How did my vacation dreams end with me in a Mexican jail nightmare?

If you arrive in a foreign country without a valid passport in your hand, you’re going back home. That’s guaranteed. But sometimes, that’s not all that happens, unfortunately. This cautionary tale shows how a simple passport mistake landed one female solo traveler with vacation dreams in a Mexican jail nightmare.

Here’s her story.

It was close to midnight when Elizabeth Puritz tiredly boarded a Viva Aerobus flight at LAX bound for Mexico City. As an experienced solo traveler, she wasn’t expecting any problems and was looking forward to a relaxing vacation.

Settling into her seat, she removed her fanny pack and placed it on the floor in front of her. The plane was soon airborne, and Puritz closed her eyes and tried to sleep a bit during the five-hour flight.

What happened next remains a mystery. Puritz says when the flight pulled up to the gate in Mexico, she gathered her belongings as usual. She recalls helping a fellow passenger retrieve her carry-on from the overhead compartment. Then Purtiz disembarked the aircraft and headed to the immigration window.

That’s where her vacation nightmare began.

Mexican Immigration: Where is your passport?

As Puritz waited for her turn in the immigration line, she felt fatigued and a bit disoriented. She hadn’t really slept on the flight, and now it was 5 am. She hoped to get to her hotel in time for a nap before the 1 pm excursion to Tehuacan with a friend she’d planned.

Stepping up to the immigration window, the officer asked Puritz for her passport. He also wanted to know about what she had planned to do during her visit.

“I told the immigration officer that I had a tour scheduled with a friend in just a few hours to Tehuacan,” Puritz told me. “Then I reached down to get my passport out and realized I didn’t have my fanny pack!”

Immigration: You can’t go back onto the plane

Panicked, Puritz says she immediately asked to go back to the aircraft to retrieve her belongings. The fanny pack contained not only her passport but all her credit cards, cash, and Global Entry Card. Even if her passport had not been in that bag, it would have been impossible to continue on with the trip without its contents. 

“I had no money, credit cards, or identification without my fanny pack,” Puritz recalled. “I couldn’t believe I had left the bag on the airplane!”

Puritz assumed she could easily correct her mistake by popping back onto the plane and grabbing her passport.

However, she quickly learned that wasn’t possible. The immigration officers gave Puritz an abrupt lesson in international travel: After you deplane and enter customs, there’s no turning back. 

At least not in the way Puritz hoped. She would soon be going back — all the way back — to the United States. 

But not before the most unpleasant and shocking experience of her life – a stay in a Mexican jail. 

Can this tourist’s vacation be saved?

Because Puritz speaks limited Spanish, she was having trouble understanding what the immigration officers were explaining to her. It was clear that they weren’t going to allow her to backtrack to the aircraft. But it seemed they were sending someone else there to get her passport. 

The officers took me to a room and interviewed me about what I was doing in Mexico. They were also making calls and implied someone was looking for my bag on the plane. I still thought my vacation would be saved. As soon as someone got my passport and credit cards off the plane, I’d be on my way. At that point, I thought I would still make my excursion at 1 pm.

It had been less than an hour since Puritz had mistakenly left her passport on the airplane. As the minutes ticked by, she became more concerned about why her bag had not been quickly found.

“I had no idea what was happening to me and was extremely scared,” Puritz recalled. “No one was telling me anything in English. The officers were talking among themselves, so I didn’t know what was going on.”

Without a passport, the traveler is going to Mexico City’s La Burbuja detention center

Then, there was a glimmer of hope. A woman appeared at the door of the room and had what looked to be a fanny pack in her hand. For just a moment, Puritz thought she was about to be reunited with her passport and credit cards. She’d soon be strolling out into the sunlight, and her vacation would continue as planned.

But just seconds later, when her eyes focused on what the woman was holding, Puritz could see it wasn’t her bag. The officers informed their detainee that neither her fanny pack nor her passport were on the aircraft. Not only that, but the Viva Aerobus had already left Mexico City and was on its way to Houston.

The reality of her situation began to become clear. She was not free to go. She was a prisoner of the Mexican immigration department. Puritz wouldn’t be enjoying margaritas and tamales for lunch to kick off her vacation as she thought she might. Instead, to her horror, she’d be taking her next meal on the floor of La Burbuja (the Bubble) – the infamous Mexico City airport detention center.

The passport wasn’t on the plane. Next stop: Mexican jail

One officer gave Puritz a form to fill out detailing what she was doing in Mexico. At the bottom of the page, it warned:

“Important: Do Not give money to anybody in this or in another area at this zone.”

The situation was becoming more disturbing to Puritz. She wrote her escalating concerns in the box under her signature on the form. 

Next, an officer who spoke some English told Puritz she was going to “jail” until her fate could be decided.

Vacation nightmare: checking into a Mexican detention center

Within minutes, other officers whisked Puritz away. She couldn’t believe how her vacation had so quickly devolved into a nightmare. Instead of checking into a comfortable hotel, she was checked into the detention center behind the exit area of the Mexico City airport.

They took me behind the airport where the jail is. Then I had to hand over all my belongings – including my phone. I was taken to a room with lots of other “prisoners” and given a dirty mat to sit on. Later, an attendant pointed me to the showers and a room with bunk beds. There were seven beds in total for a room of 50 detainees. The place was filthy. The rubber mattresses were stained with unidentifiable goop, and garbage overflowed everywhere. I was mortified.

Puritz’s earlier fatigue had now morphed into exhaustion and despair. She had no idea how long this nightmare situation would last. Being shown the shower room and the dormitory in the jail gave Puritz an ominous feeling. Was she going to be living there for days… or even longer?

