Sooo I went to jail, and it was quite the experience. Quite HORRIBLE. I would recommend obeying the law ;) I wanted to write down my experience... and it ended up being a looooot longer than I thought. but for me i think i'll be glad to remember all my feelings and emotions so i can tell my kids the story of when their mom went to jail a hundred times ;)
if you want the short and sweet version, watch @ the link below.
if you want the painfully detailed and dramatic version ;) here it is >
SUDAFED
We arrived in Mexico after a full day of travel. We left our
house at 4:00 a.m. that morning to be to the airport two hours before our
flight, and we were finally there. We were walking through the airport, got our
passports checked, picked up our checked luggage and were waiting to go through
customs. Hungry and excited to get to the resort to order some fish tacos by
the pool! Before we walked through customs a worker was going through the lines
asking, “Do you have any fruit in your bags? Any food?” She was going to have
us throw it away before we went through customs so we didn’t have any problems.
We showed her our beef jerkey and girl scout samoa cookies and she said we were
fine! We got up to the security and Jordan handed the worker our passports and
pushed the button that lit up either red or green. Green for go ahead and enter
Mexico, and red for stop to have your bags checked. The light lit up red, which
is annoying but we were so oblivious. We walked to these big metal tables and put all our
suitcases up on them and another girl customs worker, Kimberly, started
unzipping all our bags and digging through everything. She didn’t check Jord’s
golf case but just asked if they were clubs. She opened my purse and started going
through everything. At this point Jordan’s parents and brother were all
standing behind us waiting for us to be able to walk through the gate with them,
because they had received the green “go ahead.” Kimberly pulled out a box I
had brought of Sudafed, I had been sick for the past two weeks. It started as a
sore throat, aches, and chills where I missed two days of work. It had
developed into congestion and a sinus infection, I felt fine I just coughed my
lung up every morning and night and couldn’t breathe through my nose. So I had
been taking Sudafed to relieve pressure especially on the airplane. She said
she needed to take my Sudafed back to her boss and that it could be a problem...
she was speaking to Jordan in Spanish so I got a brief replayed message of
everything that was being said. Again, this was super annoying. Like really??
At the time I was so annoyed that she just might take my Sudafed… I had no idea
how it was going to escalate. She was gone for what felt like a long time, ten
or so minutes, our family still waiting with us. She came back and said (from
what I’m told) that this was a serious problem and I would have to stay at the
airport and wait while they create paperwork. What?? What was happening. This
was seriously SO annoying. Kimberly wasn’t the least bit sympathetic and I was
beginning to be so bugged by her. Jordan asked to speak to the manager and
Carlos came out, speaking Spanish. Basically, I think, telling my husband the
same thing. “There is an ingredient in Sudafed that is illegal in Mexico, and
your wife has to stay while we file the paperwork.” I was definitely mad at
this point, so was Jordan. We tried negotiating with them, “Just take the
Sudafed! Throw it away, we don’t care! We had no idea it was illegal! There are
NO signs! There are no warnings! The lady told us to throw away fruit, nothing
about medications! We don’t even need a
prescription for this in this States! Our shuttle is scheduled to pick us up
right now, we will have to pay for another shuttle to take us to our hotel, you
are making us lose that money! This is absolutely ridiculous!!!” I’m pretty
sure this is what my husband was telling them in Spanish too, trying to stay
calm because he can’t speak Spanish when he is too worked up or angry. (LOL) I
tried explaining all these same frustrations and thoughts with Carlos and he
tells me, “No English! No English!” Kimberly told me she didn’t speak English
either and I remember looking at the guard standing next to the gate and asking
her, “do you speak English?? Don’t you think this is absolutely ridiculous?”
and she told me, “It’s the law.” I was so furious. SO frustrated. So they told
us we had to wait a couple hours while they filed paperwork and that was that.
At this point, our family had to go through the security gates, they don’t let
anyone hang out in the customs area, you get your bag checked, or you don’t,
and you keep moving through. They tried to make Jordan go with them but Jordan
was absolutely not leaving my side. I love him for that and for being
protective over me. (I seem to get stuck in foreign places without knowing the
language more often than I should haha.) Kimberly went back to the office and
got a sheet of printer paper and started taking everything out of my purse so
she could write down every single thing that was in my bag, halls cough drops,
tissues, mucinex, emergenC packets, propel packets, lip balm, hand sanitizer,
disinfecting wipes, cell phone, “yellow colored pills” (my doterra onguard pills)
etc. So ridiculous. So we went to a little corner in the customs area that was
gated off and sat down in the chairs to wait for “a couple hours”, in absolute
disbelief with how everything was unfolding.
