A Nightmare in Peru

This story is making the rounds this week; I can verify the participants are real people, and that this story is one being shared with US & Peru officials, family & friends, and nationwide media starting in 2 or 3 weeks.

My questions to ATS - once you're done reading, can you find the holes in their account? If this story rings true, then by all means let us know, but for others let's see what you come up with. No cheating, no reading the comments on the site I'll link to on the last thread.

Original story:

. . .

JH Weekly has learned that a local woman was recently the victim of a vicious attack while on holiday in Peru. Jennifer Wolfrom, 30, who has worked at the Jackson Hole Land Trust since August 2011, says she was attacked along with her brother, Jed, and his wife Meghan Doherty.

According to Wolfrom, the three travelers were assaulted in the village of Pallcca in the region of Ocongate, Peru near the city of Cusco and the famous Inca site Machu Picchu. They had attempted to truck camp for the night and were surrounded by villagers who demanded their documentation. The confrontation escalated to the point that the American travelers were pelted with rocks and at some point deployed pepper spray in their own defense.

Wolfrom, her brother and Doherty were held captive briefly and received serious injuries from the encounter but are currently alive and receiving medical treatment in Cusco. Wolfrom said the villagers took most all of her possessions as well as her companions’ belongings. Wolfrom is currently without her passport and credit cards and is working with the U.S. Consulate and Embassy, along with local police, to try and recover her possessions and get back to Jackson Hole.

There is currently no travel advisories in the area, nor is there a history of violence toward foreign travelers in the Ocongate Region. A full recount of the incident from Jennifer Wolfrom follows:

“My name is Jennifer Lynne Wolfrom. I am a US citizen, a resident of Jackson Hole in the state of Wyoming, currently visiting Cuzco, Peru and the surrounding areas. I am a victim of an act of extreme violence towards myself, my brother (Joseph Palmer Wolfrom III), and my sister-in-law (Meghan Moore Doherty). Joseph and Meghan have been driving for nine months from the United States through Central and South America, camping almost every night in their truck camper and have not yet experienced any violence or danger until this situation which occurred from December 29 to December 30, 2012. I flew into Cuzco, Peru on December 22, 2012 to meet my brother and his wife for a 10-day vacation. We stayed in Cuzco for a few days and then went into the mountains to hike a portion of the Asungate Mountain trek. We were in the mountains from December 25 to December 29.

“On December 29, 2012, we left the mountains to drive back to Cuzco and towards our next destination of Macchu Picchu. It was getting dark and we knew that driving in the dark was dangerous, so we pulled down a dirt road to camp in the camper on the back of their truck. We pulled into a flat spot near a bridge in the village of Pallcca in the region of Ocongate, Peru at about 6:30 PM. We were drinking two beers between the three of us because it was my 30th birthday and we were celebrating. We were almost immediately approached by two village residents, who were friendly and who we asked if it was ok to park and camp where we had. They said yes. Soon, the two men were blowing whistles and using their cell phones to alert their friends of our presence and many more village residents started gathering around us, including the man who they called the Presidente. We recognized that he was the leader of the community and Meghan asked him directly if we could camp there and he said ‘Yes.’ We were soon surrounded by indigenous village people who started asking us to give them our documents. We refused to show them our documents as they weren´t Policia and we were getting nervous about their pushiness and decided to leave. We told them we would leave and got into the truck. They wouldn´t let my brother shut his door and started picking up rocks. Joseph finally got his door shut and we drove off quickly in the opposite direction of where we came hoping that the road would lead us away.

