I was lucky to not be arrested or even killed in Paris

[splashpot]

I've never told anyone this story before because I'm embarassed about how stupid my judgement was. It does however, make for a funny story.

Over the summer, I was in Paris sight-seeing for a few days. I was by myself, just touring the city for about 3 days. It was my first time so I was quite excited to see everything. The incident happened just after I had seen the Arc de Triomphe. I was walking down the Champs Ellesse and I ran into some Chinese tourists. They apparently didn't speak English or French so they tried talking to me in Chinese (I am Chinese). My Chinese however, is very bad. I could kind of understand what they were saying, but it was very difficult. But they looked like tourists and I thought that if I was able to help them, I would since I didn't have a set schedule to keep up with.

After a little trouble, I understood that they saw some Louis Vuitton wallets that they wanted to buy, but there was some restriction to the number that they were allowed to buy. So they wanted to give me some money and have me buy it for them. I agreed, thinking it would take 2 seconds and that I could help them out. (I now realize how idiotic this decision was).

I thought it would be right around the corner, but it turned out to be a mid-sized walk away. They took me down a few streets walking for about 5-10 minutes. I started to get impatient, but I thought it would be rude to say no now. When we got there, they gave me 3000 Euros hid around the corner and told me to go buy them. At this point, I realize that they are bootleggers (Yes...I'm slow). I should have just given the money back and said no.

Being the idiotic moron that I am, I decide to dash around the corner and run with the money. I run for a few blocks and I thought I lost them, before I hear that a guy is chasing me. He must have been their partner because I had never seen him before. At this point, I know I'm fuked. We run a little more and a cop sees us. I stop running. I decided that I was in deep enough already. The cop cuffs me and interrogates us. He searches my pockets, finds the money and my American passport. The guy tells the cop that he gave me the money to buy some wallets and I ran with it. I don't deny that story because I'm very scard at this point.

The cop must have realized that those other guys were bootleggers. He gives them back the money, and tells them that he doesn't ever want to see them back here. And he tells them to get lost.

The cop then turns back to me, uncuffs me, and says I can go. I thank him, and go. I then walk as fast as I can to the closest subway, looking over my shoulder every 5 seconds. I am totally expecting those guys to come beat the [censored] out of me. I get to the subway, go back and forth between a few stops before I am certain that no one is following me. Then I go back to my hotel and thank god that I'm still alive and that I'm free.

I know I deserved to be arrested for running, but man did I feel lucky. I will NEVER do something like this again.