DETAINED
Phones weren’t allowed. Talking to anyone else wasn’t
allowed. We just had to sit and wait… at this point they mentioned that I might
have to stay overnight in jail and Jordan had overheard them mentioning it… but
I honestly never believed that that would actually happen. I just thought this
was going to be a super irritating delay and we would be at the resort that
night. I honestly thought everything was going to get worked out in a couple
hours. I think we were a little hungry at this point, we had left our house at
4:00 a.m, I hadn’t eaten anything because it was too early and by the time we
got to our layover in San Fransisco all I wanted was a drink because I was
still so tired, it was now about 4:30 p.m. We had been waiting for about an
hour, Jord just had his arm around me and we were making small talk saying how
ridiculous this was. Jordan asked to talk to Carlos, they said he would be
right out. Ten minutes later, he asked about Carlos again. Carlos never came
out to talk to us. We got no explanation. At this point I think I started
to panic… this was turning into a nightmare. A customs worker was standing in
the hall in front of us, talking to someone on the phone, about us. Kimberly
quickly ushered her into an office pointing at Jordan and saying, “he can
understand you.” Are you kidding. There were other “customs workers” who were
hanging out at a booth near where we were sitting. Jordan could hear them
talking about how ridiculous it was that Carlos was making us do this… One
custom worker who seemed friendly started talking to Jordan… in Spanish of
course. But Jordan relayed to me that he basically said he was so sorry Carlos was doing this and said he had just got off his
shift and if it was him.. he wouldn’t have stopped us and would have just let
us go. Kimberly came out again and I remember Jordan telling her; what you’re
doing is wrong, you could have taken the Sudafed thrown it away, and that would
be it. She just glared at him. I had been coughing practically this whole time. Another customs worker who just got off his shift came
over and asked if we had been able to go to the bathroom or if we were hungry
or thirsty? He turned to the other
workers and asked, “Has anyone offered them food or drink??” We told him we were fine but after I
kept coughing profusely he insisted and went and bought us each a liter water
bottle with his own money… one of the first of many tender mercies we were
shown over the next day and helped heal some of my negative thoughts and
feelings I had now developed towards “all Mexican custom workers.” It had now
been a LONG time that we had been sitting at the airport. Jordan had pulled out
his phone, and had his headphones wired through his shirt with his phone in his
lap sneaking phone calls and text messages with his family, they were now
seriously concerned at this point and had been making lots of phone calls from
the resort. Jordan got a text from my mom, I’m guessing that Jordan’s mom had
called her, and when I saw that she had texted it started to set in that this
was really serious. Like that, "shoot my mom knows" feeling. Kimberly came out of her office
again and brought me a phone, it was the US consulate from Mexico who wanted to
talk to me, at this time she had been notified by Jordan’s family and my parents.
She wanted to talk to me and was very matter of fact, “this is a frequent issue
that keeps happening with travelers and we are trying to solve it because there
are no signs or warnings, and it’s an over the counter drug in the US but as of
now it is law so you will most likely have to the spend the night in their
facility and go through the process to get released hopefully by tomorrow. You can be in
contact with our lawyers.” As soon as she said that I started crying… this was
not happening. I couldn’t wrap my head around what was actually happening, I
still had part of me thinking there is no way. After I tried to answer her
questions and talk to her through my sobs she said, “Can I talk to your
husband?” So Jord got on the phone with her and talked to her for a bit,
staying very calm. For a person with a red type A personality, I think it was
another blessing that Jordan was able to stay so calm when I know he was fuming
on the inside. I even remember him telling me at one point after I had a freak
out at Carlos, “Jess you just have to be nice, I know it isn’t right but
authority is corrupt here and if you are unpleasant they will just throw it
back in your face even worse.” I was scared but the word to fully describe how
we were feeling was frustration. We had NO rights. And it was so frustrating.
We felt and WERE completely helpless. No one could help us, and even those on
our side couldn’t help us. We weren’t given thorough information of what was
happening, weren’t allowed to talk to anyone or communicate with anyone, and
were being forced to stay put, only knowing that I would probably have to spend
the night in jail. And for WHAT. I could not understand why I was being treated
like a criminal… for 8 pills… to help with my stuffy nose. Just SO frustrating.
Finally at around 8:30 p.m. Kimberly brought us out a
document that was 8 pages long and all written in Spanish, she gave us two
copies and told me I needed to sign it. I asked if she had an English copy
available and she said no, only Spanish. I told her that no, I wouldn’t sign it
then because I couldn’t even read it. They tried to tell my husband, “you can
speak Spanish, you can translate it for her.” But I still felt that I needed to
be able to read it and fully understand it before I signed ANYTHING in this
sketchy situation. They told us, until you sign it you will have to wait here.
I thnk they expected us to give in and sign it but, we were fine with that at
the moment.
