Have you ever been mugged?
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I've never been successfully mugged. Lots of yoes
tried it, back when I was driving a cab. It's not
fun, having a gun shoved in your face, but every
time it was tried, I won. Shot one, held two for
the police, backed the car over one, held another
in a "Mexican standoff" until he backed down and
I took his jewelry off of him. Finally I stopped
picking up blacks because I got tired of all the
theft tries and the other yo habit, running away
from cabs without paying. Then I gave up the cab.
Robin Miller {roblimo@primenet.com} Dear Rebecca.
I know that I'm coming from a different perspective but, I have never been mugged, I'm 61 years old, and I will not turn over the streets to the losers! This may sound like bravado, but again considering my age, if this is what we have to look forward to, COUNT ME OUT! I will not criticize you for your actions, but we can't let the inmates control the asylum. I hope you get the chance to "return the favor"
Jack Schumann {schumann@voicenet.com} I was mugged.
1990. The Suburbs. San Jose, CA. Walking home from the mall. It's a long story, really.
It was one guy, who could have easily taken my friend and me on in a scuffle.
$13.00 from me, my class ring. $10.00 from Jerry.
And to think, I thought he just wanted to do some marketing pitch for dope or speed.
He mugged us. He said he knew where we lived. At least, he got the intersection too close for comfort.
He lectured us afterwards on how it was SO IMPORTANT to take the bus home. Never go out at night, we could be mugged.
Uh, thanks for that lesson, Wayne.
I said something stupid too. He asked, "And, why do you have that fake gold chain? Why don't you wear real gold."
"Because if it was real, you would have taken that too."
Oh, the things you say when someone disses your gold plating.
I never reported it. A while later, an undercover SJPD officer came to my door. They found my ring. They traced the name, the year, the mascot to me.
Good ol' Wayne was beating the shit out of his girlfriend. They found a bonanza of stolen merchandise. And my ring.
Seems to me that I should have lectured him, "Hey, man, when you hit her, hit her softly."
Ain't life grand?
names have not been changed to protect anyone, because the court transcript is available to the public and he has been found guilty in court of law.
Eric I think that it is very dangerous for people to associate race with criminal behavior, which is why, at first, I was uncomfortable with this essay.
It is very true that minorities have a much higher arrest to actual criminal behavior ratio than non-minorities. Who gets arrested and who does not get arrested often has more to do with who does the arresting than anything else.
It hard to avoid the desire to steal, in particular when a person feels -- sometimes very rationally -- that the world is biased against her or him. I do not judge "criminals" very much these days, since very often I can understand their perspective on the world.
In this case, I was genuinely disappointed in and angry at these men for mugging me. I was such an easy target -- a small blonde woman in nikes. And, maybe if I were male mugging could be an option. The resentment stems from the fact that I do not choose to steal, and they do.
I think it is important for everyone -- especially women, who often underestimate their power -- to fight back.
But at the same time I am furious at the social conditions that contribute to a person's complete lack of optimism so that he or she sees no better alternative than to steal.
rebecca l. eisenberg {mars@well.com} Hi Rebecca, Sorry to hear about your mugging....life in the 90's. I was held up twice while managing an upscale restuarant in Hollywood Ca. I did not ever think it could happen to me.Having guns in your face, held by jittery criminal types really does SUCK ! The first time I was scared but also had thirty guests as well as ten employees that I was more concerned with. I managed to hold it all in till I got home and then unloaded. The second time ...before the guy actually did anything.....the hairs on the back of my neck started going crazy. He walked up to me as I was phoning the police and stuck a 9,000 millimeter (yes it looked that big) gun in my face.He then took all the restaurants money and then everybody elses as well. No one got hurt either time, thankfully. The worst part of all this is that I was afraid of black people afterwards, and I felt for the first time in my life the urge to actually make someone dissapear from existance.And to do it with slow deliberate action. I always considered that I lost my peace and love naivete. A SAD DAY and for me a great loss.
Michael Begley
Michael Begley {bagz@pacbell.net} Oddly, I think I told this story to Rebecca at brunch a couple weeks ago. A fair number of months ago now, and no I don't even recall exactly when, I got jumped by three kids outside the corner store at Hayes and Buchanan. This is less than half a block from my apartment. I had a small bag of, I think, cream cheese and pickles in one hand, and was reaching for the keys in my pants pocket with the other hand as I came down off the sidewalk. Someone from behind hit the paper bag and it went flying into the street. Then one or more of them hit me from behind, knocking me onto the street. At that point, I recall hands and feet. And the punching and kicking. I was reduced to nothing more than the sum of arms moving to protect my body from blows and an utterly animal howl. Somewhere in all this, I managed to grunt out the rather cliche, "take anything you want" -- the wrong thing to say because their response was "we want your head". My sense of the passage of time became distorted. It wasn't so much that I distanced myself from what was happening as I somehow forgot each moment as it passed, so I only ever had to deal with each individual moment as it came. No past to the event, and no future either. Only the single solitary moment of Present had to be lived. Then I heard the voice of my downstairs neighbor (who know, ironically, regularly intimidates me out of money by doing things like standing between the closed gate and the rest of the front stoop, waving a bottle and saying "don't make me angry, I've been drinking") -- he was calling out something like "hey! that's my neighbor!" until they stopped and ran away. I rolled into a stand and slipped back into the corner store where the phone wouldn't let me call my apartment for some reason, and a woman out of nowhere arrived with a wet towel for my face. That's the moment at which I realized I had been beaten up, heh. My neighbor showed up again, my housekeys and food retrieve from the street (but not my wallet which had indeed been taken), and we walked back to our building. Walked into the house, threw my food across the living room calling out "well, I have been beaten up!" very loudly. Went to the mirror to see my swollen and bruised face. Called my best friend in Minneapolis because I couldn't think of anyting else to do to calm down. Then called my friend the doctor (lucky me!) and got checked out. I still tense up on that corner. It doesn't help that I never saw anything but their hands and feet. I never know who might be looking for another shit.
baby-X {baby-x@cyberpolis.org} I've never been mugged successfully, either, despite 28 years of living in neighborhoods with areas especially unsafe for a small, white chick dressed nicely and wearing some jewelry to walk through. I learned early how to walk, where to walk, when to walk. Once, when I was a kid a guy I could tell was trouble from a block away (but whom I couldn't avoid without being obvious) asked me--with his hands on it--if my necklace were real gold. I looked him in the eye and said, "No" and walked on. He believed me; it was, actually, plated.