“The road ended at a school about 10 minutes after we started driving. There was a man there and we asked him if we could camp and he said no, so we had to turn around and start driving back towards where we first encountered the mob. Soon we were approached by two motor bikes coming from the village and many people on foot. They started approaching the vehicle and we asked them if we could please leave. They said they would not let us leave and then started throwing rocks at the truck and building a rock blockade on the road in front of us. We drove over the first blockade and there were villagers up on the hill above the road continuing to throw rocks at the truck. They threw a large rock through the passenger window, breaking it and hitting me in the face and cutting my jaw. They also threw a rock through the driver’s side window, hitting my brother. We soon were met with another large road blockade of boulders that we could not drive through. At this blockade they threw rocks at the windshield and destroyed it. We veered off the road to try to drive around the blockade and got stuck in a huge ditch and could not drive anymore. We were being bombarded with rocks and had to escape from the vehicle. We had two cans of bear spray between the three of us so we used that in self-defense to be able to get out of the truck to start running from the village. We got out of the truck and started running and were immediately attacked by villagers who were throwing rocks at our heads and chasing us with blinding flashlights and sticks. It very much seemed like a planned organized attack with each of the villagers blowing whistles signaling other villagers to come out and join the chase. There were at least 30 people chasing us and throwing rocks at us at one point. We were running for our lives for between 30 minutes to an hour through the village hills and rivers. We were each struck multiple times by rocks in the head and all over our bodies. We eventually were surrounded by villagers who continued to beat us until they decided to bring us back to the Presidente of the village. We were forced to walk back to meet the Presidente where we pleaded with him to let us go. At this point we were all bleeding severely from our heads and Joseph´s front teeth were knocked out and his eye blundered shut by a rock. It was raining and freezing and my brother had lost a shoe running through a river. After a long discussion between the villagers and the presidente, he demanded that we be forced to walk about a mile in the freezing rain back up to the village school. We told them that we would just leave and they could have all of our stuff, but they would not let us leave. During that time I was beaten in the head with a large board, Meghan was kicked in her back extremely hard, and rocks continued to be thrown at us.

“At the village school we were initially surrounded by at least 40 of the men, women, and children of the village who all addressed the Presidente with their ideas of what they wanted to do with us. Many of the women and men were screaming that they wanted the village to kill us. We kept apologizing, pleading, and explaining ourselves in Spanish," Continued....

but they would not listen and started to whip us with the ropes that they use to whip their animals. We were whipped and beaten for a few hours in between sessions of interrogation. They told us that we should have given them our documents, but we explained that typically we did not give non-official policia our documents. Many of the villagers were angry about us using the bear spray (mace), but we explained that it was self-defense and we only used it after being attacked with rocks and barricaded, forcing us to crash the truck. We told them we had been very scared when they attacked us in the truck with rocks and we apologized over and over for the miscommunication. During this time at the school we were forced to separate and they stripped us of our possessions on our persons which included my iPhone 5, my brother and sister-in-law´s driver´s licenses and debit cards. After a few hours of standing in the freezing rain, being whipped by villagers numerous times, and screamed at in their local language, we continued to plead for our lives, shivering and bleeding, and they eventually shut us inside the school. We again apologized and pleaded to leave without any of our belongings.

“After less than an hour of being shut in the school, we were again brought out to circle of villagers of over 33 people (I counted at least 33 people that I could see but there were many in the back ground- including young children). We immediately saw that there were at least three villagers that had at least three guns, one that we know was a 20 or 12 gauge shot gun. We tried to shield ourselves from the guns and again pleaded for them not to kill us. We were forced into the middle of the circle by men holding whips and we were held at gun point while again the villagers addressed the Presidente with their stories and ideas for our lives. At least one gunshot was shot towards us in the circle. The man with the 20 or 12 gauge shot gun seemed to be an unofficial police or security guard for the village. We told him our story and spent another few hours in the middle of the circle while they decided what to do with us. It was at this point that lights were shined on our injuries and the villagers could see the extent of their violent acts. There was more discussion between the villagers and we were whipped again, with my brother taking most of the beating while trying to protect us. This last portion of the village gathering was photographed and recorded by many of the villagers. They were shining bright lights in our eyes, blinding us and taking pictures of our bloody faces and bodies, and recording the conversations on their phones. After another period of conversation and pleading, we were led to a table where we saw that they had written up their version of a story that they wanted us to sign for the police. Their accident report, written in Spanish, essentially said that we had been drinking and crashed our car, which is how the car got destroyed and how we got our injuries. However, the extent of our injuries and the condition of the car far surpasses anything that could happen by driving into a grassy ditch. They also pulled out all of our legal documents that they had stolen from the car, showed us they had them, and then confiscated them again. They still possess these documents.