The next 75 minutes were probably the scariest moments of
the whole ordeal. I was terrified, humiliated and completely helpless. They
gave us a while before they came back out this time Carlos as well saying, I
NEEDED to sign the document. Again, I told them I wasn’t going to unless they
could provide me with something I could actually read. They told me I needed to
sign it because they had to take me to the district attorney’s office, and they
couldn’t until I signed it. They told us that they had to take me alone and
Jordan couldn’t come. Jordan put his arm in front of me and even though it was
in Spanish I could tell that he was saying, you are not taking her alone. I’m
not letting her get in a truck with you by herself to go off somewhere that we
know nothing about. We told them that our parents were outside the airport
right now with a prescription from a doctor for the sedated and all we wanted was for them to
be able to provide us with that prescription. That wasn’t even an option for
them. They told us our parents could meet us at the district attorney’s office
and gave us a paper with the address on it. They left us alone for another
moment. All this time Jordan is in contact with his parents and the US consulates,
all of them were advising, “Do not let them take her alone anywhere!” Jordan
looked up the address on his phone and it didn’t match with anything, we felt
like that was suspicious and we were already untrusting of these people and the
situation. The customs worker who had bought us drinks came back out and told
Jordan, “don’t let them take her alone.” I was beginning to panic. What in the
heck was happening, how did I end up in this situation? A living nightmare.
Jordan’s parents were telling us to stay put as well, they said that they were
with a lawyer and they were trying find a way to get to us, but Jordan kept
telling them, the customs workers are getting angrier and less patient!! They
came back out again and Carlos and another man were angry. They had the
documents that I was suppose to sign and showed me that they wrote on the line,
“she refused to sign.” They said I needed to go with them now. Jordan, again,
stated you are not taking her alone let me come with you! They argued about it for
about 15 minutes (in Spanish.) I just sat there, I think I was slowly going
into shock. I kept hearing Jordan say, ‘me espousa!’ Like, this is my wife, I’m
not letting her go with two complete strangers I don’t trust in a foreign
country. I felt so grateful to Jordan for being so protective over me, we were
both so scared and I knew how much it was killing him to have his wife be put
in this situation and to be completely helpless. He kept saying, “I should have
said they were my pills… why didn’t I think of that! If I would have known it
was going to turn into this I would have said they were mine!” The customs
workers were dressed in shorts and hoodies, the only sign of “authority” was a
nametag that they each wore clipped to their shirt. Everything felt so
unofficial, and extremely uncomfortable. Carlos turned to me and started
talking to me, “You need to come with us, this is very routine, this happens
all the time. You only need to come to the district attorney’s office and then
our part is over, the rest is up to them.” This was the same man who told me he
couldn’t speak English 7 hours earlier… I had no trust for these people. I told
him that I didn’t trust him because I didn’t know him and all he said was, “you
have to trust me.” Jordan was still saying that they couldn’t take me alone and
we would sit there all night if we had to.
There was more arguing and Carlos was getting angrier and told
Kimberly and another woman customs worker to force me to come… they told us
earlier that they were not allowed to touch us. This freaked me out and I
instantly started to panic. Jordan put his arm in front of me and said, “take
your hands off her!” Carlos and another customs worker grabbed Jordan and
shoved him down in the chair, holding him down even though he wasn’t struggling
while Kimberly and another girl pulled my arm up from the chair, pressed my arm
behind my back, squeezing my arm and my wrist while both their arms were
wrapped around me as they were literally dragging me away from Jordan. This was
a nightmare. I went into full blown panic and started screaming at them to let
go of me and that this was so inappropriate, that they were hurting me!
Kimberly just kept yelling right in my face, “Por favor! Por favor! Por favor!”
I was SO bothered by this… why was she saying that. I yelled in English back in
her face, “No, you please! Please!
Please!” Like why are you saying that. This is dramatic, I know, but in that moment I
felt that her eyes were evil, I could tell she wanted to hurt me and she
squeezed my arm and wrist with her hands even tighter. I was SO scared. So embarrassed.
So frustrated. This was by far the worst moment. I felt a strong sense of hate
toward Kimberly and for whatever reason she reciprocated it. While I was being
taken away the man who bought us drinks came out and told the men who were
“holding Jordan down” (if only they knew they literally could not hold him if
he didn’t allow it) "just let him go with her!!" So just like that they let go of
Jordan, Jordan grabbed our suitcases and started running through the airport
towards me. He told the girls, “you are hurting her! Let go of her!” they told
him in spanish, “if she calms down we will.” So Jord told me, Jess if you just
stop struggling they will let go. I held still and one of the girls let go
right away, but Kimberly wouldn’t let go… she literally had her arms wrapped
around my entire waist, it was ridiculous. She squeezed my arms and wrist tight
one more time and then let go of me. EW. We were standing by the back doors of
the airport, waiting for one of the men to go get the truck. I full on looked at
Carlos and said, “Do you promise I can trust you?” –like pathetic half sobbing,
but I was SO scared I didn’t know how else to get any reassurance. We got into
the truck with Carlos, another customs worker, Kimberly, and Jordan.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
We drove about 25 minutes to the district attorney’s office
but I was still sure they were going to drive us to some field and kill us for
how much trouble we’d caused them at this point. I’ve seen too many movies! I
felt like I was in a movie! Jordan was texting his parents the entire time, “we
are turning left at the gas station, just passed a movie store, just turned by a
Walmart.” Think we were paranoid much? They were following our trail in a taxi.