But this week, I was robbed of confidence in my neighborhood, walking home from the subway around 7:30 in the evening. Two youg-sounding males walked steps behind me for a block or so--the bad, empty block of my walk home where someone got murdered in a home invasion last spring. I never saw them, just heard them behind me, one talking loudly just for me about how he hated whitey, how white people smell, how white people never take showers, how he wanted to beat up that white kid they'd run into earlier--a total run down of the generic racist insults. His friend offered a weak protest at one point, but the tirade didn't stop until they turned a corner unexpectedly and were thankfully gone.
I hadn't responded at all, at least not out loud. I hadn't seen them--I couldn't tell if they were big or not, preteens or 17, hood-like or clean cut. I was late getting home to dinner, where we were entertaining two friends who were also taking the subway. Had they arrived yet? Were they following not far behind? Was the corner store open? Should I turn around and tell them that their mothers would be ashamed, that I was ashamed for them? If I confronted them, would they become violent? I couldn't tell.
To me, the particularly awful part of a racial attack, a hate crime of words, was that I had specifically chosen to live in this multi-racial, mixed income neighborhood, to buy a home, to defy my shocked middle-class, white bread friends and co-workers. I grew up with an adopted African-American brother only three months younger than I and our family always deliberately lived in areas where we would both be accepted.
In retrospect, I have a hundred eloquent responses to give (Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech comes to mind). I wish I had at least seen their faces, so I could pick them out again since I'm sure they live nearby. But they were gone. And I think, "Maybe we should sell our place in two years instead of five or ten. Maybe I should start driving to work. Maybe I should be talking to my neighbors more and volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club on the street where they turned." I never told my dinner guests about what had happened, and we walked them safely to the subway later that night.
kirsten {seneca@tiac.net} A friend and co-worker of mine was mugged. Shot and killed, actually.
He was 42. Completely innocuous. He was out taking photographs of motorcycles at night (freelance photography) in Ft. Lauderdale. Couple of guys approached him, pulled a gun and asked him for his money. He said he didn't have any.
So they shot him in the foot.
They proceeded to force him into his car, and then said they were going to drive him to the ATM so he could get cash for them. At a stoplight, he tried to flee; I'm not sure why. Maybe he thought there wasn't any chance they'd let him live.
They shot him in the back, then th l need to work to "make things better" -- fight racism, fight poverty, fight welfare cuts.
I also used to take it as a given that, as a young white woman, I'd be harrassed walking alone near the projects -- not because I expected the residents to behave that way, but because I really didn't blame them. After all, the kids that called my "whitey" on the corner of Hayes and Buchannan would certainly be harrassed -- by the cops, probably -- if they ever strolled through my parents' neighborhood. I considered this mutual harrassment to be the unfortunate result of a long history of racism and economic inequality. I didn't want to give in to it. I wanted to move into that neighborhood anyway. Challenge the rules. Fuck shit up.
Two years later, I have a lot less energy. And a little less patience. I still believe we need to fight poverty and racism. I still believe that desperation and resentment are the results of inequality. But these days I'm a lot more likely to hold individuals responsible for their behavior, rather than shrug off an attack with socio-economic explanation.
What worries me, though, is that I no longer wish to challenge the system by living in "unsafe" areas, areas where I might get shit on the street. I just don't feel like dealing with it anymore. I even avoid taking the bus because there's always some screaming nut on it, or some guy with his pants down. It's fucking annoying.
But hiding away from "unsafe" spaces is no answer. I just wish I had more energy to take the occaisional shit, to realize it's not personal, and to maintain my hope for humanity.
I have never been mugged. I grew up in Indiana. A medium size city, Fort Wayne, gangs, plenty of drugs coming in from Detroit, yet I never knew any of it. I guess my mother did a pretty good job of isolating and protecting me. The worse that has ever happened to me was when I was in San Francisco. An old man was seated behind me, and he started playing with my hair. Quietly, he was saying this to me like, "Pretty little girl, why don't you get off with me."
I wasn't mugged, and I know that worse has happened to others. But I can understand (I think) how Rebecca might feel. It is a violating experience, knowing that you can be hurt by anyone. It's frightening to look at how some people value money in comparison with life and dignity. I used to be naive, have an optimism for humanity, give 'em the benefit of the doubt. But now, I seem to be just the opposite. Cynicism creeps into my mental attitude more and more. Maybe I am even becoming jaded.
Emily Merkler {emerkler@darwin.helios.nd.edu} I never have, and I'm surprised. I've done stupid shit like walking dark alleys at night (not alone, but with one other person) and I live in really unsafe town (Muncie Indiana:it's great, I tell ya...) I'm surprised nothing has happened to me or anyone else thatI know, but we all keep doing things like that anyway. Who knows why...?
kris {kerupp@bsuvc.bsu.edu} I have never been mugged. The only really negative experience I've had on the streets in getting propositioned repeatedly by a large male prostitute. It was a strange experience, but not really frightening. Afterwards, I really felt sorry for him because I ended up telling him off in no uncertain terms, which is out of character for me. His eyes had quickly averted as he got the message that I thought he was trash. I didn't really think he was trash, but he wasn't leaving me alone and I ran out of patience. The ironic part is that I'm positive he was doing it for drug money. He really looked strung out, and at the time I was working and living at a local homeless shelter/half-way house for drug addicts. I could have, should have handled it a lot differently. That was in Chicago, while in a semester extension program through Taylor University, which is just 30 minutes north of Muncie, Indiana (Middletown, USA for you sociologists out there). Muncie has problems, but it's a safe town overall. The weirdest thing I had happen there was a drunk stranger touseling my hair at "The Dead Pigeon", a bar/club type place.
Eric Mathiasen {emathias@wwa.com} I'm sorry, always real sorry, when this kind of shit happens.
I'm sure you know some of the common tactics to avoid being mugged. They're out there. I'll bet that you've read about them, could rewrite them here in some self-indulgent attempt to balance the experience with socially constructive info-sharing.
If you're like me, that squares off in the soul with the unreasonable desire to kick some bloody shame out of any runt who's low enough to equate a desire for your money with the right to use violence and oppression against you, the perfect stranger.
Things like: be aware of your surroundings and the people around you (sounds like you were); walk on the outside of the sidewalk, where you can't be trapped against a building; stay in the light; don't walk a predictable route (cross the street unexpectedly, stuff like that); assume an assertive, not-a-victim body language; et cetera (may not be legal in all languages).
I was mugged once, as a tender, sensitive, bookish teen. I grew up into a tender, sensitive, intellectual man ... who happened to work for a law enforcement agency, worked out & stuff, and was trained in a variety of weapons and defense tactics. I'm no longer "take-able." But -- really -- the most potent element of my defense is that I simply don't accept myself as someone who can be intimidated out of my belongings. (Assertive bordering on super-arrogant?) And I think most muggings are more intimidation than actual threat.
