How Theft Is Perpetrated on a Bus, Ecuador Style

I was getting off an uncrowded bus in Quito this week,

planning to pick up my principal  laptop computer (at a repair shop)

that could not be repaired due to unavailability of parts

in Ecuador.  I had with me an older, backup computer.

A woman also exiting on the bus stairs just behind me

started pushing hard into my side and back.

The distraction gave her accomplice just enough time

to lift the laptop from a box I was carrying. It was gone.

The moves were so smooth that I didn't understand

what had happened until it was over.

---

The next day, I bought a new laptop (Lenovo brand, $379)

and a recharger that enabled me to also revive an old

Toshiba laptop as my new backup PC.

Although the computer screen for my formerly

primary laptop, a MacBook Pro, cannot be

obtained in Ecuador, I hope to replace the part on

my next US trip, as the MacBook was my primary

and most 'sofisticada computadora' and I would

like to put it back in operation as #1.

cccmedia in Quito