We get to the district attorney’s office finally… a complete dump. At this
point it is midnight and I’m just thinking, what the heck is the district
attorney doing at his office at midnight. I believe I was in shock at this
point. I had been so terrified at the airport and driving here that I slowly
was just going numb. They made everyone get out of the car except the driver
and me. Again, even though our family was now right outside the car and we were
at the “district attorney’s office” I was so scared. In my mind I just pictured the driver taking
off with me finally alone. My family was with the LDS stake president, who had
called a lawyer that he knew of. I looked out the window at my family and
couldn’t even smile at them. This was all just too weird. I didn’t feel humane
anymore. (I’m so dramatic, I know. But these are the honest feelings because in the moment, this was so traumatic.) Finally they let me out of the car and
walked me into the building, through a locked, barred entry. My family had to
stay outside. I walked in- straight past my family without even looking at them- and sat down on a chair, there were two secretaries
sitting at a combined desk, every inch of space was stacked with papers. I
think I really was in shock from being so scared because I can’t remember
anything that happened over the next hour. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t
remember until the reporter from KSL was questioning me and I got to this point
of the story and realized, I really don’t know what happened. I just remember
sitting in the chair, and finally Jordan was able to come inside and talk to
some people, my lawyer was there, then next thing I know Jordan was bringing me
a box of pizza (that his parents brought from the airport,) a water bottle, granola bars, beef jerky. (I told him to take it all back because I literally
could not eat one thing,) a jacket and a blanket because they said the cell was
cold, and a travel neck pillow. Then they walked me into a back room of the
building. The t.v. was blaring and there were two desks, a chair and a couch.
They had me sit down on the couch. My lawyer convinced them to at least let me
stay upstairs so I could be more comfortable since I obviously wasn’t a
dangerous criminal and didn’t need to be locked up in a cell. They made everyone leave. I was just going
through motions.
A LONG NIGHT
They introduced me to the guard, a man who spoke NO English.
He was going to be guarding me all night. Jordan gave me a hug and told me how
much he loved me and I remember laying down on the couch toward the inside, wrapped
my shirt around my head, put the blanket over myself (even though it was so hot
I still just felt like I wanted it over me) and cried for about one minute. Then I
stopped and couldn’t cry anymore. I was just completely numb. The t.v. was
still blaring and the lights were on. Everyone was gone except the guard. I
don’t know how much time had passed but the guard came over to the couch and
said, “Jessica, Jessica.” At first I thought about ignoring him. My eyes were
closed, not to mention covered with my jacket and I wanted to just pretend like
I was asleep. But he said my name again so I sat up and looked at him. He was
speaking in Spanish, but motioning for me to stand up. I was still in a daze so
I put my shoes on, (4 inch wedge heels of course) and stood up he motioned for
me to grab my stuff and follow him. I just did what he said. He walked me out
of that back room and towards these big cement stairs that went into the
basement. He had me walk down the stairs and it instantly felt and smelled
musty. You could literally hear eerie drips echoing. Everything was concrete.
Of course my eyes went straight to the giant dead cockroach in the middle of
the floor. There were six jail cells, all of them were empty. He walked me
towards the first one and motioned for me to go inside. Why why why why why
why. There was a metal “bed” connected to the wall and another one above it,
like bunk beds but both just made of wire. There was a thin plastic mattress on
the bottom bed. The guard grabbed it off the bed and laid it on the floor,
motioning for me to lie down and go to sleep. I sat on the very edge of the
metal bed frame… there was a crusted blanket squished in the corner of the wall
and the bed. The guard started to walk off and then came back and motioned for
me to get down on the mattress again. I just stared at him and sat down on the
mattress. He was going to shut the “bars” (I don’t really know what you call a
door in a jail cell.) But then he looked at me and was asking me if I wanted
the “door” open or closed. I just stared at him again…. Open. So he left it
open and pointed toward the ceiling where there was a camera faced straight on
me. There was a toilet in the corner of the cell, and I spotted another dead
cockroach. It was completely disgusting. I sat there criss-cross on the
mattress and had little sips of my water, my stomach felt so empty but I didn’t
feel hungry at all. I was sure that if I tried to eat the granola bar I would
throw up. I sat there and started looking around, but I kept getting freaked
out with all the dead cockroaches. I wrapped the blanket all the way around me,
and no it wasn’t cold. I don’t know what they were talking about but it was the
least bit cold, it was actually uncomfortably warm. But I still wanted the
blanket around me even though I was so sweaty and uncomfortable. I wrapped my
jacket around my head again and just put my head down in my hands and just
prayed and prayed and tried to sing primary songs. I felt nothing, just still
completely numb. I prayed and begged to feel comfort from my Heavenly Father,
but I still felt nothing. I was BORED. I was so tired but the image of all the
dead cockroaches and tiny little gnats crawling all around the floor kept me
from lying down. Not to mention who knows what had been on this plastic mattress. I kept hearing a “scurrying” sound and imagined the scene
there would be if an actual mouse crawled out. I couldn’t actually believe
where I was. I honestly never thought I would find myself spending the night in
a jail cell. In Mexico. My prayers turned from, “please comfort me” to “please
let it be morning!” It felt like hours that I was just sitting there
criss-cross trying to keep my brain entertained. There was a tiny slit of a gap
that led to the outside in each cell, and the cars never stopped zooming past
blaring their music. I have no idea how long it had been but I started to hear
footsteps and the guard came back downstairs. He looked at me and motioned with
his hands beside his head, “no sleep?” and shrugged his shoulders, he really
was confused by this. I again, stared at him in disbelief and just said, “no.”