Some of these you can use. Reading your story, I nodded and thought, "Yep, there's a mistake. Uh-oh, there's another one." Can I take a moment to post some?
My point being, in some cases, a mugging requires collaboration. Taking a known "uh-oh" route home. Making eye contact and smiling with strangers. Stopping to converse with someone, or answer an inane question ("What, d'ya think I'm the Q&A person for this street?"). Pulling out one's wallet on the street. Getting into a discussion of how much money you've got.
Hey ... I'm glad you're okay. It could've been a lot worse. And you wrote a pretty thoughtful piece.
David Spalding {dspalding@korova.com} I was mugged a couple of times while living in new york city. Actually, my second experience was similar to rebecca's, except that there were three of them and one held my arms while another punched me in the face for kicks. he then threw me to the ground and ripped my bag out of my hands (one of those plastic Pay-less bags with cotton string handles) and ran off. that's when I sorta snapped out of shock and went running after them. I suppose the thing that disturbed me the most was the pure rage I felt. the one who had my bag was straggling, and I was close to catching up with him. I was yelling "I'm gonna fucking kill you" at them, and the scary thing to me is that I think I would have tried if I caught him. I think of myself as peaceful and evolved, but my physical reaction put the lie to that. I was berserker. Anyway, the straggler made the mistake of looking back at me, and he ran into a wire that was bracing a telephone pole line. he went down, my bag was torn open and some stuff spilled out. he looked as if he might try to pick it up, but I was close by then and I screamed, "I'm here you fucker" or something like that, and he jumped up and ran off. So I got my stuff back, including my wallet which was in the bag. But it seemed to me a stupid and pointless and degrading effort on their part, and a painful truth was revealed on mine. I guess I'm still a monkey at heart. Ohhh...ohh...no, no...I...I can't (choke)...I can (choke)... I...have never been mugged, partially because I haven't lived in a big enough city to be, but the thought of realizing my lack of freedom in this world through the clenched and stifling hands of one whose mind never forgets even a whisper of other's prosperity, and counts all of it as a personal affront, does not entise me further.
Mugged Boy {robert_dawson@students.mcad.edu} I was mugged once when I was 9 years old. It was in the park across from the San Francisco Zen Center on Page St. There were two assailants, black, no more than a few years older than myself. Some 14 years passed before I partly relaxed my fears and could go into some parts of San Francisco again. I still won't set foot in most of Oakland. I will never live in a big city. On Sunday night at 7pm a year ago, i got on the 71 inbound at masonic and haight and sat in back. i had my cd player and a bag of cookies. at the next stop, 6 teenagers got on and sat around me. one asked another "do you still have that knife?" and i knew they were gonna try something. but they were small. 15, 16 years old. tall but skinny. i let one listen to my cd player, and a couple stops later as they were getting out he tried to grab it out of my hands. a minute or two later, they were gone. one definitely had a broken jaw, but i definitely had a broken finger and several bruises. and my cd player was gone, and my cookeis were scattered on the floorboard. maybe it's testosterone, but i look forward to chances to jump into any situation if i can help. i've broken up a lot of fights and saved one lady from getting mugged. i have a long way to go to make up for the shit i pulled when i was kid, but i never hurt anyone. the most interesting part of the event was what happened afterwards. during the whole conflict, none of the 20 people on the bus made any movement or sound the bus driver asked if everything was ok. i berated everyone on the bus for allowing the youths to force them to live in fear. i declared that i would jump at the opportunity to intervene on someone else's behalf in a situation like that. then some girls behind me said they'd never have let that happen to them. then as an older guy got out, he said to me "that only happens to people like you." postscript: i bought another cd player. at Might magazine party 2 weeks later a guy came up to me and said he was on the bus! he said my speech had totally shamed him and he was changed forever. he said i was his idol. and i would still die fighting rather than give an inch to anyone. and i would still rather die than stand and watch you get mugged, too. I got mugged at about 3am in Chicago, walking back from an exploration of the steam tunnels under my college.
I guy got behind me, and asked me if I had a light. I turned around (while still walking quickly in my original direction) and said, "no."
A second later, he said "this is a stick up", and I turned around in anger (not because I was being robbed, but because I had to get up in four hours).
In his hand was a wooden gun. I told myself over and over: "he can't hurt you" - "the gun is fake" - "you can outrun him" - etc. Still, my heart was beating frantically. I threw my bag a few feet away (it was where my money was), and told him "I got some change," pulled my pockets inside out and thought to myself "leave me the fuck alone, I have to get up early".
He looked at the change, and walked away. I didn't chase him or pull an emergency phone, or anything. I just went to bed once I calmed down.
I call it my surreal mugging.
Paul Socolow {socolow@dtd.com} Are muggings really that prevalent in America, or are you just trying to scare us Australians? We've never been mugged or heard of people being mugged here in little old Perth, Western Australia. Sure we have crime, we even have some suburbs with bad reputations but I don't think you'd get mugged if you walked through those streets, mind you I've never tested this theory. Jess thinks that mugging sounds petty. "Why would anyone bother with that for just a few dollars?? No-one carries that much money around anymore, they've all got credit cards." I tend to agree with her, although our positions are some what on the ignorant side having never had to put up with constant tales of muggings. We don't mean to belittle any of the experiences people have gone through, I should imagine that they were scary and had a lasting effect on the victims, but the whole concept is totally foreign to us. It's a shame that it is a part of many people's lifestyles really.
CHELSEA AND JESSICA 1) I had a bridge partner who was mugged while taking a short cut to the Newark, NJ train station. One of the two guys who mugged him hit him in the face and broke his glasses. As the mugging was ending and the money had been transferred, the mugger apologized for breaking his glasses. The experience seems to have changed him for the worse, as soon after he quite college, and soon after that his wife divorced him. He had four kids. I know of another case. Someone from my hometown was taking a P in a urinal in a New York subway and was mugged. It changed him sufficently that he later committed suicide. I have a relative who got out of his car to walk his dog. When he got back there was a group of kids by his car holding his keys. He had to pay them $20 to get the keys back. This relative later developed severe mental problems. Certainly not the cause but it probably didn't help any either. If there is any moral here, it may well be that if possible it is better to inflict pain, hurt, and hell in general on a mugger because in the long run it leads to better karma. Of course this is only a rule of thumb and is to be ignored in the presence of guns and such. And oh yes....avoid New York City subway urinals like the plague. Never leave your keys in your car. Don't even *think* about taking a short cut to the Newark, NJ train station.
