This story keeps getting stranger…

Mileage Run Lands Guy In Mexican Jail

Yesterday I shared the story of a mileage run that ended with a guy spending the night in a Mexican jail. A guy did a year-end mileage run to qualify for status with American, where he flew roundtrip from Los Angeles to Cabo, with 24 hours on the ground.

The situation that unfolded almost sounds scripted — go figure the guy is a reality TV producer. The thing is, as crazy as the story sounds, every part of it adds up. I couldn’t find a single inconsistency when it came to the details regarding his flight, and he even shared screenshots of what happened. If you don’t yet know the details of this, you’ll first want to check out this post.

The Bar’s Side Of The Story

Now the bar that he accused of being behind this is speaking out. As a reminder, he claimed that Urban Bar tried to charge him $300+ for two beers, called the police on him (he claimed the police was in on the scam), and the bar manager also stole his passport.

Not surprisingly, Urban Bar has been getting destroyed on social media and their ratings platforms, so they’ve responded.

Here’s what Urban Bar has written on their Facebook page:

Well, we didn’t want to get to this but we will be giving the videos of the alleged fraud the reasons why Mr. Adrew Kimmel was taken to jail form aggravation of a woman and ended up in a high degree of drunkenness , and in a few more moments giving the rest of the version!

Here’s their follow-up (which is written in Spanish, and translated with Google Translate):

Hello friends, in the last hours the rumor has been spreading, that in our facilities the Lord, Andrew Kimmel, is being charged extra, the iso a publication where he only claims to have taken 2 beers at the bar and was charged $ 300, What is totally false. Here you can see how the man asked for a bottle of champagne and he has more drinks on the table, we clarify that this is only a part since the man stayed more than 1 hour and a half in the bar, and asked for many more things

Then here’s the video they share, which they claim proves their side of the story:

My Take On This Situation

This is an interesting twist, though I’m not sure I buy the bar’s side of the story. Is it possible he met a girl and wanted to impress her (or a group of people) by ordering a bottle of champagne and other drinks? Sure. Is it possible he was really drunk and was then angry that it was so expensive? Sure.

But that doesn’t seem likely, and it’s not the first thing that comes to mind when I see the above video. To me this actually looks like a common extension to a bar scam you’ll find in many parts of the world.

They have an attractive female come sit near you, then she orders an expensive drink, and then they try to charge you an exorbitant amount for it, and claim that you ordered it.

Furthermore:

  • They claimed they were going to prove his “aggravation of a woman,” though where is the proof of that?
  • They claim the video shows that he ordered the bottle of champagne, though I don’t see any proof of that? Quite to the contrary, he says “it’s you” when the bottle is brought out, and even tries to pass off the sparkler. He doesn’t seem like someone who ordered a bottle.
  • The fact that someone from the bar was taking a video of the champagne being brought to the table almost suggests to me even more that this was a scam, so that they could later show this as “proof,” if it became an issue.
  • Even if all of this happened, why did the bar keep his passport, rather than handing it over to the police?

Personally I think Andrew’s side of the story is much more believable than the bar’s side of the story.

In fairness, it would have helped if Andrew in the original story mentioned he was seated at a table and a bottle of champagne was brought out, and they tried to charge him for it. That would at least shed some light on how they arrived at the $300+ amount (along with all of the other drinks).

It would have cleared up one point of confusion that many of us had, about how two beers mysteriously led to a $300+ bill. It sounds like he wasn’t being charged $150+ per beer, but rather was being charged for someone else’s order.

Anyway, I’m curious to see if anything else comes of this from either side. While it’s possible the bar isn’t completely in the wrong, they’re definitely not completely in the right — they certainly had no right to keep his passport even after the police arrived, if that did in fact happen.

The video doesn’t do much to prove the bar’s side of the story, in my opinion…

What do you make of this situation?

The post Mexican Bar That (Allegedly) Scammed Mileage Runner Speaks Out appeared first on One Mile at a Time