“We were convinced that the only way we would survive was to sign the report and assure the villagers that we would tell the police that it was a car accident that caused the damage to the truck and the injuries to our bodies. Once we convinced them that we would go along with their story, they had us sign the document and ink print our fingerprints. At around 5 am, after nearly 11 hours of being attacked, chased, beaten, whipped, and held at gun point without food, sleep, or water, we were led back to the truck. All of the windows and the windshield of the truck had been broken and the camper had been broken into and all of our belongings and documents were either stolen or thrown into the muddy ditch. We were told to wait for the police before we tried to get our truck out of the ditch. There were at least 15 villagers that stood with us at the truck until the police came. These villagers made us keep telling them that we would tell the police that it was an accident. At about 6:00 am, a man came who claimed he was the police and asked us to tell him what happened. He was clearly not a real policeman so we told him the same story that was written in the report to satisfy the villagers who were watching closely over us. This man tried to convince us to go back to the school to use a phone to call the hospital, but we refused because we felt it would bring another attack on our lives. At about 7:30 am four Policia National came to the scene of the accident. We told them the same story about crashing our truck and the policemen very clearly did not believe it. The Policia National took photos of every aspect of the accident," continued

including the condition of the truck, the scene of the accident which very clearly shows the boulder barricade that the village set up to trap us, and close-up photos of our head injuries. The policemen helped us get our truck unstuck and we were escorted out in police vehicles at around 8:00 am. We were met by an ambulance that we were told was going to transport us to the city of Cuzco, which is what we wanted as there is better medical care there and we would feel much safer there as it was further away from the village. The police had told us that they would escort the ambulance to the city of Cuzco and would drive our truck to Cuzco so that we could get it fixed. Meanwhile, on the way out of the village that we were attacked in, the police picked up a truckload of villagers who could have very well been part of our attack and brought them along with them to the same town they were escorting us to. We felt extremely unsafe.

“That morning of December 30, 2012, we were brought to the town of Ocongate, Peru and asked to get out of the ambulance. We said no, that we wanted to go to Cuzco and they told us they had to clean our wounds in the Ocongate medical clinic and then we would be brought to Cuzco. While we were being treated in Ocongate, which included about 100 stitches between the three of us (most of these stitches addressing head injuries), we kept requesting to be taken to Cuzco by either the police or the ambulance. The story kept changing and soon it became apparent that we were not going to be taken to Cuzco. We had asked in the clinic to be connected to someone at the US Embassy and finally a member of thepolicia connected us to Amy Bakal at the US Consulate in Cuzco. We explained our situation to Amy and told her we felt very unsafe in the town that we were in. We then found a translator and had the translator tell the policia our exact account of what happened. Once we had been able to tell our story to the US Consulate and to the policia national, we started getting better treatment and were eventually taken from the medical clinic to the police station where they fed us and allowed us to get clothes out of the truck to change into as we had been sitting in bloody, muddy, wet clothing for almost 24 hours at that point. We signed an initial police report that was written by the policia national in the Spanish language in the town of Ocongate. We have copies of this police report. We left the town of Ocongate at 6:30 pm and were brought by the policia national to Cuzco. We were promised by the mayor of the village that our truck would be brought to Cuzco after the investigation by the policia. However, when we met the consulate that night in Cuzco, our policia national escorts told the consulate that they would not be driving the truck to Cuzco.

“The past few days, which should have been a time for us to mentally process what happened, heal physically from our traumatic injuries, and regain strength, have been almost as tiring as the attack itself. We have spent at least 10 – 12 hour each day in different medical clinics being examined since we were not brought to the correct medical facility in Cuzco immediately after the attack. Without the truck we have had to take taxi cabs from each medical clinic, one which we were mandated to visit by the police which was an hour outside of the city we are currently staying in. We have not been able to eat properly as all of our time has been waiting for and meeting with doctors and trying to figure out how to access our money since all but one of our debit cards were stolen. We are staying in an overpriced hotel that has no regular hot water and we haven´t been able to switch hotels because all of our time has been spent at the medical clinics.

“We spent December 31, meeting with the Amy at the US Consulate and getting medical treatment at the Clinica San Jose in Cuzco, Peru. This treatment included checking our stitches and bruises, x-rays for my sister-in-law, and a cat scan for my brother. We were prescribed antibiotics and pain killers by the doctor. My brother will also need extensive dental work as four of his front teeth are either knocked out or severely damaged.

