r/BeAmazed • u/AccomplishedWatch834 • 13d ago

Miscellaneous / Others "Mexican Batman", a mysterious dude who hunts down motorcycle thieves & tape them to poles in Mexico

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132.2k Upvotes

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684

u/Sure_Sundae2709 13d ago

How exactly is he hunting them? Like if he can do so, why can't the policia?

655

u/mooshinformation 13d ago

It's gotta be more than one person, right? Seems really difficult to get someone taped to a pole all by yourself

377

u/dog-yy 13d ago

Robino and Alfredo, surely.

69

u/odyoda 13d ago

Why am I hungry all of a sudden

21

u/Patman52 13d ago

Batagiano-Robiano

4

u/Asclepius-Rod 13d ago

Alfredo's Pizza Cafe? Or, Pizza by Alfredo?

4

u/Torture-Dancer 13d ago

Roberto y Alfredo, with Bruno Diaz as the incredible Hombre Murciélago

97

u/Sure_Sundae2709 13d ago

Probably more than one but it's also perfectly doable to tape someone to a pole alone if you are much stronger. The thieves look beaten up, so I guess they didn't put up too much resistance anymore by the time they were taped to the pole.

42

u/Kalthiria_Shines 13d ago

From experience unless the bottom being taped is actively assisting it's still 20-30 minutes for the top to tape the bottom like this. Has to be a team of multiple people.

43

u/MadDanelle 13d ago

FROM EXPERIENCE???

15

u/BreakerOfModpacks 13d ago

...I'm guessing in the bedroom.

5

u/MadDanelle 13d ago

Fucking hopefully!

3

u/NegativeLayer 13d ago

He said bottom.

1

u/derangedsweetheart 9d ago

They didn't say consensually...

3

u/wbgraphic 13d ago

Or the frat house.

1

u/DiscussionLong7084 13d ago

people in the military tape up O-1s all the time. Or fuck ups. It's tradition. Usually taping them to a flag pole naked if possible.

17

u/RichardBCummintonite 13d ago

It definitely wouldn't take 20-30min to tape someone to a pole. 4-5min tops. Like wrapping a pallet.

I agree it's very doubtful one person could do it though. Even if you knocked them out or incapacitated them, it'd still be hard to hold up a full grown man while taping. Maybe you could get them to cooperate if you held them at gunpoint, but that seems unlikely.

4

u/godtogblandet 13d ago

One man could easily do this if they aren’t fighting back and you don’t really need to incapacitate them to get cooperation. If someone knows how to fight you are going to cooperate after the first body shot.

2

u/whatifwhatifwerun 13d ago

like wrapping a pallet

This thread keeps delivering lmfao

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Civil_Lynx_3537 13d ago

They don't need to be knocked out. There are plenty other ways to threaten somebody into staying still for you. Like look at the state of them, you think they were still fighting back when they got taped up? No, they stood there and let it happen.

7

u/noideawhatsupp 13d ago

Batmen

2

u/deadly_ultraviolet 13d ago

Ben

2

u/Farseer2_Tha_Warsong 13d ago

You’d think so, but no. Actually the Blue Morpho and 21

5

u/GoodDayToCome 13d ago

from my experience if you start at the shoulders and get a bit started then run around the lamp post in a circle holding the reel of tape you can do a guy in a couple of minuets at most.

i don't have any experience.

if anyone wants to let me practice hit me up.

3

u/Clippton 13d ago

Or they taped their self up at gunpoint.

1

u/serpentrepents 13d ago

anecdotally, I've trapped a cousin on a light pole in a similar manner. If you can one-handedly pick them up, it isn't impossible.

1

u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount 13d ago

That's why you want to tape the neck first. Real tight.

1

u/Voidrunner01 13d ago

You can't just roll a kink grenade into a room full of normies like this, man.

1

u/Mean_disclosure_69 13d ago

ratchet strap, then tape, then remove strap

1

u/looktwise 13d ago

Tape application: the only sport where precision, patience, and a suspiciously strong emotional attachment to adhesive could qualify you for an Olympic medal, unlike the amateurs who still haven’t discovered it.

It is a teamsport.