“I was distraught,” Puritz explained. “Nobody back home knew what happened to me or where I was. I didn’t know how long I would be there or if I would be transferred somewhere else. I was frightened.”

A secret way to text with friends back home while in custody

Then she glanced down at her wrist and realized she might be able to reach the outside world with her Apple Watch. Using the voice-to-text feature, she whispered into her device, and much to her elation, it worked. 

I was soon texting a timeline of events to my friends. This provided some relief because now I felt that I wasn’t alone. The guards saw me talking to myself, and I think they must have just assumed I was having a mental breakdown. They didn’t catch on to the fact that I was communicating with the outside world using my voice-to-text program on my Apple Watch.

At lunchtime, instead of traditional Mexican food and a cold beverage, the guards handed out cold eggs. 

Puritz decided to skip lunch.

Can the Embassy help with a replacement passport?

After lunch, an officer appeared and told Puritz that someone from the U.S. Embassy would come see her soon. That news lifted her spirits since she assumed that meant she’d be able to get a replacement passport. Puritz had hoped that visit would be her ticket out of the detention center. 

But hours went by and no one showed up. Puritz says she passed the time by scrubbing the mattress clean with water from the shower and a towel. Then she resumed her conversations with her friends back home. 

Eventually, officers allowed Puritz to call the embassy when it seemed clear no one was coming. 

Puritz was about to get another lesson about what happens if you mistakenly leave your passport on an international flight and end up in a foreign jail. Unfortunately, as others before her have discovered, the U.S. Embassy staff can’t come and get you out.

In fact the Department of State has a page dedicated to what the embassies can and can’t do for U.S. citizens detained or jailed abroad. The top “can’t” is:

• The Department of State, embassies, and consulates can’t get U.S. citizens out of jail. 

“[The embassy agent] told me over the phone that there was nothing he could do for me,” Puritz told me. “He said I was in Mexico illegally since I had no passport and there was no way to get a replacement from detention. The embassy simply recorded that I was there and told me they’d check up on me again the next day.”

With that possible door to freedom officially closed, Puritz felt her desperation massively increase. She took a “cold-water prison shower” and then laid down on her semi-cleaned up mattress. She tried not to let the worst case scenarios invade her thoughts.

Best case scenario: deportation back to the U.S. 

About nine hours into her detainment, a guard came in and told Puritz that she was being deported. Since Viva Aerobus delivered her to Mexico without a passport, that carrier would be responsible for taking her back. There was a flight later that evening and Puritz would be on it, according to the officer. 

Puritz says it was four more hours before someone came to get her and gave back her belongings. She was escorted by two officers through the airport and delivered to the gate. She boarded what appeared to be the same aircraft that she had arrived on at 5 am that morning. 

Because she had no passport or any other identification, Puritz’s anxiety didn’t end after being released from the detention center and deported from Mexico. She worried the entire flight back to LAX about what new nightmare she might encounter with U.S. Immigration.  

The good news: Global Entry has cardless, facial recognition entry

It turns out that Puritz did not need to worry about not being admitted back into the United States. Global Entry card holders can go through U.S. Immigration using facial recognition.

When I got back to LAX, I started explaining to an immigration officer there what I had just been through. I explained that I had no passport or Global Entry card. He said it was not a problem and waved me through to the machines. I had no problem at all getting back into the U.S.

Relieved that her exhausting nightmare stay in a Mexican jail was finally over, Puritz went straight home to bed.

In the morning she would learn the massive amount of paperwork that would need to be processed to replace her passport, credit cards, bank cards and Global Entry card. 

But that evening, she was just immensely grateful to be away from La Burbuja. It was a special treat to be able to lay her head on her own pillow after a hot shower… no unidentified goop on her mattress or cold eggs for dinner. 

How to avoid making a passport mistake that lands you in jail

After ruminating for days about what happened to her passport and fanny pack, Puritz became convinced someone stole her fanny pack in-flight or after deplaning.

Of course, to immigration officers in a foreign country, it doesn’t matter whether you left your passport onboard an aircraft by mistake or if someone stole it along the way. If you show up at an immigration window without a valid passport, you will have a giant problem. Here are a few things to be aware of when traveling internationally. 

1. Never leave an aircraft until you’ve confirmed your passport is with you

Puritz made a simple mistake that is easy for a fatigued person to make: leaving her fanny pack with her passport on the plane. Travelers should make a habit of always asking themselves: “Do I have my passport?” before leaving any international flight. Remember, as soon as you step off that aircraft, you can’t go back. So always double and triple-check that you’ve got your passport, credit cards, and other identification before leaving.

2. Do not put your passport in checked luggage

It’s critical not to put your passport in any luggage or bag that could end up getting checked at the gate. Always keep your passport in your possession. That includes if you’re a cruise passenger handing over your luggage at the airport to be taken to the ship. Never relinquish your passport to anyone while you’re in transit to your destination.

3. Make sure your passport is valid

It isn’t just a missing passport that can land a traveler in detention. Always check the entry requirements for all your intended destinations. Having an unexpired passport doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got a valid passport for entry to the countries on your itinerary. (See: Welcome to Switzerland. Now you’re going to jail.) And don’t forget those transit destinations. You can check that information via the U.S. State Department, which maintains travelers’ information for every country worldwide in its “Know Before you Go” section. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer Rescue)

Do you have a consumer problem you can’t resolve or an unusual travel experience to share? Contact the Consumer Rescue advocacy team, and we’ll be happy to help you if we can. Our assistance is always fast, friendly, and, best of all, free!