Robert Glover {bobg@eclipse.net} I have never been mugged, thank goodness. What concerns me is your attitude. Perhaps it was the shock of the situation. Perhaps its naivete. To call these guys 'losers' is a bit charitable, You are lucky to be alive. I'm sure that there are people driven to steal. For the most part however these people are just plain bad. They deserve all the simpathy in the world until they commit crimes. Then its hard to be simpathetic. A line must be drawn. This is not a victimless crime; it could have been a lot worse.
Sam Smolker {sam@calstate.edu} I think that is great you called those guys loosers.
Good for you!
Terri
Terri Driven by circumstances to steal. Not only is that pathetically false, but it’s an insult to the people in similar circumstances who don’t resort to crime.
EVERYBODY, except the insane, know the difference between right and wrong. In fact, although it helps enormously, you don’t even need to have grown up in a two parent home to know that threatening someone with violence is a bad thing. "Yeah, uh, Joe, we know you’ve been really down on your luck these past two decades and so we’re just going to tell you that mugging people is a bad thing, and then we’re going to turn you loose - okay?" "What do you mean bad. Bad as in, cool?" "Yeah, well, uh, tell ya what. Let’s just forget we ever had this conversation…"
cynsa beans hit it on the nose earlier when she ended her story by saying, "I guess I'm still a monkey at heart." We’re all really monkeys at heart. Yes, that’s right, we’re all really animals. And, if you don’t believe me then just ask your 8th grade science teacher. He/She will probably mutter something about homo sapiens.
What’s the point? As the most evolved animals on this planet, we’ve been graced with the ability to control ALL of our animal tendencies by gauging their effect against what we know to be good or bad. If it’s bad and we still do it, and particularly if our bad actions in some way harm someone else, then we should be punished.
Rebecca you should have called the police and run the kids through the ringer.
Mike Watson {mikew@intworks.com} No.
ian smith {ian@kirk.anderson.edu} [ I have not been mugged.]
Ian Smith {ian@kirk.anderson.edu} Got mugged when I was still living in Denver.... Lost a $1.27. Very nearly got my ass kicked for laughing histerically at the two guys mugging me. I was 9. . .
Funny how these things happen. That turned out to be the least of my experiences in the town of my birth.
Jason Young {youngjm@irn.pdx.edu} Wow.. Almost in the same neighborhood. 24th & Mission, but it was broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon. 12 noon to be exact.
Little gangsta comes runnin' up and says "gimme you're bike" (he was referring to the brand new Trek 850 w/fancy shock that I just bought). I so "no". He put up a fuss. He put up a fuss as I walked nearly 2 blocks. He then presented his weapn, and I decided that it was bargaining time. He waved to his homies across the street and suddenly- I was scared.
I bargained with him and I managed to get away with the bike, minus my wallet and $80.00.
I now carry a weapon, and if I ever see that muther fucker again.. He's dead (just joking)
-Jon
Life is funny
Jonathan Santos {jsantos@entasis.com} ...3 times, all in chi... 1. walking by a very tony french restaurant off michigan av, huge dude walks up to me and says 'i got a gun, gimme your money'...i say, as big as you are you could say 'i got a fist, gimme your money'...but he didn't think that was funny...he got $700 that i had to make good on within the hour... 2. walking home from work a guy in an alley says 'come here' and i see his gun...i go in the alley and he says to give him my money which i do and he says 'get outta here and don't turn around, which sounds good to me...he got maybe 20 bucks... 3. going to the laundramat at 11 p.m. and this skinny, weak asshole jumps me from the back and we start scuffling until his friend shows up about a minute later with a knife...i give them my wallet [would you believe under 5 bucks] and they run off...three days later, i'm walkin to the drugstore and see the second guy so i walk up behind him, tap him on the shoulder and when he turns around i tell him i'm going to kill him and the stupid fuck just runs off... ...i figure i got off easy each time except for the headache in getting the 700 back so quick...
deckard kinder {newman@ntr.net} The first time I got assaulted I was riding my bike on country road when two drunk rednecks ran me off the road. They entertained themselves that afternoon by beating the shit out of a fifteen year old kid and saying they were going to kill him before it was over. WHITE TRASH, HICKS,IN- BRED, HILLBILLY,COWSHIT KICKERS. I used to work in a 24hr convenience store. One Sunday at 2:00AM a jacked-up kid tried to steal a twelve pack. When he found out the cooler doors were locked he decided to get cash instead. He started screaming at me "GIMME THE MONEY MOTHER FUCKER..NOW MOTHER FUCKER...". He had his hand in his jacket pocket like as if he had a gun. I never thought to question it. I just gave him all 18 bucks from the register. Then he stared at me for acouple of seconds with the cash in one hand and his other sticking at me in his pocket. Thats when I thought for a split second, This little asshole is realy gonna shoot me. For some reason I said "do you want a bag?" Then he bolted out the door and into the dark. SCUMBAG, LOOSER, LOWLIFE, SHITEATER, MAGGOT. When I hear about the cops shooting a violent criminal to death, like the stooges that died in Hollywood trying to rob that bank, I celebrate. If you're a criminal (one of the few that can read) you know deep inside that you are a useless parasite without enough guts to get through life on your own merits. So you take from others, or take out your frustrations on them. We've all had obstacles in life. You are weak, frail, hopeless, and I have no pity for you. To those who enjoy hurting and taking from others: I wish you all the anguish and pain you inflicted returned upon you tenfold. To those who've stolen from and assaulted me: GET BEAT-UP,SHOT,STABBED,SHIT-ON,PISSED-ON,ROBBED, HANGGED,OVERDOSED,I'LL BE GOD DAMMED IF ANYONE WILL GET AWAY WITH SHIT ON ME AGAIN!
larry {DarknHip@AOL.com} The first time is when I returned from a tour in the boonies in Nam. My draft board sent me a notice to appear for induction! The second time was on the 14th street subway platform in Manhattan, but, the dude was so bombed I just walked away and left him stammering to himself. My last experience was in Queens, New York, the cops finally got involved in this one. I was wearing my suit and tie at the time and lived in a sort of exclusive neighborhood. One winter eveing after working late I was walking to my apartment from the subway when I guy tried to mug me. We had a short altercation and someone called New Yorks blue jackets. They carted me off to the slammer on an eye witness report that I had attacked the guy. It later came to pass the guy who had attacked me was identified by others who had experienced his brand of social encounter. My problem was I was a black guy in the wrong neighborhood late at night so naturally they thought I was the attacker. That was enough for me to quit my job, sell my coop, move to the western desert where I now live, peacefully!