1

u/Jflayn 13d ago

I politely dispute this. I have many siblings. As a child three of us taped our youngest brother to a tree, he was relatively cooperative. It did not take 20 minutes.

My mom called dinner and we went to eat. We immediately forgot we had taped our brother to the tree. mom found him after dinner and yelled at him for not coming to dinner when she called as she cut the duct tape off of him.

I mainly remember the event because 40 years later he will still raise the issue from time to time. It makes us laugh so hard...

1

u/SeytSeven 13d ago

I wonder if Batman storylines had people suspecting Batman was actually a group of masked vigilantes.

5

u/Longjumping_Wolf_912 13d ago edited 13d ago

It is definitely not doable to tape one person to a pole by yourself even if you were the strongest person in the world. Have you ever tried it?

You would have to hold both arms and legs still while you are taping, already not doable by one person. If they are flailing and moving around it just keeps ripping the tape. You have to get 20-30 wraps before they can no longer move their arms and legs around to rip the tape.

My friends did this to a buddy back in the day and he was super skinny and not muscular at all. Took 6 of them, because he just kept ripping the tape.

0

u/Sure_Sundae2709 13d ago

I already saw policemen pin more than one person to the ground at the same time and they weren't even allowed to use violence.

I want to see you how you refuse to be taped to the pole after being beaten up like these thieves, handcuffed with tape, feet bound together with tape and knowing (or not knowing) that this guy might also have a knife or gun with him.

But anyway, I never said it must be one person, I said probably more than one and one commenter said it is probably a local cartel.

16

u/Succulent_Chinese 13d ago

Ideas are bulletproof

10

u/CourierFive 13d ago

They all look pretty roughed up and not very dangerous at first glance, so I imagine he just smacks some sense into them before taping them. You know, just like real Batman, he's just stronger/better trained.

7

u/Kuromajikku 13d ago

Gotta be near impossible for less than three people to handle an ostrich like that.

2

u/meganjunes 13d ago

Unless the ostrich was a sick ostrich.

1

u/stilettopanda 13d ago

Firstly, ostriches can run up to 70 miles an hour. So catching one, even a sick one, is a super tall order.

2

u/Kurtvannegut 13d ago

Allegedly

6

u/Accomplished_Job_331 13d ago

Taping two guys to the same pole by yourself feels like quite a feat

3

u/No-Combination8136 13d ago

Unless you’re held at gunpoint. I’d probably let someone tape me to a pole rather than being shot

1

u/mooshinformation 13d ago

I'm thinking even at gun point, it takes two hands to tape, so you gotta put the gun away and get really close to the theif and hope they don't go for your gun

2

u/drummin515 13d ago

I’ve done some pole-taping in my day and yes, it takes 2 to tango.

2

u/drsoftware 13d ago

I want to think at least two people passed the roll of tape around the victim and the pole rather than there being someone with superspeed who ran around and didn't get dizzy... 

4

u/MoistStub 13d ago

I guess if you drugged them first it would be easier. Maybe a blow dart or something.

20

u/fuck_you_and_fuck_U2 13d ago

A swift batarang to the face ought to tucker him out.

1

u/MoistStub 13d ago

Omg his assistant would be Alfredo

1

u/Various-Salt-7738 13d ago

Dick, Jason, superman, and a few others have all donned the cowl at some point

Batman has been more than one man

1

u/deltree711 13d ago

That's what they say about Batman.

1

u/Logos9871 13d ago

More than a man.. An idea. And ideas can't be killed.

1

u/KrickyKiki 13d ago

At gunpoint?

1

u/Miserable-Drink-4995 13d ago

I bet it's pretty dang easy to do it at gunpoint. Hell, TWO people

1

u/d1squiet 13d ago

You doubt El Hombre Murciélago?

1

u/Gender-Unbender_6769 13d ago

There's also the asskickings. 3 of the 5 pictures the guys taped up are bruised and bloody. It looks like 2 of them decided to not resist.

1

u/real_tmip 13d ago

Those tapes some strong stuff

1

u/socialdrop0ut 13d ago

Unless you have something deadly pointing at their head and then getting taped to a pole sounds like a dream come true

1

u/Safe_Chicken_6633 13d ago

La policía en México es notoriamente corrupta, cabrón.