No, I can’t sleep with the image of cockroaches and mice and gnats crawling all
over me, I don’t even go camping. He pointed up with his finger and raised his
eyebrows, “yes” I nodded my head. PLEASE take me back up stairs. I still didn’t
know what time it was, it was still dark outside. He had me sit down on the
couch again, I sat down and closed my eyes and said a prayer. Thank you for
letting him bring me back up from that nasty jail cell. It was honestly a small
comfort. I closed my eyes and continued to pray, never falling asleep. I don’t
know how long it had been but it got light outside, and I could hear a literal
rooster somewhere out there. For some reason I thought that was funny. I opened
my eyes and started staring at the security camera screen in the corner of the
office, there were two 8X8 t.v.’s stacked on top of each other. The top one
showed just outside the door of the room I was staying in and part of the street. The
bottom one pointed right on the cell that I had spent the night in. I could
just imagine the guard watching the t.v’s thinking, why the heck doesn’t she
just lay down and get some sleep? Haha.
MY ANGEL
I just sat there on the couch, STARING at the screen
pointing to the outside, praying to see Jordan walk up to the door any second.
They told him he could come back at 9:00 a.m. to bring me food. I resulted back
to the few Spanish phrases my third grade teacher taught me and asked the
guard, “Que hora es?” He looked at his watch and told me, it was 7:20. NOOOOO.
Still so early. Sat there for a while more and finally had to use the bathroom
so I asked, “el baño?” That was officially the extent of my Spanish knowledge.
He walked me toward the bathroom and let me use it. I was so gross, I could
literally smell myself from sweating all night. It just made me feel more
embarrassed and self conscious. I sat on the couch again and waited more.
Another man who was dressed like a cop finally walked in the room, he could
speak English. “Hi Jessica!” He came in and sat down with the guard next to me
and asked me a bunch of questions, how old I was, when my birthday was, what my
occupation was, my address, etc. After I completed the questionnaire he had me
stand up holding a piece of printer paper with my name on it and I literally
had to take a mug shot. I say literally because I’ve been pretty sheltered and
innocent my whole life and yes, things like getting your mug shot taken, is a pretty unbelievable big deal. For a second I thought, do I smile?
Don’t worry, I didn’t. But it was super awkward. I sat back down on the couch
and waited some more. There was a knock on the door. The door had a metal hatch
on the front of it, the guard opened it up and I could hear Jordan’s voice
saying something in Spanish to the guard. My heart about melted. It was SO good
to hear his voice, even though I didn’t know what he was saying. The guard
opened the door and Jordan had a sack full of food. Jordan handed him a yogurt,
apple, orange, orange juice, granola bar for me, and one of each for the guard
as well. (Obviously still trying the suck-up strategy.) The guard went to set
his things down, leaving Jordan outside with the door opened and Jordan mouthed
to me, “ARE YOU OKAY?” I nodded my head. I wished he could come inside SO bad.
But even just seeing his face I literally felt like he was an angel, I can’t
describe it except that I could feel his concern and I knew how much I loved
him and was so grateful for him. The guard shut the door, leaving Jordan
outside on the dusty street to just wait some more. Other workers started
showing up, two girls who came into the back room where we were sitting came
in, their hair was still wet from their morning shower and I was honestly so
jealous. They glanced at me and then said something in Spanish to the guard...
