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Mechanic Victor at Walmart


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I went to Walmart this morning and when I returned to my car it wouldn't start. The gear shift was stuck and I couldn't get in gear so nothing happened. In mere seconds a guy appeared saying he was a mechanic and had his tools with him, he could fix it. I said he could take a look. He popped the hood, then crawled under and announced I had a broken cable, he could fix it. I decided to go ahead since he quoted 350 pesos. Five minutes later I was on my way.

Does anybody know this guy? He claims to have been "working" the Walmart parking lot for 12 years. Is he legit and saved me from being towed to a mechanic, or did he rig it while I was in the store? 

I've lived here 15 years and thought I knew every scam. 

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Sadly, your suspicions may be well founded. That parking lot has been the site of such sudden disabling malfunctions for many years. Once you leave your vehicle, any observer knows that you may be gone for quite a while. Typical in-store time is about 45 minutes; more than enough to slip under a car, disconnect something, then relax and wait for you to return, and conveniently offer to help and to save you a bundle.

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The Victor I am thinking of is a five foot five butterball. Don't think he could fit under any standard vehicle. He was deported from the US for dealing meth, tried the same here, but the cartels and the drug squad made his life difficult, but he is still well connected with cartels. His next business was human trafficing (pimp) but one of his girls was underage and her mother threatened to call the police. He offered to sell me his business, complete with two armed gaurds!  One of the ex gaurds is El Gato, another one to watch, but he is usually in the El Torito area.

Victor's usual scam is asking for 200 pesos to buy his baby Pampers. Funny enough, I kind of like the guy and his perseverance. The only time he kind of embarassed me is when he was looking after a relative boy about 8 or 10 years old. He was cleaning cars and told the boy to keep hanging out with me. No problem, but the boy was so obviously gay, and they were protecting him from bullying. Still, not a good look having this Mexican boy hanging about my car window trying for conversation.

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I am not a mechanic, but if the doors were locked do not understand "The gear shift was stuck and I couldn't get in gear so nothing happened"  And "He popped the hood, then crawled under and announced I had a broken cable, he could fix it". What does a gear shift have to do with a broken cable? What can a guy do in a parking lot to disable a car like that? I know that these guys are everywhere but what can the average Joe or Jane do to prevent or detour this kind of activity? Also I kind of feel safe in the Walmart parking lot since there a many approved car washers there and other employees coming and going and hopefully reporting this sort of activity. 

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3 hours ago, gringohombre said:

I am not a mechanic, but if the doors were locked do not understand "The gear shift was stuck and I couldn't get in gear so nothing happened"  And "He popped the hood, then crawled under and announced I had a broken cable, he could fix it". What does a gear shift have to do with a broken cable? What can a guy do in a parking lot to disable a car like that? I know that these guys are everywhere but what can the average Joe or Jane do to prevent or detour this kind of activity? Also I kind of feel safe in the Walmart parking lot since there a many approved car washers there and other employees coming and going and hopefully reporting this sort of activity. 

How much do you actually know about cars: Cables are intrinsic to gear shifts: one for automatic, two for manual. A gear shift cable is expensive and is not something carried around by wandering mechanics. The guy was lieing. They don't just break: they show signs first. Could be low transmission fluid. Could be a damaged shifter linkage.

However, little here makes sense. How many vehicles are engine-accessible without opening the hood from inside the car? And why would he lie about the actual "repair"? I would take it into a garage right away and have it checked.

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5 hours ago, moonhill said:

I went to Walmart this morning and when I returned to my car it wouldn't start. The gear shift was stuck and I couldn't get in gear so nothing happened. In mere seconds a guy appeared saying he was a mechanic and had his tools with him, he could fix it. I said he could take a look. He popped the hood, then crawled under and announced I had a broken cable, he could fix it. I decided to go ahead since he quoted 350 pesos. Five minutes later I was on my way.

Does anybody know this guy? He claims to have been "working" the Walmart parking lot for 12 years. Is he legit and saved me from being towed to a mechanic, or did he rig it while I was in the store? 

I've lived here 15 years and thought I knew every scam. 

Lots of "strange stuff" here. Why would he "pop" the hood, and then crawl under the car? He knew the problem was "under" the car, not in the engine compartment. He did something. I think he used something to "block" the gears from shifting, then simple removed it, and you were on your way. 350 is a cheap lesson for you.

 

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I have had numerous problems in the parking lot at Walmart over the years.  One time a well recognized person from the parking lot came up to me and told me my tires were low, could he add air (how he was planning on doing that escaped my reasoning),I looked at all of them, they looked ok to me and said no, thank you.  When I came out from shopping, one tire was completely flat.  How do you suppose that happened! Duh.    Another time, the heavy guy referred to above wanted to wash and wax our car while I shopped, I politely said, no.  When I came out from shopping, the entire length of one door had a very deep scratch on it.  There are other tales to be told.    I consider it an adventure to survive shopping at Walmart.

Never had a single problem at Soriana.

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In this part of Mexico, it is quite common for mechanics to come out from the shop and work on vehicles of their regular customers . Especially Walmart because there is an Autozone right there if they need parts.

Also, if you notice, there is a security camera on one corner of the lot, on the building. This is a safer place to park because they never know who is watching.