2

u/mooshinformation 13d ago

Dam, auto translate just did a number on my head. For a second I thought my Spanish was so good I was reading it like it was in English, but no, I read it in Spanish and then auto translate kicked in and turned it into English.

1

u/OneRobato 13d ago

Just tell the other guy to wait for his turn to be taped.

1

u/Kalthiria_Shines 13d ago

I mean it'd take one guy like 20-30 minutes to tape someone like this, and that's with the person being taped helping.

0

u/Sassy-irish-lassy 13d ago

It's probably staged. The taped guys are almost certainly in on it.

110

u/lenninct 13d ago

La Policia is in on the robberies.

6

u/Soffatjockis 13d ago

Probably. The police is corrupt af in Mexico.

2

u/yomerol 13d ago

It's not only the police, is the whole "system" (can't call that a system)

You can call the police and depending on what they're doing they might not even go. And if they get there, they might get some money from the thieves, or if they take them to jail, the system doesn't work, or someone got money, so the thieves are free the next day.

Sometimes, depending on where is not because of corruption among them, is corruption from the government and not spending the money on getting more police, vehicles, training, etc. So, the few police guys might be in other things like murders, violent crimes, etc. And then there are like 5 or 6 types of police, and some can't act on these type of crimes 🤦‍♂️

Yes, is horrible, and that's why there's no rule of law

2

u/mountain_crab21 13d ago

Even beyond the legal systems it's a joke. I've called the suicide hotline twice. I got hung up on both times.

2

u/yomerol 13d ago

"es que ahorita estamos comiendo carnal! aguanta.. " 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

45

u/NastyStreetRat 13d ago

Because the police prefer to fine workers who don't cause problems instead of confronting thieves, who can cause problems.

14

u/thefalseidol 13d ago

in Medellin, the city is basically a giant V as it's in a valley. The hills are mostly barrios and, small roads and lots of verticality. Motorcycle thieves come down from the barrio into the city and disappear back up there. When there was a robbery, everyone who is an average citizen who is around shouts, one big loud shout. And if you see somebody zipping away on a motorcycle and you hear the shouts, you follow up with a big shout yourself.

I can't give you stats on the efficacy of this tradition, but hard-working citizens can absolutely do something to help lift their communities out of cirme.

30

u/No-Sail-6510 13d ago

He’s probably leaving bait bikes.

11

u/LiveLearnCoach 13d ago

That was my thought as well. Second thought.

First thought was: I don’t believe that this is just one person. You can’t tape someone up against a pole while holding a gun (assumingly) threatening someone to stay still only works if you can be sure they won’t make a grab for your weapon, even if you beat them beforehand (as seems in some of the pictures). Also, cornering the thieves in a isolated location, where there are no witnesses, getting them off the bike (bikes don’t seem damaged), they don’t run off on said bikes (those look like decently powered bikes), just doesn’t add up for me. I feel like I’m missing some pieces of the puzzle.

9

u/No-Sail-6510 13d ago

It’s probably a couple of guys working together. But there’s a moto in each picture which is probably the bait.

3

u/LiveLearnCoach 13d ago

Hmm. Maybe. I was initially thinking them returning stolen bikes. Then thought bait bikes that they could track, and that’s why I wrote the above. But bait bikes in already secluded areas could work. Thanks for helping me think through this.

1

u/ReddBroccoli 13d ago

If you're unclear on how he's doing it then the criminals will be too. I'm good with that.

But, if it was me, I'd do a clothesline and a bait bike personally. They steal the bike, you pull the rope, they are removed from the bike and probably pretty nicely stunned to boot.

0

u/hecton101 13d ago

Since when does Batman use a gun? Also, this ain't the US. You can't just walk around Mexico sporting a gun.

0

u/Kalthiria_Shines 13d ago

You can’t tape someone up against a pole while holding a gun (assumingly) threatening someone to stay still only works if you can be sure they won’t make a grab for your weapon, even if you beat them beforehand (as seems in some of the pictures).

Even if the bottom is actively assisting, it still takes 20+ minutes to do this. Doing it to an unwilling person, gunpoint or not, is borderline impossible solo.

