Mystery of Kenyan woman who paid bail for Andrew Kimmel in Mexico

Mystery of Kenyan woman who paid bail for Andrew Kimmel in Mexico

The story of Andrew Kimmel and how he got arrested in Mexico only to be bailed out by a Kenyan woman reads like a movie script.

Kimmel is the founder of AuraNexus Media and former Head of Live Video at BuzzFeed News.

On Wednesday, he narrated how he had gone out for dinner and drinks not knowing that this would be the beginning of a nightmare.

“At the last bar of the evening, I was presented with a bill for over $300 (Ksh. 30,000). I had two beers. The bar manager said I needed to pay or he’d call the police,” Kimmel says on Twitter.

He apparently gave the manager his credit card but as bad luck would have it, the card was declined. Turns out that his bank flagged the transaction as fraud protection.

The altercation escalated and eventually Kimmel ended up in a Mexican police cell; apparently the officers are usually in cahoots with bar managers to swindle tourists.

“We actually got along quite well as I applauded their con,” Kimmel says, adding that his cellmate was also a tourist from the U.K. who had been arrested over a bar fight.

The British man was later bailed out by his wife leaving Kimmel in his Cabo cell with a dead phone and no one to call for help. He dozed off.

Hours later, the police officers woke him up with some unbelievable news: someone had posted his bail.

“I’m given my belongings and shoved outside where a woman from Kenya was waiting for me,” Kimmel says.

The mystery Kenyan woman revealed that she had also been arrested after an Uber driver claimed that she did not pay for the trip.

Like Kimmel, she also had a flight scheduled for the next day: unfortunately, because she was still in the police cell, the 8:30am flight left without her.

Kimmel’s flight was however scheduled for 3:26pm so they left for the airport but by the time they got there, it was 2pm.

To make matters worse, he had lost his passport and would not be allowed to board the flight to Los Angeles without one.

“I call passport control in the States to report a stolen passport. They tell me to call the local embassy. I call and they’re closed. I ask my new friend to wait in the car at the airport as I run to the airline desk. It’s now 3:00pm,” he says.

He eventually manages to convince the airline agent to help him after showing his I.D. and a picture of his passport.

She arranges for him to get on to the last flight out of Mexico. Unfortunately, he needs to buy a new immigration form for $35 (Ksh. 3,500) and he does not have any cash. “All I have is my credit card,” I tell them.

He is told to go to another desk that handles credit card payments but it’s back to square one as they need a passport for such transactions.

I run back to my friend in the rental car, tell her I can make the last flight out, but I needed more money. At this point, I’m losing my shit over just about everything, and she grabs my hand, tells me it’ll be ok and then kisses me. I kiss back. What….is happening?” Kimmel writes.

“If you don’t make your flight, you can stay with me at my Airbnb,” my jail crush tells me. What once was “get me out of Mexico” turned into, “well this could be interesting.” But of course I couldn’t. I came to Mexico for a goddamn mileage run and I’m getting that status,” he adds.

“So to sum it up, I was $275 (Ksh. 27,500) short for status… was given an offer to maintain for $1875 (Ksh. 187,500), took a $400 (Ksh. 40,000) flight to spend 24hrs in Mexico after 20hrs travel the day before & ended up in a Mexican jail w/ no passport, a $350 (Ksh. 35,000) bail bill, & an African crush. Happy new year everyone!” Kimmel concludes.

He later revealed that he got in touch with the mystery Kenyan woman after he finally got back to Los Angeles and refunded her the bail money.

Kenyans on Twitter engaged Kimmel seeking to know the identity of the mystery Kenyan woman but he only revealed her first name: Megan.

https://twitter.com/joysum1/status/1212492166041407488?s=20

https://twitter.com/thisisfreddi/status/1212404554056253441?s=20

https://twitter.com/SupremeGREAM/status/1212400938805334017?s=20

— Tony K. (@TonyKeyMoney) January 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/selectivenomad/status/1212597883486298113?s=20

— Efya Muthoni Maingi (@NonieMG) January 1, 2020

 

 

 

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