“We met with a legal doctor on January 2, 2013, who examined our injuries in order to be used in court testimonies. We are meeting with the police from Ocongate, the police from Cuzco, and Amy Bakal with the US Consulate today, Thursday, January 3, to submit an official statement for the police report. I was supposed to fly back to the United States yesterday January 2, 2013, morning, but my passport, license, and all my money and debit cards were stolen during the attack. After the attack, I do not feel comfortable traveling alone to Lima to get to the Embassy so my brother and sister-in-law be will be accompanying me up to Lima after we make our statements to the police on Thursday over the weekend so that I can get my emergency passport and fly back to the United States," Cont..

...early next week. The airlines are currently trying to charge me almost $1,000 to travel back, or almost $200 to travel back over the course of three days. Mentally I am not sure of my ability to spend three days on flights and in airports. Those of you who know me know that is saying a lot since I am the queen of airport sleeping.

“This situation has not only been extremely traumatic both mentally and physically, but has also become a huge financial burden for the three of us. We had thousands of dollars of possessions stolen from us during the attack, our medical bills and money spent on prescriptions as well as taxi cab travel and hotel bills are growing, the damage to the truck is extensive and will be costly, the cost of replacing my passport and changing my plane ticket will be in the hundreds of dollars, and I am missing an extra week of work pay because of the requirement to meet with the police and then time at the embassy to replace my passport before I can leave the country.

“A list of our tangible stolen possessions and their approximate value is below.”

Jennifer Wolfrom’s stolen possessions:

• Canon Rebel Ti1 DLSR camera, wide angle DSLR lens, two lens filters and three 8 or 16 GB photo cards = $2,000

• iPhone 5 = $600

• Alps Mountaineering Four Season two person backpacking tent = $250

• Women’s Patagonia Primaloft Nano Puff jacket = $200

• Women’s Outdoor Research rain jacket = $150

• Out Door Research snow gators = $120

• Big Agnes Dual Core Primaloft sleeping pad = $200

• 700 Peruvian Soles = $350

• Women’s La Sportiva mountaineering boots = $400

• Princeton Tech Head Lamp = $40

• US Passport = $140

• Driver’s license = $25

• Camelback Cloud day back pack = $80

• Miscellaneous clothing = $200

• Debit and Credit cards

Total: $4,755

Joseph Wolfrom and Meghan Doherty’s stolen possessions:

• Women’s Garmont mountaineering boots = $400

• iPod = $300

• Sony Vaio Lap Top and software = $4,000

• Men’s Patagonia Nano Puff jacket = $200

• 5 gallon gas can and 5 gallons of gas = $120

• Extensive First Aid Kit = $100

• Men’s La Sportiva climbing shoes = $120

• Garmin GPS = $300

• Native polarized sunglasses = $100

• Miscellaneous clothing = $300

Total: $5,940

We are unsure what the total costs of the following will be, but they are sure to be extensive:

• Food, lodging, and transportation in Cuzco, Peru for an extra week

• Airfare to the US Embassy in Lima, Peru for passport replacement

• Food and lodging in Lima, Peru for the duration of the passport replacement process

• Repairs to extensive damage to the Toyota Tacoma truck and Phoenix Pop-up camper

• Medical and Dental bills for injuries acquired during the attack

• Possible mental health expenses regarding trauma from the attack

• Possible expense of towing the Toyota Tacoma from Ocongate to Cuzco if the policia will not drive the truck to Cuzco as promised

Source: planetjh.com...

Very strange story.
A group of Peruvian villagers organise themselves with whistles and cellphones to kidnap a group of tourists, whom they beat up... and then let them go.

As a Peruvian I feel saddened that these horrific events happen in my country.

However, as a skeptic, I find the story strange and hard to believe as another poster stated above.


I do not call these people liars, for I know what some people in my country (and in every country, really) are capable of, but it just seems too weird a story.

reply to post by Jason88

can you find the holes in their account?

Yes

On December 29, 2012, we left the mountains to drive back to Cuzco and towards our next destination of Macchu Picchu....
We were drinking two beers between the three of us because it was my 30th birthday and we were celebrating.

This is how every lie told to a police officer starts...two beers.

But anyways, we are supposed to donate money to a website to help them get their expensive toys back and get them back in the US. But at the same time they can't access money because they are in a remote village and can only use an internet to post this story and update the blog.
adventureamericas.wordpress.com...