I was giving the Victor I know, color pictures of most wanted US criminals. One time they identified that basketball coach who skipped bail. The bounty hunter paid out $10,000 US to them. They also knew the location of that $100,000 skip, who was a producer of pedophile films, but the cartel had their hooks in him and would not give him up - until his money ran dry. Then they probably killed him and buried him somewhere in their compound between Chapala and Guadalajara.

Victor's "father", actually his deceased mother's ex boyfriend, is supposed to be in charge of the car washers. I have seen them run off new washer wannabees. Victor carries a concealed 2.5 foot heavy steel rod and I have seen him practising with it. He is really good at this.

Never a dull moment in my life!

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2 hours ago, CHILLIN said:

In this part of Mexico, it is quite common for mechanics to come out from the shop and work on vehicles of their regular customers . Especially Walmart because there is an Autozone right there if they need parts.

Also, if you notice, there is a security camera on one corner of the lot, on the building. This is a safer place to park because they never know who is watching.

I was giving the Victor I know, color pictures of most wanted US criminals. One time they identified that basketball coach who skipped bail. The bounty hunter paid out $10,000 US to them. They also knew the location of that $100,000 skip, who was a producer of pedophile films, but the cartel had their hooks in him and would not give him up - until his money ran dry. Then they probably killed him and buried him somewhere in their compound between Chapala and Guadalajara.

Victor's "father", actually his deceased mother's ex boyfriend, is supposed to be in charge of the car washers. I have seen them run off new washer wannabees. Victor carries a concealed 2.5 foot heavy steel rod and I have seen him practising with it. He is really good at this.

Never a dull moment in my life!

Sounds like a fairy tale to me..

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18 hours ago, AndyPanda said:

How much do you actually know about cars: Cables are intrinsic to gear shifts: one for automatic, two for manual. A gear shift cable is expensive and is not something carried around by wandering mechanics. The guy was lieing. They don't just break: they show signs first. Could be low transmission fluid. Could be a damaged shifter linkage.

However, little here makes sense. How many vehicles are engine-accessible without opening the hood from inside the car? And why would he lie about the actual "repair"? I would take it into a garage right away and have it checked.

He likely managed to disengage the shifting linkage. I had a car years ago where the linkage would somehow disengage itself and the gear shift became totally inoperative. I had to crawl underneath and move it manually et voila, problem fixed. 

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8 minutes ago, blankletmusic said:

He likely managed to disengage the shifting linkage. I had a car years ago where the linkage would somehow disengage itself and the gear shift became totally inoperative. I had to crawl underneath and move it manually et voila, problem fixed. 

If the clutch cable had broken it would have to be replaced. A garage with a lift, a skilled mechanic and the correct cable would all be needed. You can't patch a clutch cable.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/4/2021 at 12:40 PM, CHILLIN said:

In this part of Mexico, it is quite common for mechanics to come out from the shop and work on vehicles of their regular customers . Especially Walmart because there is an Autozone right there if they need parts.

Also, if you notice, there is a security camera on one corner of the lot, on the building. This is a safer place to park because they never know who is watching.

I was giving the Victor I know, color pictures of most wanted US criminals. One time they identified that basketball coach who skipped bail. The bounty hunter paid out $10,000 US to them. They also knew the location of that $100,000 skip, who was a producer of pedophile films, but the cartel had their hooks in him and would not give him up - until his money ran dry. Then they probably killed him and buried him somewhere in their compound between Chapala and Guadalajara.

Victor's "father", actually his deceased mother's ex boyfriend, is supposed to be in charge of the car washers. I have seen them run off new washer wannabees. Victor carries a concealed 2.5 foot heavy steel rod and I have seen him practising with it. He is really good at this.

Never a dull moment in my life!

On 10/4/2021 at 12:40 PM, CHILLIN said:

In this part of Mexico, it is quite common for mechanics to come out from the shop and work on vehicles of their regular customers . Especially Walmart because there is an Autozone right there if they need parts.

Also, if you notice, there is a security camera on one corner of the lot, on the building. This is a safer place to park because they never know who is watching.

I was giving the Victor I know, color pictures of most wanted US criminals. One time they identified that basketball coach who skipped bail. The bounty hunter paid out $10,000 US to them. They also knew the location of that $100,000 skip, who was a producer of pedophile films, but the cartel had their hooks in him and would not give him up - until his money ran dry. Then they probably killed him and buried him somewhere in their compound between Chapala and Guadalajara.

Victor's "father", actually his deceased mother's ex boyfriend, is supposed to be in charge of the car washers. I have seen them run off new washer wannabees. Victor carries a concealed 2.5 foot heavy steel rod and I have seen him practising with it. He is really good at this.

Never a dull moment in my life!

Everything this person is saying is false if anyone has any questions about me I'm more than willing to answer but you who wrote this stop your lying  if you are man enough show your face and we clear all this up I never tried selling you no pimp business or anything you don't know a thing about me or my family we don't do now harm to anyone so if you don't know me keep your big ... mouth shut.

(edited by Mod for obvious reasons)

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On 10/3/2021 at 4:16 PM, RVGRINGO said:

Sadly, your suspicions may be well founded. That parking lot has been the site of such sudden disabling malfunctions for many years. Once you leave your vehicle, any observer knows that you may be gone for quite a while. Typical in-store time is about 45 minutes; more than enough to slip under a car, disconnect something, then relax and wait for you to return, and conveniently offer to help and to save you a bundle.

I buy the car washers a cold drink once a week and they keep an eye on my vehicle. 

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