Don Thompson {dont@dconn.com} Its not a mugging I know, but leaving a trademass in the outskirt of Dar-es-Salaam, my girlfriend, which is from Dar, told me a man in the crowd entering the bus was in my pockets. It was nothing there, yet I felt such an immense anger at anybody attacking my privacy in that way. If Id discovered him, Im shure I would have been beaten him, I am not shure if I like that thought.
Being blueeyed scandinavian, and the biggest city ive been living in for some time is Helsinki, I am not used to much crime. No wonder I felt the difference, walking around in Dar-es-Salaam, even during daytime Poni always greeted people we met in the streets, and explained it with the possibility of a helping hand if anyone would try to mug us.
A lot of people told me about their worries, I saw how crime burdens people with fear. Yet I must say I never felt any threat in Dar.
In Nairobi, if a crowd has managed to get a thief, it has happened theyd stoned him to death.
leif Rebecca was it? It's almost a year since you wrote this account of your mugging, but I've just run across it on z-San Francisco. I read it through without comment until the end where you make your moral claims etc. I said out loud "You're stupid!" It's ridiculous to think you "got" anything at all out of this experience. You didn't even learn anything. Your stupid ass was pure lucky you didn't get fucked over big-time. You did get one thing out of it...your life. J.O.
Jim {mensana@aol.com} Cynicism makes the world go round...
What the fuck's up with you people insulting Rebecca for her personnal reaction to her personnal experience? Christ, come to your own conclusions, but don't put down others'... Everyone deals with things in their own way.
If the goal is to put down, to insult, to frustrate, then join a political party. Or preach religion door to door. Or whatever.
If the goal is to create dialogue by challenging ideas and ideals, then question, debate, challenge, but don't insult. Hypocrisy is looking out into the world from your window. Intelligence is opening the window to let the world look in as well.
Ciao, and pardon the impetuousness.
Remi {erd3515@umoncton.ca} oui, I was mugged one early spring morning in 1992 near the Maubert-Mutualite subway stop in Paris, shouting distance away from the local police station. I was with Delphine, returning with her to her place. We'd been drinking at nearby bar that, ironically, was frequented by Paris' finest stationed in the aforementioned gendarmerie. Perhaps the officers on duty that night had been in another part of the bar, hidden from our view and tying one on at the expense of the patron, beacause when it happened, there were no cops to be seen.
Tony {gvahlk@aol.com} Mugged.....Ha.....Talk about a pathetic existance. I was working as a pizza delivery driver to help make ends meet. It was about 12:45 and I was more than glad to be finished with my last run. I pulled up to the back of the PIzza shop, and started collecting my delivery tickets and money and empty pizza bags. I glanced up and noticed that the door was closed....we usualy kept the back door open. But I blew it off...it was unseasonably chilly. Whatever. I walked up to the door, aand with the amazing balance of an ex-waitress, kept all my tickets, my wallet (where I kept the cash), and pizza bags in one hand and opened the door with the other. And what did mine eyes behold? A punk kid....a stocking mask.....a shit-eating grin....and a .20 shotgun. "She's here!" he snickered.
I almost laughed....I remember thinking "What kind of joke is this crap?" Then another punk kid, stockinged with a .357 came and pulled me farther into the restaurant. The guy with the .20 shotgun stepped behind me...pressed the barrel of the gun to the base of my skull....and pumped the action. I have never in all my life heard a noise that loud. A moment later the guy with the .357 put his barrel to my temple, and cocked the hammer back. I remember thinking "What is this, a contest? Who can kill me first? Geez guys, why don't ya' both just pull it out and we'll measure who is longer..." ...luckily I kept my mouth shut.
The rest of the employees and the owner of the shop where all on the floor....face down....hands and feet bound behind them with duct tape....pleading with me to do what was asked....they didn't have to ask twice. I was lead to the center of the room, told to get on my hands and knees, and then they asked for all my money....I handed them my entire wallet. The guy with the .357 said "But your I.D. is in there, Don't you want your I.D.? "...I thought..."You're holding a gun to my head and you think I give a shit about an I.D.? Its a $60 wallet, keep the damn thing!"...luckily I kept my mouth shut...and took the money out of the wallet and gave it to him.
Another driver arrived after me....thats when the threats started flying. "First person that moves is dead"..."Damn, boy, I might kill you just for being fat!"...They forgot to tie one driver's hands..."You think You're smart? gonna be sneaky and hide your hands? I'll pop you, I swear!"...and in my ear..."You be nice to us, and maybe we'll let you live...." ...They tied me tightly....then looked out the window...The cops were there. It was 1:15am. They became more aggitated. Discussing if they should take a hostage to get away....should they kill anyone...should they make a break for it. They walked to the back of the store and shut off all the lights. Then walked back into the main room. We were all laying so close together that they were all literally walking on top of us. The .20 shotgun was held to my head again...then...thankfully...they decided to run for it. They dropped their weapons, and took off through the back door.
You know those stories you hear about people gaining super human strength in extreme moments? It happened. The owner bounced up and broke through about a dozen layers of duct tape around his hands and feet as if they were nothing. Then he ran to the back door, and locked it behind them...ran back into the store and started untying Ben...who then got up and started untying Michelle...amazing as it sounds, all this took seconds. But no one could get my feet untied...then the police stormed in. Started yelling for everyone to get their hands in the air...and when they saw we were all unarmed told everyone to get out through the front...one officer untied my feet with a rather large knife...I remember being perturbed that he cut my sock....but somehow that was funny.
Now...its a waiting game. They caught they perpatrators. We all have to testify in court. the date is set for my 21st birthday. All this...makes me bitter...heh.
Jessi {nightcat@netpass.com} Mugged Australian style: I live in the seething heart of Sydney.. close to Kings Cross which is the Soho, Village part of town. I work as a TV jounalist and spend a lot of the year travelling the world so I fool myself that I'm moderately street wise. I'd just returned from a trip to New York, (where I'b been real careful with a dummy wallet with a little money and old useless credit cards to give if mugged) when a friend and I were mugged leaving a restaurant less than a kilometre from my front door. Danger isn't always in foreign places. I saw stars, just like in cartoons and I was beaten around the head. My frienf who was older had seven teeth kicked out by the four youths who got an antique omega watch and not much money, because the restaurant was so expensive. I keep my wits about me now, but still like to travel, and walk the streets wherever I am. Once in 44 years ain't bad odds.
