http://www.torontosun.com/news/colum.../13517826.html
Karen finally woke up naked and drugged in a strange room in the Dominican Republic, with three of her kidnappers asleep nearby.
As quietly as she could, she found her clothes and ran for her life.
The 38-year-old Mississauga waitress had gone on holiday to an all-inclusive Dominican Republic resort, [yellow]
looking for some fun and sun and a chance to get away from her problems[/YELLOW]. Instead, she says she was kidnapped from a bar in Puerto Plata, drugged, robbed and raped on her last night in the country.
Red flag #1 What problems? Looking for fun?.......... This right here is to position her as an innocent victim.....propaganda.
“I don’t want anybody to go through what I went through,” says Karen, explaining why she is coming forward. “People need to be told.”
She has just come from her appointment at Trillium Health Centre where she sees a sexual assault counsellor at least once a week since returning traumatized last month from her holiday. She is also on antiretroviral medication until bloodwork can confirm whether she contracted HIV or not from her attackers.
“I’m just really lucky to be alive,” says Karen,
who doesn’t want her last name used.
Red flag#2 If people need to be told why are the names of the bars missing? Why not make a police report, easy enough? Why not a last name...........if people need to know.......... if people do not need to know, no report and no names are usual.
On the last night of their trip, Karen and a male friend decided to go off the resort and into town. They figured they’d have some drinks, do some last-minute souvenir shopping and head back to pack for their noon flight the next day.
Karen insists that she made a point of dressing down that night so as not to draw attention, with a baggy shirt and cheap shell jewelry, but thinks it was in vain.
“I’m bubbly, I’m white, I have big boobs,” she says with a shrug.
Red flag #3 This speaks volumes for itself.
At one bar, she says her pal made the mistake of buying a drink for one of the local girls.
When they went to leave, the girl’s friends demanded money from him for chatting her up.
They ended up being chased out,
Red flag #4 How do you get chased out of a bar you are already leaving from?
she says, and they headed to another drinking hole down the street. Karen doesn’t know if what followed was in retaliation for the altercation or not related at all.
Red flag #5 The bars are never named, but if you have a problem at a place why leave and go right down the street? Why not go back to the resort and drink?
She’d gone to the bar’s small washroom, she says, when suddenly about eight local men pushed their way in.
Red Flag # 6 8 men bumrush a woman in a small washroom at a bar, her male companion does not see it, neither does anyone else? After they had words down the street they were not looking out in case the guy decided to walk down the street after them?
“One of them stuck me with a needle in my right arm,” she recalls. “I head-butted one of them — I wasn’t going down without a fight.”
But she was no match for them. She says they dragged her out through a back door and put her on a motorcycle between two of the men.
That’s the last thing she remembers.
She woke up groggy in a bed without her clothes on, her arms bruised and a chunk of her hair cut from the back of her head. Her cheap jewelry was gone as was $100 US and the digital camera she’d had on her belt.
Once she snuck away from the village room, she ran screaming down the road until
she hitched a ride with a local man who took her to a police station.
It’s a harrowing tale, but Karen admits she has no “paperwork” to back it up. She left the country without filing a police report.
Red flag #7 But she stated she wants people to know about it, just not the police.
She says it was just hours until her flight and she was so anxious to get home that she refused to wait for an English-speaking officer to take her statement.
Red flag #7 Just a few hours until her flight? To long to wait for an officer? But again she wants people to know about this, just not the police. And what happened to her male friend? No missing persons report? No one told him 8 guys ran in on his friend and rushed her out the back?
She also admits she should have been more wary. “I thought I was tough. I’ve travelled around the world by myself and I’ve been to Third World countries,” she says. “I was naive to go without researching anything. Most people just think holiday and fun in the sun.”
Red flag #8 Yes most people do think it is fun in the sun, but she says she has traveled around the world, in 3rd world countries. What is there to research? Do not go to strange places in foreign countries, if she has traveled around the world in 3rd world countries then no research is needed to know this.
While there is no official warning against travelling to the Dominican, the Canadian government does advise tourists to “exercise a high degree of caution, due to a high crime rate.”
Last New Year’s Eve, a Quebec man was murdered in his hotel room during a robbery.
The Canadian website goes on to warn that crime in the Caribbean country has increased and that single women should be especially careful. “Incidents of assault, rape and sexual aggression against foreigners have been reported, including at beach resorts,” it says. “There have been reports of females being victimized with ‘date rape’ drugs.”
Those are clear cautions, but
Karen believes travel agents also have a responsibility to warn their customers. “They need to tell people,” she insists.
“You can’t pretend it’s Walt Disney World there. It’s not. They should be telling people it’s dangerous to leave the resort. I didn’t know any better.”
Again if she has traveled around the world and knows the 3rd world, why does her travel agent need to be responsible for her, she already knows it is not Disney World........ then at the end she says I did not know any better 
Read Mandel every Sunday, Thursday and Friday.
michele.mandel@sunmedia.ca or 416-947-2231.
Originally Posted by MrHappy
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