they all started laughing. I felt like an idiot. They carried on their
conversation while they each got logged onto their computer. One of the girls
pulled out her purse and started doing her make up, the other one was looking
at her phone. Another man came in, sat down on the chair. They were all just
talking to each other in Spanish and I’m like, where the heck am I. The guard
who stayed with me all night packed up his stuff and left, waving goodbye to me
first. What the heck. They turned the t.v. on to a channel of music videos,
Spanish and English ones. I sat there for what again, felt like forever. They
all left for about 15 minutes and came back a bunch of food that they sat down
and started eating and laughing together. Then Jordan came into the door from
the inside, with the secretary from the night before, he had more food. I still
hadn’t touched the breakfast he brought me other than the orange juice I took a
few sips of. He had a cheesey-egg quesadilla. He quickly came and sat by me and
said the secretary let him come back here so that he could bring me lunch and
stay by me so I could feel comfortable enough to eat it. I told him I still
couldn’t swallow one thing, he told me just to fake it so he could stay. I
started playing with the food and just burst into tears. I hadn’t cried all
night but I was just instantly softened to have Jordan back by me. He just
comforted me and promised me that we could just go lay in our big King size bed
for the rest of the week and just cuddle and not do anything. The workers kept
glancing at me and I was like, get me out of here. Jordan explained that our
lawyer was suppose to show up any minute, that I needed to go to a doctor’s office
to have an examination, and hopefully could try to get me out of there soon.
Kelly, our U.S. consulate who we had been communicating with from the night
before showed up with the director of tourism from Puerto Vallarta. She was an
interesting lady and we couldn’t decide if she was on our side or not. She had
me fill out a form of who they were allowed to release information too…
apparently a lot of people had been calling. She also had me file a complaint
against the customs workers at the airport- they had no jurisdiction to touch
Jordan or me. My arm was throbbing and it hit me that it was because of the
customs workers the night before. Who
knows if anything even happened with that. She basically told Jordan “we would
be very lucky if she gets out of here by 7:00 p.m. tonight, VERY lucky, at the
earliest.” Ya, we weren’t favoring her very much. A friend of Jordan’s from his
mission had heard of what was going on and contacted Jordan, he told Jordan to
ask our lawyer how much she was going to charge us, he said don’t let her tell
you that you’ll worry about it once she’s out, find out how much she will
charge now! He said if she tries to charge more than $1500 to call him and he
would fly his lawyer down to help us. Jordan kept sitting by me with his arm
around me, he asked if I slept at all and of course I didn’t. He said he hadn’t
either. He had gone to the resort, said he laid his head down on his pillow,
stared at the ceiling and then his alarm went off. I told him that the guard
made me go down to the cell. He asked what it was like and I pointed to the TV
screen in the corner and said, “well that’s it.” He kept telling me to take
pretend bites of my quesadilla every time the secretary walked in the room. The
music videos were still playing and Jordan tried to crack a joke, “Hey at least
you get One Direction!” A worker was on the phone and Jordan was
listening in, he replayed what they were saying. “Jess, they said that the
doctor you were suppose to go to is dead. He just died, four days ago! They
need to find a different doctor.” Again, what the heck.
EXAMINATION
Finally, at around 11:00 our lawyer showed up. She came in,
looked at the prescription that we were finally able to show them and told me
that I needed to go to get my examination. Two guards walked me out to a car;
Jordan had to stay behind. We drove a little ways to the doctors office, got
out and walked up a huge flight of stairs and then into a small office. That
was a disaster. We are blessed in America for nice facilities that are CLEAN
and organized. I couldn’t believe this was the Dr.’s office. They talked to the
secretaries and then we sat down and waited. Apparently they called us back and
the guards motioned for me to stand up and follow them, we walked back down a long
hallway. The ceiling was dripping, the floor and wall was discolored there were
stacks of paper EVERYWHERE. We got to the examination room and there was an
examination table, two desks (again stacked with paper, I’ve come to the
conclusion they don’t have a filing system anywhere in Mexico,) and three
people sitting in the room. They had me sit at a chair in front of the desk and
the Dr. walked in. They all started talking to each other in Spanish and just
laughing away. I just sat there. Finally, the doctor sat down in front of me
and shook my hand. He spoke English; he said, “I am sorry you have to go
through this. We feel guilt on our side because it is no fun, but you should
feel guilt on your side as well, you should check to see what is allowed here
before you travel.” He said he needed to ask me some questions for my
“examination.” I don’t know why there were 5 extra people in the room but they
were all just getting a kick out of it. He asked if I was hurt or had been
mistreated in anyway. I told him that I was fine other than felt that the
customs workers had mistreated me. He apologized again and said, they shouldn’t
have done that. Then he asked, “How much do you weigh, do you have any scars,
do you have any tattoos, are you sick?” Plus a few more irrelevant questions. I
answered all of them and he stamped a paper indicating that I was, indeed sick.
The guards took the paper and we walked out of his office, and got back in the
car to go back to the district attorney’s office. I walked back in and sat down
on a chair, Jordan was there and again asked me if I was okay. We waited some more. Apparently they had taken my sudafed out of it's packaging to do an examination on it, Jordan said they weighed it on a scale and that was it.
