Today (Friday) I drove a friend to the Spanish version of the FBI. About a year ago their family's apartment was broken into and their computers, cameras, and other major electronic equipment was taken. They live close to where I do in a safe part of town. Anyway, a couple weeks ago (a year later) they got a call from the guardia civil to say that they had recovered one of their stolen computers and that they could come recover it in Toledo (about 45 minutes away). So this morning Dave and I set out for Toledo in my car. We arrived found a place to park, paid the meter and walked over to the guardia civil compound. Now granted the guardia civil is kind of like the police branch of the military so it is a bit more intimidating than the standard police office. We saw some military cars leave, walked up to the guard at the gate and told him that we were there to meet Juan de Mata (that's his name, really, but "mata" means to kill, so it sounds like John Killer or something like that). The guard takes Dave's id card goes into the building on the right, calls up on the intercom to someone upstairs and says something (I was too far away to hear). Then about two minutes later a car drives up with a guy that looks at Dave and says, "Hi Dave. I'm Juan." and then to the guards, "Have them follow me." So we follow the car which quickly goes out of sight. There is practically no one else in sight. And most of those who are are in uniform.
Juan was a normal looking guy in sunglasses in a nice, but normal car. Anyway, we have no idea where the car nor Juan is, but right about this time a thin, tattooed, spanish looking guy with curly, somewhat long dark hair walks out and greets us (or more correctly Dave - they shake my hand too, but only because I'm standing there). He definitely looks like an undercover cop who is carrying a gun. He takes us upstairs were we enter into their office. There are about 8 desks, a board with photos, names, and random details about Operation Perche or something like that. We hear the two men (Juan soon after enters the room) talking about random details of some guys who are in jail.
Then Juan brings out Dave's computer, asks him to identify it, asks Dave a ton of personal information (his parents' names, his addresses here and in the US, etc.,). Then Dave asks how they found it and him. Apparently the stolen goods were found in eight residences of Polish immigrants who were a part of a mafia or band of gangs. Juan had gotten permission to hack into all the computers, so he had looked at the contents of Dave's computer where he found information about the mission he works with, contacted them, and then got in touch with Dave. Juan then showed us pictures of the thieves who were now in jail, pictures of Dave and his wife (which were now on Juan's computer), etc.,
We then sat there for about an hour or so while Juan entered a ton of info into his computer, had Dave sign a few things, looked through boxes of confiscated stuff from these same residences in search of the many other things Dave and Beth (Dave's wife) had lost. The laptop (an old Dell) and the carrying bag along with a jerry-rigged European cord were all that remained. The mac computers (which were newer, and of course much better ;-)), the camera, and other stuff was no where to be found, probably the stuff they sold early on by the thieves.
We talked awhile to the officers and then headed back home, but on the way back both of us felt like we had just entered another world, that we were now living the life of Alias or of Mission Impossible, that somehow we were cooler or had just glimpsed a world we know nothing about.
So that was my friday morning... We got back in time for lunch and the rest of the day was fairly normal.
