewhere in his thirties, stands up and asks what the problem is. He's Spanish she says, from his accent. She asks for help and says the kids are trying to steal her purse. The Spaniard moves over to her to protect her. The kids are still standing in the doorway and the two inside tell the Spaniard to leave off and let them have the purse.
At this point, another lone customer stands up. He's black, and pretty big. Probably Nigerian she thought, again from his accent. He asks what's going on and starts moving towards the table where the two accomplices inside the restaurant are.
At this point, our cousin is freaking out. She sees a 5 on 2 situation developing with her in the middle. The workers in the restaurant are just sitting there watching it all go down, not moving to help or even saying anything.
The black guy and the Spaniard move to protect the cousin. The others are just watching to see how far they're going to go. The cousin asks the two knights in shining armor if they would accompany her out and help her get a cab. She's obviously freaked out - she can't stay in the restaurant and if she leaves the would-be thieves are just going to follow her and at least rob her.
They do accompany her out. There is shouting and an exchange of insults between the scumbags and the rescuers. They're threatening the guys and the cousin with serious bodily harm, but they don't move to actually do anything (like most lowlifes, they are pussies and only attack when they have a clear advantage, like 5 guys on one girl!). They manage to get her outside and get her a cab.
She's ok now, a bit shaken up, but not too the worse for wear. She said she took the bus through that route because with the subway she had to make a couple of combinations and it was a pain in the ass. She's going to take the pain from now on, instead of the easy way.
She told me the area is starting to have a lot of creeps hang out around there. I used to go to a restaurant near there (Palacio Español) but it's been some years since I frequented the place. At that time I don't ever remember it being an unsafe area. But I've had no reason to be around there recently, so I guess it's changed, or I just didn't realize it was a bad area back then.
Anyway, here we go. The worst the cousin has had happen to her so far in her four years here was a stolen cellphone on a bus. I'm still incident-free...but thank god my desk's all wood! I think the sister-in-law just thought there was a wood pecker in the apartment