FREEDOM
Finally at about 3:00 our lawyer, a translator, the district
attorney’s secretary and I sat down at a desk to complete the final
“questioning and paperwork.” The secretary would ask a question, and the
translator would repeat it for me. I answered them as best as I could. Jordan
was standing within a gate at the front of the building and I kept looking back
at him like, “was that okay?” “How am I doing?” Some of the questions they
asked I couldn’t answer because the translation was too confusing for me, I
looked back at Jordan and he tried to explain it to me so I could understand, the
secretary eventually just let him come over to the desk to stand by us through
our questionings. The secretary was looking at the prescription and reading it
over, she said yes this is legitimate, but it doesn’t say anywhere on here
specifically “Sudafed.” We all just froze; no one knew what to say. Jordan said
he was just praying that she would get distracted. The lawyer asked to look at
the prescription and the secretary started asking different questions, we all
felt relieved. She then started asking what seemed like silly questions off the
top of her head, “did you know that you brought an illegal substance into the
country?” No. “If you did know, would you have brought it?” Um, no. Then she
started googling images of “Sudafed” and turned her computer so we could see
the screen, “which one of these pictures is like the pills that you brought?”
Seriously?? After a few more questions she came back to the prescription, “it
all looks good, but this doesn’t say anywhere on here “Sudafed.” Again, no one
knew what to say, so didn’t say anything. We had no argument for that. The district
attorney came out of his office and said, is everything about ready to go? Is
she almost out of here? He seemed to be actually hurrying the process along and
wanted me to be released! My lawyer looked at me and smiled, “this looks good!”
Finally, they printed like 7 seven copies of my release document and had me,
the translator, and lawyer sign each one in 10 different places. HALLELUIJAH. I
started crying happy tears. I was seriously so happy. It’s not a good feeling
to be stripped of your freedom, even if it is only for 24 hours. After
everything was signed and “squared away,” they asked if I was still sick… Yes,
I was miserable and could hardly breathe. They had my pills in a little plastic
baggie and then asked if I wanted them back. Jordan and I just looked at each
other. This was an utter joke. We declined. They then told us that if I decided
I did need some more, I could purchase some down around the corner. HOLY GET ME
OUT OF HERE. We shook everyone’s hand and Jordan was telling the district attorney,
secretary translator all “thank you.” I was still a little bitter. Our
lawyer gave Jordan a huge hug, and seemed genuinely happy for us, (or genuinely
happy that she just made a lot of money off of us.) She went to give me a hug
and told me, “go home and shower!” Ughhhh I know. The member from
earlier had a man who normally worked for him at his house and told him, today
you are at the disposal of Jordan. Drive him around; get him whatever he needs,
help him out. Tender mercies. So Jordan called him up to see if he could give
us a ride to our resort and he said he would be there in about 25 minutes… we
were grateful but wishing we could get out of there ASAP. The secretary of
tourism was still there and overheard this phone call and told Jordan, hey I’ll
give you guys a ride right now. We left the building and walked down the
street… after the longest weirdest ordeal of my life. We got in the car and
Jordan sent out a text to everyone concerned and said, “We got Jessica out! We
are headed to the resort now!” I felt so so so so humbled to find out how many
people had been concerned for us, were praying for us, fasting for us,
attending the temple, sending energy out to the universe, I was humbled. And it
made me cry all over again. I was literally a bit overwhelmed by it. My mom wanted to talk but I knew I couldn’t talk
yet, Jord said I’d call her as soon as I had calmed down. We got to our resort
and took a shuttle to our “tower.” We headed up the elevator and got to the
outside of our room and I stopped Jordan, I could hear voices inside and for
some reason I was SO scared to walk in, I didn’t want to face anyone. I don’t
know if I felt embarrassed, or was just wishing we could erase everything but I
didn’t want to face anyone. We stood outside the door for about 10 minutes
before Jordan was like, “Jess we can’t stand out here all day, what do you want me to do?” I honestly was like, let's hide they have to go down to the pool eventually! Finally I let
him open the door and Ashley, my sister in law was the first person to stand up
and give me the biggest hug and just started bawling, I started crying too. It
was so weird hahahaha what had just happened. Everyone came over and gave me a
huge hug; Jordan’s parents, Ashley, Jordan’s aunt Vicki. They offered to make
me food, whatever I wanted. All I wanted was to take a shower. I felt
immediately a hundred times better afterward. My family had scrambled eggs and
toast ready for me when I got out, and I was finally comfortable enough to eat.
It was more humbling to hear of everything that had taken
place on the other end, it affected our entire family who couldn’t enjoy their
vacation with this all going on, they were probably more traumatized than we
were because they would just get snippets, “they’ve taken Jessica!” “They’ve held me down and grabbed her by force!” “We don’t know where they are taking us!” It left a lot
more for the imagination. I had family members still back at home, lawyers
looking into it, everyone contacting the US embassy and consulate and church members and praying
and going to the temple. I kept crying every time I heard something new. I
called my mom, gave her some assurance that I was okay, and said that I
actually did want to stay and finish my vacation. ;) Jord and I laid down and I
was instantly OUT. We took a 3 and a half hour nap and I have never slept so
well. We went to dinner which was graciously paid for by Jordan's uncles, came back and
Jordan gave me a beautiful priesthood blessing of comfort. In it, he told me
that I needed to write everything down I could remember from this experience for
posterity and also, so I could remember all of the tender mercies we were shown
throughout this. So, here I am. 8,000 words later!!
