;)
There I sat in Jordan for another day waiting to get back to work in Iraq. I met up with another former Marine and we decided to travel together for safety and because we were bored. The night before we had stayed at a dump of a hotel for $75 each, when we got stuck another day we decided to move up. I found the Four Seasons Jordan for $99 a night and it included breakfast.
After getting settled into the room on the 8th floor overlooking the street we wondered what type of parade was going on. A couple minutes later hundreds of people starting coming down the road holding a sign. From the 8th floor I couldn’t read the sign, but luckily my friend had some optics and read the sign, “Stop the violence in the North Bank by the EU, Israel, and America.” It was an anti-America and Israel demonstration. At least the hotel had good physical security and there were a lot of police around.
We decided to stay in the hotel for a while. About four hours after the “parade” had passed we decided we were hungry. It was Friday and almost everything was closed. The hotel desk got us a cab to a Burger King, telling us it was far away but it was the only thing open. We took the $10 cab ride for 3 blocks and ate at the Burger King.
Since we could see the hotel from Burger King we decided to walk back. The streets were empty of people but there were a bunch of cars as it was a major street. In Jordan you have to walk against traffic because every cab driver will stop and ask if you want a ride. About the third or forth car to stop was the dumbest terrorist ever. He got out of his car and walked up to us saying he worked at the airport in Iraq and knew us.
Neither one of us could remember him but it was possible. He started asking us to come and have dinner with him. We declined, and he asked us to come have tee. We also declined. He said it’s not what you think, people are nice here and no one was going to hurt us. By this time we started walking away knowing he would have to go back to his car soon. He started asking us about our ticket information and saying he could help us with our flight. We declined, so he offered us a ride back to the hotel and wanted to know which hotel and what room we were staying in. We started walking faster, putting room between his car and us.
As soon as he broke away from us to go back to his idling car we doubled our pace and ducked into a convenience store that had a big sign in English saying they were open Friday. We had nothing to do, so we just walked around and started talking about what just happened. Both of us being security guys and former Marines we did an after action to learn what could have gone better.
We both agreed we should have looked more closely around us to make sure he wasn’t alone even-though neither of us had seen anyone (and we both looked). We also decided would should have gotten more info. At one point the guy had showed us his ID and we could have snatched it, we should have gotten the license plate number and his full name, and I had my camera in my pocket but needed new batteries or we could have gotten a picture. I bought some batteries and put them in the camera as we left the store.
Waiting on the curb was the same guy in his car. He again started with the same script. My buddy asked him to see his ID and was trying to get him to hand it over as I looked around for other people. Nothing else was out of the ordinary. We declined all of his invitations again. After about 2 minutes I decided that was enough. I told him to smile and took a picture of him. As soon as he saw the camera he quit smiling and drove off. Before he could drive away I got a picture of his license plate number.
We double-timed it back to the hotel through a back street where we had seen the hotel security. We met them and showed or keys and IDs to get in. Once back to our room I called the front desk and asked to speak with one of their security team because someone had just tried to abduct us. I sat down to put the pictures into my laptop. The hotel’s security was on top of things and 5 minutes later the director of security knocked on our door.
We told him the entire story and asked if this happens from time to time. He said this has never happened before. He wanted descriptions, license number, and direction of travel so he could get his friend in the police to “have a talk with him.” I did better and showed him the pictures and emailed them to him.
Looking back, I have no doubt that if this guy had his way we would have been beheaded on the Internet. We were lucky he was the dumbest terrorist ever. The only thing that would have been dumber is if we had gotten into the car with him. It was like watching a bad after-school special on stranger danger. He said everything but can you help me find my dog to get us into his car. I also look back and see that he might have been smarter then he looked. We shouldn’t have talked to him so long the first time, and shouldn’t have played with him so long the second time.
Being in a foreign country that isn’t always friendly to Americans going back into the convenience store would have been the smart choice in America. In Jordan the store clerk may or may not have called the cops if we were getting abducted in front of him. So we should have gotten out of there the first sign of weird and not stayed around.
Don’t make my mistakes, take off at the first sign of weird.
Stay Safe,
Ben