Bryan Smith {bryansm@mpx.com.au} About three years ago, right after college, I was at a summer house party in New Brunswick, New Jersey (near NYC). The party was overheated and packed so I told my friends I was bailing and going home. It was about 1:30am. My car was cross town and I had to walk through Commercial Avenue, a notoriously ill neighborhood complete with a good number of 'hos, dealers, and thieves. The summer night felt nice, and I had been smoking herb, so all was right by me. But up ahead I saw three homies coming down the sidewalk. Having been raised by New Yorkers, my "watch your ass" instinct was in full effect. I crossed the street to the other side. As they passed opposite me, the three Latino guys pulled flaps in front of their faces, attached to the hooded sweatshirts they all bought together (you could tell). They pull a stealth maneuver under the lamplight and filed out into the street like a pack, as soon as they felt they were out of my periphery. Of course, I was on edge and I noticed immediately when they turned toward me. I ran like a motherfu#ker because these cats were short and I'm a tall, fast runner. But I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a HUGE gun being pulled from the waistline in the leader's pants, and I froze right there. the barrel was long, and it looked real. They caught up and told me to get in the alley between two old houses. The barrel of the gun was placed at my temple and this had become a BAD scene suddenly. I got down face to the ground and they rooted through my wallet. They got $22, gave me my wallet back, and then explained to me how they were "going to run now, so don't look at our faces motherfucker." They then said "See, we only took the money, can you see that?" I let out a feeble "Uh, yeah" as I stared at the open wallet now dropped in front of my face an inch from the cement. I said "take whatever you want." To be honest, I would of been their little soft bitch if they wanted me to, I just didn't want to die. I have tremendous inner pride and sanctity, but when your on the receiving end of a large gun, YOU WILL BEND OVER if they ask you to! I don't care who you think you are, it's true. On a positive note, you really get to iron out your priorities real QUICK! After they ran off hoowing and cheering each other on, I stopped a cab and got the hell out of the neighborhood. The next day, I felt that "I'M ALIVE!!!" feeling because the guy had pressed the barrel of the gun to my temple and I could feel it during the mugging, the whole time. All I thought of was life and how mine might be ending abruptly. I tried to rationalize my situation in the aftermath, but really muggers are a bunch of evil fuckers who will live a life of lies. All I wound up feeling was human and vulnerable. Escaping a murder by the gun might change you forever if it ever happens to you, but you will gain a true appreciation of all that is GOOD in you after such an encounter, believe me....
Doogs
Doogie {doug@webpower.com} Well, let's assume that i live in a totally different environment ... But into the same God's grey earth i guess ....
I've been mugged a couple of times, but my experiences could be summed up into one short conclusion: You guys have the benefit of living in a well succeeded country, in means of education, food consuming and stuff ...
I do live here in Brasil, was born here 23 years ago ... And i tell u that here muggers (aka miserable, poor and 1st grade educated people) don't use to regard your cards, your wallet, your pants or whatever when they catch u up in the streets ... They have the simple and raw willing of surviving, and there is not, not ought there be, any other way for them to have a meal without doin'such a thing. I'm not justifying the 3rd world mugger, it's just a matter of realizing how shitty and depressive are the situations envolving muggin here, and plus, envolving you, a regular educated folk who's supposed to sweat a lot to accomplish the mission of having a decent life, and by the other side of the corner a skinny, hungry, socially "dismissed" human being.
Notice that we are 20 or 30% of the population here, and that's not a reason for hediondous armed robberies, killing rates and stuff ... In a logical and mathematical thinking, you might think we're 100 million muggers here ....
The other 70%, holy shit, at least the most of them, they know what is to live an entire month with US$ 100 in their pockets, which is supposed to be the minimun wage here ...
So i beg you, intelligent and college educated people from all over the world:
Take a look below the carpet ...
Eduardo
Eduardo {eduargo@mandic.com.br} mugged?
yes. once.
i was with a friend and coming home late one evening. we got off the subway at 59th street and headed east on our way to first avenue. it was dark. and deserted. and then there was a young man crossing the street and walking quickly toward us and i thought to myself, "why is he coming over here?" and then there was a gun pointed at my forehead.
i figured just give him the money and he'll go away and it'll be over but he was waving that gun and asking if we had any more cash and we'd best be telling the truth or somebodys fucking head was going to get blown off.
he eventually turned and ran. i didn't sleep that night and around 7am i found myself back outside and at the scene of the crime. i'm not sure why i went back. but i looked around for my wallet, hoping he dropped it, leaving my credit cards or at least my atm card because it was a sunday morning and i was just a bit dazed.
chris piazza {piac@tinpig.com} I really enjoyed everyones submitions, now I don't feel so alone. It's very disconcerting to know that you can get jumped at nine o'clock in the evening in an area that some might describe as yuppie. Lincoln Park in Chicago is considered a very safe area. Unfortunately on the night I was passing through (on a side street) I was approached by two black men who politely asked me for my money. They did this while first pointing the gun at my chest and then at my head. Unfortunately before I left home, being the street smart Chicagoan that I am, I put my wallet in my dresser. I told myself that if a situation like this was to arise I would be fortunate to not have any money to give them, or whoever it was who attempted to rob me. The most fortunate thing that happened that night was for another person to come walking down the street not long after I did. They dropped my keys, which they discovered after delving deep into my pockets, and the three of us parted never to meet again. At first I blamed the neighborhood through which I was hiking. I thought to myself "things like this wouldn't happen if there wasn't such at great division in classes in our society". But why should people not be able to live as they want? Philistines shouldn't be looked on as prey, but perhaps they are due to their seemingly obvious indifference to those less fortunate than themselves. Now I just think of it as an isolated incident that I happened to be a part of. Oh yeah, if you think I'm going to blame the black race, think again. As Martin luther King said: judge people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. These guys had bad character.
Paranoid Me and my parents went on a vacation to Europe I was Mugged in La Rochele in france It all happened like this.... there was 4 of us there me my brother and parents my parents were looking at some boring thing so they gave us 3 francs (5 dollars) to go down to the local arcade. We kinda forgot where it was and went down a dark street. (HEY I WAS ONLY 11 AND MY BROTHER WAS 13) There was an old woman walking her 3 poodles on the other side of the street. It was dark and quiet, we where walking on a narrow street,i saw 2 men walking single file coming towards us light build about 19 both of them, my bro suspected nothing but i didnt want to run away. NOW the first one was behind us just like they wanted to pass us when they drew knives (the old woman hurried along now!) it was a silver knife the blade was 10 centimetres long. i said ok james (my bro) give him the money and we can go! he was petrified, the other guy at the back of us stopped us from getting away,he was a walking ball of acne, his face allmost turned frightened when he heard we were english, he put the knife away and promised us not to tell the jean darmes (police) he raised his hand (sweaty:novice) and i shook it agreeing that we would not tell they ran off and we ran off 3 francs intact! our parents were stunned when we told them. We didnt tell on them!