“The road ended at a school about 10 minutes after we started driving. There was a man there and we asked him if we could camp and he said no, so we had to turn around and start driving back towards where we first encountered the mob. Soon we were approached by two motor bikes coming from the village and many people on foot.

So they drive 10min one way and then turn back, soon after that 2 motorcycles and people on foot are approaching them. So were the people running really fast or were the bikes going really slow?

They said they would not let us leave and then started throwing rocks at the truck and building a rock blockade on the road in front of us.

Yeah...started building a blockade out of rocks...sure. That just seems a little out there.

“At the village school we were initially surrounded by at least 40 of the men, women, and children of the village who all addressed the Presidente with their ideas of what they wanted to do with us. Many of the women and men were screaming that they wanted the village to kill us. We kept apologizing, pleading, and explaining ourselves in Spanish," Continued....

The whole "Presidente" thing comes off as cheesy. One of the major problems i have with this story is that there is an entire village attacking these people so close to a tourist attraction. Tourists are where these people get the bulk of their money from. While some gang might do something like this i don't think a whole village would be screaming "kill them".
A lot of it just seems out of a bad movie. villagers building rock walls to block them, being taken to el presidente for judgement and more beatings.
One thing i find odd is that cusco us pretty high up there elevation wise. How could 3 rock injured tourists manage to outrun the village mob? You ever try to run at high altitude?
This stuff is made up or there are LARGE missing portions missing from the story, like they hacked up and ate a local drifter and that is why everyone was so upset with them.

Hmm, if this story is true then the OP just experienced what it's like to be Gringos beset by two-legged animals. Very nasty stuff.

There are some parts of S America where if you are white there's still a lot of hatred from the days of the Conquistadors and their followers.

OP, can you possibly find a way to digitize the police reports and post them online?

reply to post by WatchRider


Myself, and other skeptics, are waiting for this trio to post anything official - police reports, travel incident reports, pictures of the injuries.. anything. They haven't, or they could be waiting for a supposed Today Show appearance in several weeks before sharing this information (folks believe if they do national TV they may get slaughtered by a smart producer).

The sad part is they've taken close to $20K off friends and family, look here: www.crowdtilt.com...

You'll see just over $5K in there, but it was closed and opened again where they already took out $15K to cover their costs.

If you analyze their blog (adventureamericas.wordpress.com...), you'll find from day one they wanted people to sponsor their 9 month vacation to South America - this is no different, just they put what appears to be a massive lie behind it.

Shocking story but in this day and age of kali yuga, relatively this group mugging lucky happened in some village in Peru.

Had it happened in some hillbilly or shanty town in America, especially if one were muslim or sikh, wouldn't they probably end up not just stoned and mugged, but a disposed dead corpse full of bullets, vehicles and possessions taken over by the locals, and forever "missing"?

The hills have eyes.

Originally posted by Jason88
reply to post by WatchRider

 

Myself, and other skeptics, are waiting for this trio to post anything official - police reports, travel incident reports, pictures of the injuries.. anything. They haven't, or they could be waiting for a supposed Today Show appearance in several weeks before sharing this information (folks believe if they do national TV they may get slaughtered by a smart producer).

The sad part is they've taken close to $20K off friends and family, look here: www.crowdtilt.com...

You'll see just over $5K in there, but it was closed and opened again where they already took out $15K to cover their costs.

If you analyze their blog (adventureamericas.wordpress.com...), you'll find from day one they wanted people to sponsor their 9 month vacation to South America - this is no different, just they put what appears to be a massive lie behind it.

edit on 9-1-2013 by Jason88 because: (no reason given)

Yeah this is just way to out there to be believable. But to her credit Jed's wife did remove the list from the blog
adventureamericas.wordpress.com...

But why did they take that money out there? It does not take 15k to get back to America and its not like they are going to replace all their stolen stuff while they are there.I find the list of stolen possessions to be very odd. She goes out of her way to list what was taken with a price list but they don't talk too much about the injuries.
But, 100 bucks says that her bag that had all the documents gets stolen on her way home.
Did anyone else notice the strange selection on when to use Spanish? This is not a hole in the story just very strange. She calls the police "policia" like she is too dumb to know that it is just Spanish for police.

reply to post by Jason88


I once watched a film with a very similar storyline to this ... can't for the life of me remember what it was called ... but this sounds 'iffy' to me ... just doesn't ring true that a whole village should behave so violently when they must have had numerous tourists pass through their village over the years without incident.

