U.S. soldier arrested in Mexico with several weapons in car

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: AP Texas News

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A teary-eyed American soldier accused of illegally driving guns and ammunition into Mexico said Tuesday he was just looking for a place to park so he could walk into Mexico for breakfast after a long night of driving.

Instead, Army Spc. Richard R. Medina Torres steered his 1999 Honda Prelude off Interstate 10, over an international bridge, and into Mexico.

"It was just an accident, I didn't mean to drive over here," Torres said Tuesday afternoon standing in a hallway of the Mexican federal building where he has been jailed since Monday morning.

Torres, an Iraq war veteran who was heading to his mother's house in Fresno, Calif., said after driving all night from Fort Hood he planned to park his car at the border and walk into Juarez for breakfast. But he misunderstood directions from an El Paso gas station attendant, took the wrong exit, and wound up in Mexico.

"When I saw where I was, I started asking people at the front gate 'where can I turn around at?'," Torres said.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5722527.html

[High Plains]

1. I can believe this guy's story. This question is whether the Mexicans will.

They don't like people bringing guns into their country. Poor saps who do so end up in Mexican prisons sometimes.

[provis99]

2. he says it took him all night to drive from Ft. Hood to the border?

Why does that not sound so believable. And who the hell decides to detour on a trip from Ft. Hood to Fresno, just so they can drive "all night" to have breakfast in a Mexican town notorious for getting American guns for their gang wars?

This guy is going down.

[lonestarnot]

3. Sounds like it to me. Do Mexicans waterboard?

[High Plains]

5. You don't want to know.

[High Plains]

4. From Ft. Hood to El Paso is a multi-hour drive. Must be 500 miles.

[pop goes the weasel]

6. There's nothing odd in his route

Fort Hood to El Paso would take all night. And that's the route one would take going from central Texas to California--it isn't a detour. Two guns, three knives, and 170-odd rounds sounds like personal property that he might have intended to leave at his mother's. Seeing as he was openly trying to turn around and get back on the US side, I'm pretty sure his story is the truth and that the most he's guilty of is being a dunderhead.

[mbperrin]

7. Absolutely. It's about 600 miles, 8 hours or less.

I'm a Texas native, and this guy must have been pedaling his bike.

Edit to add: He must have missed the signs with 2 foot tall letters that say MEXICO.

Guy is truly dumb at the least.

[Igel]

8. "Dumb" crossed my mind, too.

Then again, "dumb" is the word I use to describe me after I've been up all night driving.

[LynnTheDem]

9. Mexico can just waterboard that American soldier.

That'll get the 100% honest-to-gawd truth out of him! And waterboarding is, of course, totally legal & a fun thang to do!