Michael Danton {danent@iniacces.net.au} Fellow I know went to the Coke machine in the Comp Sci building on campus and bought a Coke. Some guy came up to him and demanded his money.
He said, "All I had I used to buy the Coke," and emptied his pockets to demonstrate.
The mugger said, "Uh, then give me the Coke."
The fellow got a little indignant and said no, whereupon the mugger knocked him around a bit and took the can of Coke by force.
Some people in this world really have to get their priorities straight.
Kirsten {kirsten@cs.sunysb.edu} Hmm... never been mugged, but there's a first time for everything, I suspect.
The only thing that's relatively close to that that I have experienced is harrassment. Choice comments, general annoyances (walking down a sidewalk and some guy pulls his car out of the driveway and blocks my way so I practically have to climb over the car to get past, unless I want to pull a Mentos and clamber through the backseat, which is probably what he was hoping for), and feelings of unsafe-ness are all I've really experienced.
I'd like to think that if I'm ever in a situation where I stand to get mugged, I'll fight with every last ounce of my strength, provided I'm not staring down the business end of a 9 millimeter. But you never know til you're actually *in* that situation.
So, for now, I practice defensive living. And Rebecca - although I understand your uncomfortableness with the inherent biases in your essay, don't be uncomfortable with honesty. You were speaking from your heart and I for one appreciate it.
Like the poster in the beginning who spoke of growing cynicism with age, I used to be of the mindset that I too should live in diverse areas and not be afraid to walk down unsafe streets, etc., because that was a form of prejudice within myself. Now, my mindset is one of "Fuck it. I earn my living and sustain my own existence, so why should I spend it in a constant state of fear, all for trying to achieve some ideal that won't change with my input?" Perhaps it's callous. But I'll be damned if I'm going to put myself in situations where I could get harmed just to prove a point.
This happened in Santiago, Chile. I was walking along the sidewalk of a major street at approx. 11 in the evening on a Friday night. I was on my way to a mall to meet up with some friends. I noticed as I was walking, there was a guy maybe 5-10 meters in front of me, also strolling at the same pace. Being a major street, it should have been filled with cars, but they were all stopped at a red light about half a block behind me. I went to cross the street, walking towards some woods (which seperate both sides of the street, something like a park). Anyhow, as I was crossing the street, the guy in front of me turned around and ran up to me, grabbed me by the collar with both his hands -- in one hand he had a switchblade, I heard a
Anonymous It happened, in broad day light, on a busy block in Brooklyn, NY. I was just minding my own business coming home from work and this little shit comes up to me and pushes me up against a building. He says "give me your money," I said, no fucking way and started to walk away. He grabed me and dug his finger into my belly "Give your money bitch or I will kill you!" he screamed. Well with that kind of choice I gave him all my money, three fucking dollars! (which happened to be all the money I had in the world, but that is another story) "That's all the money you have bitch," he screams in my face. Pulling myself away, I yelled, fuck you! catch me on the way out of the bank next time ass hole. With that I started booking home. It took me a block before I realized that I had been mugged by a 12 year old with a "gun." Needless to say I moved out of that area very quickly.
funny girl One night around 11pm in the winter of 95, during my freshmen year at Cooper Union in NYC's East Village, I got my ass kicked by some homeboy sportin' phat Hilfiga' apparel. I was at the time a little hammered and I was on my way to 12th Street to buy an eighth of shrooms from one of my old friends. As I was walking down 3rd Ave. concentrating on walking straight, I noticed that I was two blocks out of the way of my pals apartment. It was at the southeast corner of 3rd and 14th where I met this crackhead dude that tried to sell me a broken ring. He had white chapped lips and beedy red eyeballs. After I refused him a few times, I was on my way back in the right direction. A moment passes and I hear "Hey wait up!" coming from the basehead salesman behind me. I turn my head in time to see his fist plow into my left eye which knocked me over onto the cold pavement. I spring back up only to get my left eyeball smashed in again. Now in a daze sprawled out on the sidewalk I began to feel probing fingers invading my pockets. Now I realize that this fucker is mugging me. Enraged, I swung back with my left fist and fuck him up square in the nose. He fell back yelling "Motha fucka!". I turned my head enough to see him with my good eye as he's fishing through his own pockets. Immediately regreting my counteraction, I thought I pissed him off enough that he thought it was time give me some serious damage. You can imagine how pleased I was to get two more punches in my already swelled shut left eye. Accepting defeat, I then let him take my cash with no fight. "Take my money you fucking schmuck!", was all I could manage to sqeeze out as I felt him clench the bills in my front right pocket. He ran off and I laid there bleeding on the wet ground. It was very perplexing to me that while this was going on, no one seemed to be around. At any rate, I never made it to my friends apartment. I stumbled back to my dorm penniless, shroomless, and bleeding. Luckily, I had a few beers left in the fridge.
Justus Hanson {plug1@earthlink.net} A friend and I got mugged as we were going back to his house. We were carrying a twelve pack of Yuengling Black and Tan and three guys ran up behind us. I saw one gun and I assume the all had guns. They were so pissed! We spent our money on beer and they only got a a dollar and some change. They didn't take the beer, either. Too heavy. We were very lucky. People at work said that I was blessed and I regretted bringing it up because it gave them an opportunity to preach at me. I surprised myself how by how calm I was. I didn't look at the guys closely. I knew I could have been shot but it didn't really register. Like I said, we were lucky.
albert green {agreen@hotmail.com} Ten years-still nothing. I was "mugged" i assume.All I remember was waking up ina hospital bed,side-rails up,dark room, yellow blanket. Lump(pain)on head|brokenarm. Nurse tells me to sleep. Friends found me at home confused,injured-took me tto hospital. CAT scan shows small bruise on my BBRAIN! I am off balance for several months-moody, memory trouble. I found my wallet in the glove-compartment of my car-nothing missing. I still have no memory of the 36+ hours before aI awoke. Flashes come to me sometimes-violent|dark fleeting. I do remeber leaving the medical school after a lecture by a surgeon on his experience in a MASH unit in Viet Nam. Horrible slides of broken young bodies one after another.
Ben Lightfoot {ptowny@capecod.net} I've never been mugged because I live in a little peice of shit town called Grants Pass OR and all the people are old and retired. So maybe I'm lucky or not.