TENDER MERCIES
Although this experience was terrible, we do feel that we
were shown many tender mercies. Things could have been a lot worse, we were
definitely watched over and were being protected. Some of these I didn’t find out
until after everything was calmed down, some of them I realized after, and some
during. I just don’t ever want to forget!
From the very beginning at the airport with the customs workers, Jordan was able to remain calm. Where things could have gotten really ugly with him losing his temper, or even hitting someone when things got physical, he was in total control.
The kind customs worker who offered us water and was later the one who told the guards to let Jordan go so that he could come with me. Probably one of the biggest tender mercies of them all.
The fact that Jordan could speak spanish.
The secretary writing up the document who noticed the prescription didn't say "sudafed" was distracted and didn't bring up that point again.
Jordan actually went out of the doors at the airport to talk to his family and when he tried to get back in the guards said no. Jordan completely ignored them and walked straight down the halls to the automatic doors that opened up to where I was but they never opened up because he was standing on the opposite side. The doors were not meant for people to return back into the customs area once they had walked outside the airport. Jordan pried the doors open being reunited with me again. Huge blessing he could have been separated from me at that point.
The guard let Jordan see me in the morning, even for a brief second through the door, it brought huge comfort.
The secretary at the district attorney's let Jordan come eat lunch with me and sit with me.
The kind customs worker who offered us water and was later the one who told the guards to let Jordan go so that he could come with me. Probably one of the biggest tender mercies of them all.
The fact that Jordan could speak spanish.
The secretary writing up the document who noticed the prescription didn't say "sudafed" was distracted and didn't bring up that point again.
Jordan actually went out of the doors at the airport to talk to his family and when he tried to get back in the guards said no. Jordan completely ignored them and walked straight down the halls to the automatic doors that opened up to where I was but they never opened up because he was standing on the opposite side. The doors were not meant for people to return back into the customs area once they had walked outside the airport. Jordan pried the doors open being reunited with me again. Huge blessing he could have been separated from me at that point.
The guard let Jordan see me in the morning, even for a brief second through the door, it brought huge comfort.
The secretary at the district attorney's let Jordan come eat lunch with me and sit with me.
Our bishop from our home ward, had been contacted while all
this was taking place. He was in contact with the Stake President in Puerto
Vallarta who helped us with our connections.
The fact that a complete random member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints from Puerto Vallarta had showed up that night at the district attorneys office and stayed the whole time and then offered his employee to
our service. Jordan was going to stay the night at a hotel up the
street from where I was staying in jail, this member told him not to,
that it would be safer to go to the resort and that his employee could pick him
up first thing in the morning free of charge.
I feel guilty that during the night that I was
in jail I was praying to feel comforted… and didn’t realize I already was being
comforted and sheltered. Looking back, I realized I was completely protected.
People ask me the strongest feeling I had during the ordeal… and they are all
surprised to hear it wasn’t fear. I was frustrated. I believe that the night I
spent in jail, I was being completely protected from feeling fear. It didn’t
even cross my mind that I was left alone in this building with only one male guard.
I was never afraid of the guard, or never felt like I was in danger with him.
Especially for me, I find this a huge blessing. I realized my feelings of
“numbness,” and “shock” was my protection from fear. I’ve had anxiety attacks
in the past and I was protected from freaking out, or feeling anxiety. I’m so
so grateful and have said many prayers of thanks since. This was huge.
I later found out that a congregation of a different faith
than mine in St. George Utah had heard what was happening and held a service
prayer meeting for me… extremely humbling and more tears. Reassurance that
there are good people in the world!
My family has a connection with the CIA, the man who works
for them told us that he knows the district attorney of Puerto Vallarta and
that he is a very corrupt man, who sometimes makes the right decision. We feel
extremely blessed that he was able to make the right decision for us.
I haven’t had any nightmares, or seem to have been affected
negatively from any trauma. I was able to enjoy the rest of my vacation with
family, and other than feeling a little ornery at times had a really relaxing
time.
My brother in law, who is a Doctor at the Mayo Clinic was traveling with us and was able to write us a prescription which helped with my release.
We didn't have to pay jail fees. We've heard several stories since it's happened to us that people in this situation have had to pay thousands and thousands of dollars. We only had to pay the lawyer.
The district attorney was getting all kinds of outside pressure from the US, and the director of tourism in Puerto Vallarta that we believe helped him hurry the process up to just get me out of there.
Jordan's Aunt that had $1,500 cash on hand to give to the attorney.
Jordan's Aunt that had $1,500 cash on hand to give to the attorney.
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