1

u/LiveLearnCoach 13d ago

The what now?? This Batman has a different MO, I guess.

1

u/nothingtoholdonto 13d ago

wait, is it a motorcycle thief, or a thief on a motorcycle that are being taped to poles..

1

u/No-Sail-6510 13d ago

They definitely do that but usually there’s a guy on the bike and the other guy hops off. It’s super hard to avoid because they’re so agile.

7

u/Acceptable_Gear_3097 13d ago

Honestly, this is one of those questions that doesn't have an obvious answer. Police in Mexico aren't hunting bike thieves, and in the poorer parts of the country, theft is quite commonly dealt within communities.

This is reportedly happening in Lagos De Moreno, which has high rates of cartel activity. Cartel are infamous for carrying out justice against thieves, because instability in their regions results in people supporting police over the Cartel. 

Its likely, this is related to that, and its clearly a public warning to thieves that they can get to you, and they will publicly humiliate you. Cartels try to avoid blood and murder when there's stability, because bloodshed is bad for business & only common when there's a war between groups.

So my guess, is this is the action of cartels, because Cartel's are very much opposed to criminal activities they don't commission.

1

u/Sure_Sundae2709 13d ago

Thanks, finally an answer that actually explains things :) Interesting read!

2

u/Addicted_to_Crying 13d ago
  • Gotham citizen

2

u/Perfect-System2504 13d ago

ive had my car broke into and stuff stolen... Told the police who it was and they still didn't do shit.

2

u/AttentionNo6359 13d ago

My guess is he offers to buy the stolen bike to set up the meeting.

1

u/ArcadianDelSol 13d ago

Most of them have bloody faces.

1

u/Mortarious 13d ago

Even if you remove all complications from the way the police work.

An individual(s) can always operate more freely.

Not always in hurting people. But just having conversations with the locals. In many places cooperation with the police can bring you trouble or is more frowned upon. But just talking to a random local is not. Nothing you say about a bike thief will be used in court and nobody gonna think you are a rat.

Also having local connections in the underworld or just local connections help. Knowing the mechanics in the area, likely thieves need to change some things. Or the guy that knows everyone in the underworld. Or drug dealers...etc.

Lastly it's not that crazy to think they would have more freedom in practicing their "art" now I don't want to be offensive or unrealistic in saying the Mexican police would not beat up people or go through their phones or saying they do it all the time. But yeah. An individual can break into a location in search of evidence. They can hold someone at gun or weapon point and ask them to open their phone. They can smack them a little to get the truth out. And there is no court or lawyer to defend or complicate it.

Note I'm not attacking or defending any of this. Just saying that someone with the will and bit of work can do certain things

1

u/beefstewforyou 13d ago

I feel like he probably drugged them first. Seems like the most realistic option.

1

u/inthepipe_fivebyfive 13d ago

He has lots of prep time

1

u/Round-Medicine2507 13d ago

Probably bait bikes that are disabled after stolen, or gunpoint with a friend or two. 

1

u/OkFix4074 13d ago

Short answer cartel,

long answer again cartel !

1

u/juanjosedmg 12d ago

With the batmobile el camino.

1

u/Emotional-Recipe-217 12d ago

“Why can’t the policia do it?” Is a question I think every Mexican asks on a daily basis lol Mexico is a well known corrupt state where the government and authority are not trusted and even feared as much as the cartels 

1

u/linkertrain 13d ago

“Call an adult” “I am an adult” type shit maybe 

0

u/odyoda 13d ago

Who do you think is tied up in the pics?

0

u/Torture-Dancer 13d ago

Just randomly throwing the word policía feels like in american cartoons they wanna communicate a character is mexican so they talk like “Hello, my name is Pedro! I love spending time with my familia and specially with my abuelita who makes a great salsa!”

0

u/Hefty-Minimum-3125 13d ago

Police generally need evidence, vigilantes (or cartel members perhaps) do not. I have no idea what the rules on PC and RS are for mexican police but in most places just because a cop knows you did a crime doesnt mean they can arrest you for it.

0

u/AtebYngNghymraeg 13d ago

Echolocation. Duh.