My guess is either this is a completely made-up senario (for whatever reason) ... or else these people must have behaved very badly to the locals in order to prompt such an aggressive response ... either way I don't believe things happened as they say they did for no reason ... makes no sense at all.

Woody

reply to post by Jason88


I have worked with every Hispanic nationality under the sun.

I have heard stories and witnessed things first hand. The way Peruvians justify theft, fooling, tricking and deceiving is that they are being "smart". It is a "good thing" to do what most cultures consider being GRIMY.

I don't really care about the Flack I will get for this post. I know more than most people about south American cultures because I lived, ate and worked side by side with many for many years. I know them inside and out down to little phrases and little cultural nuances they think go unnoticed. I have many personal points of reference.

The same way Argentineans think to race and genetics, and so their superiority over the people of the earth, which leads to delusions of grandeur, Peruvians are low down, miserable, grimy and advantage seekers to a degree I have never seen rivaled. It is all due to their presumed state of "being tricked" by the rest of the world.They justify EVERYTHING they do as good or fair. Like raping a woman because the man spent to much money courting her and she didnt end up wanting to marry him, even though her father and the soon to be groom decided for her over some ridiculous "negotiations".

I could go on, but the "indigenas", the natives are not even trusted in their own country. Peruvians cant even go into neighboring countries anymore because of the crap they do. They are known as liars, thieves and cheats and consequently NO ONE wants them around except for foreign people who may not know of them, but learn eventually after they have been utterly screwed by them.

I know there are exceptions but I have met MANY Peruvians over the years and the exceptions to the norm are as adamant about my observations as I am if not more.

I apologize to any Peruvians that might read this and would feel insulted, BUT I do stand by what I said. My personal experience has shown this to be true. If you do not like this image people have of you, then you should work diligently to change that perception your people have by the world.

You have recently become a new culinary center for your ingenuity. If you do not address your social issues you will lose that new advantage for everything else that will turn people off no matter how good your chefs and hospitality industry is. If I cant go to your cities and country side without getting my back pack slashed or mocked or robbed then I will not go. I don't care if you have great eats.

EDIT: I believe it, and wish to say that their story was moving and I will keep them in my thoughts. I wish for them to get well and be able to put this all behind them.

Thoughts and prayers for them.

Hey to update this thread - this group is on NBC's Today show (Friday 1/25) tomorrow morning at 7:30am.

reply to post by zedVSzardoz


I've only heard of two-tier pricing from that neck of the woods as well as ransom-kidnapping (elsewhere) but don't discount what you say either.

Fair-skinned USA or Euro-folks are a soft-target in their eyes, but until this story comes out I'm not saying aye or nay...

To me this story rings true so I believe it.

Sounds like a "soft" extortion attempt that snowballed out of control, I don't think there is any grand conspiracy. When you roll into a village with phone in your pocket that would feed a local family for a year you're putting yourself in a potentially bad situation. This rule applies to any country in the world IMO.

Consider yourself lucky to have made it out of there alive.

video.today.msnbc.msn.com...
I don't see any scars, i mean they did get 100 stitches...
They do show pictures of their "injuries" but there are no real cuts, all i see is a little bit of blood smeared on the face along with some dirt.

There are always two sides to every story. Who can make an informed opinion, or judgment for that matter without hearing the other side to this one. Obviously the villages were very upset about something, its possible they mistook these people for the real culprits, who knows?

Originally posted by RandyBragg
video.today.msnbc.msn.com...
I don't see any scars, i mean they did get 100 stitches...
They do show pictures of their "injuries" but there are no real cuts, all i see is a little bit of blood smeared on the face along with some dirt.

edit on 25-1-2013 by RandyBragg because: (no reason given)

Holy cow. I lived with that reporter during college. There isn't even a word in the English language for how insanely mean she is. They should've sent her to Peru.

On-topic: this is what happens when an entire nation outlaws Monsanto: Monsanto takes all of its tourists. Maybe. Because this is ATS.