Superman {hous8520@tao.sou.edu} i guess it was kind of a karma debit thing. i'd just gotten confirmation that day (it was a friday, too) that the company i'd interviewed with a few days before wanted to hire me. i'd spent the afternoon/evening hanging out, celebrating this with my friend/pot dealer, and finally decided to pack it in and go home about 1:30 am. (holy cow! what the hell was that boy thinkin?) so i'm riding through GG park panhandle, have just passed masonic when i notice a kid walking across the grass toward the bike path i'm following. he reached the path as i was passing that point, and shoved me off the bike. immediately several other kids appeared (from where i dont know) and i struggled with this crowd, attempting to reach Fell st, but no such luck (like the people in their cars would have stopped anyway). i was punched, pushed down partially under the back end of a car, kicked in the face a few times. one of them says 'give us your money' so i pulled my wallet from my back pocket and handed it over, and then they all split. within a couple of minutes, helpful, normal human beings come by to offer aid and call the police (never found the twerps)/ambulance (didn't really need). i took a quick trip to the emergency room at st mary's (got mugged again by the bill for that!), then went home and discovered to my comfort that the little shitheads never asked me to empty my pockets, so my bag o weed was still there to take the edge off the pain.
aftermath: they got $7 cash (less than $1 apiece), a crummy bicycle that probably fenced for $25, my credit cards which i cancelled before 9 am the next day, and smashed my glasses (another mugging at the optometrist to follow!). i got to keep my head, they missed the $40 bag of weed in my front pocket, i still had and have the job (wonderful job it is, too), and i gained a bit of awareness/caution for not a lot of money. i also ended up with the worst driver's license photo ever as my eyes were still puffy & bruised when i went to the (ive been to hell i spell it, i spell it) DMV.
and i just want to say, if any of you kids who mugged me are out there, and your life sucks or maybe you're living on the street or friendless or lonely or whatever, then HA HA HA HA HO HO HE HE HE HA HA HA HA HO HO HE HE HE HA HA HA HA HO HO HE HE HE HA HA HA HA HO HO HE HE HE HA HA HA HA HO HO HE HE HE. you earned it you little shits. My experience after reading your account was to send you a note thanking you, (insert heavy sarcasm), for not reporting the crime to the police. "These skinny kids have enough problems without having the cops go in there and remind them how desperate and lacking in dignity they are." Yes, let's make the predators the victims. It happened to be the case where you didn't get beaten, raped and/or killed. Good for you, but what happened to their next victim? Could they have been made bolder by their success with you? A little more desperate next time? Maybe you thought about "pushing his wimp-ass" aside, but you didn't, and how would you feel if the next victim did try this and found out this predator was very desperate indeed and decided to slice that person up with a blade. Knowing that maybe, just MAYBE, he could have been locked up for the night, or just a few hours, that would have let that victim not be a victim. And YOU would have made all the difference in the world.
Yes, little lapses in responsibility can make all the difference in the world. You were lucky...but you have a responsibility as a fellow human to do what you can to make our world a better place...and you dropped the ball. Rest easy with yourself and don't worry about the difference you could have made.
Brianne I was chased down a couple of years ago when I was with two guys and two other girls. The guy passed us up, threw the two guys into a fence and threatened to beat them up if they didn't give 'im their money. So they obeyed, and as the guy came back to me and the remaining friend, as the other had lost is a bit back, as we had been standing in shock, and now were scard out of our minds, he screamed at us to get the fuck out of there. he kept screaming as we slowly walked forward, and finally my friend screamed back "we're going we're going!" As soon as he dissappeared, we were immeadiately surrounded. I kept thinking "where the hell were you?" Me and a friend were wandering around Mexico City at about midnight -- which probably was kind of silly of us, but there were people around and I still wouldn't feel very unsafe there. We got a little lost and decided, just to be safe, to take a taxi back to the hotel instead of walking.
Then, at a big intersection while we're waiting for a stop-light, two guys jump in the car and start talking about being the police, drugs, passports, and whatnot, while they're sitting on our laps because there's five of us in a VW beetle. We were all real cozy. We were kind of dazed, because they were talking fast and the taxi was moving before we knew it. The two guys then took out their pointy-things, because they couldn't afford real knives I suppose, and asked where all the money was.
We ended up driving around for about thirty minutes while they searched through all out stuff (they tried to be friendly about it, emphasizing that they didn't want our passports or anything). The man on my lap kept talking about how all tourists have a little pouch they keep under their clothes with their money in it, and where was mine? The other man must have been sort of slow, or maybe just chivalrous, because my friend (not me) was wearing just such a pouch. But she was a woman, and they didn't want to violate her or anything (they emphasized this), and so they never searched her like they searched me.
In the end, they gave me back my backpack and dumped us off somewhere in Mexico City (I still don't know where). We found a nice taxi driver who gave us a ride back, and chocked it up to experience.
During the ride, my glasses were knocked off, and I thought I'd seen the last of them, but the guy had nicely placed them in a pocket of my backpack where I found them later. And that small gesture took most of my anger away from those guys. They only wanted my money, and I can't blame them too much for that. I've been attacked before in the U.S., and all those people wanted was to hurt me, and for that I still hate them years after it happened, even though I wasn't hurt and I lost no money. But in Mexico it wasn't racial tensions or aggression or what-have-you, it was just business, and it wasn't so bad.
But I still hate taxis. Next time I'll walk.
Ian {bickiia@earlham.edu} i wasn't mugged, but i've been in a somewhat similar experience.
it was december 1, 1997, a monday evening around 6:30 p.m. when a short man wearing sunglasses entered my work. he frightened me on sight because, it was dark outside and he was wearing sunglasses and he also appeared to be holding something inside his jacket.
i ignored my feelings, hoping i was wrong. my coworker and i said hello to him, being well trained employees, and we went on about our business. a minute later the man said, "ladies, i need you to do me a favor." we both turned around and the man was holding a a sawed-off double barrel shotgun.
i stood there, dumb-founded, as he said "i need you to give me all the money in the store."
he forced us to the back room. i think he thought there would be money kept there. i told him all the money was up front and that there was nothing back there. he told us that if we pushed any buttons or tried anything he would have to shoot us. he explained that he didn't want to have to hurt anyone because he didn't want to go to jail. he said that if he went to jail he would be there for life.
the girl i was working with was new and that night was the first night i had ever met her or worked with her. she told the man that she was new and she didn't know anything and that he would have to talk to me because i knew where and how to get the money. i hated her as soon as those words came out of her mouth. because of what she said, i had to deal with the man for the rest of the time.
to make a long story short, the man got away with a total of $24 from the register. i thank God he didn't say anything about any safes because he would have gotten over $1000 dollars that was waiting to be taken to the bank.
it turns out that 3 other business in the area were robbed that same night by a man fiting the same description.
i think it's disgusting that that "man" felt it necessary to take hard earned money from 4 small business that night.
i hope he realizes what he has done to me. i feel violated, and it's a horrible feeling. it's an awful thing because i quit my job over this whole situation. i gave up my job, something i loved, because of some dumbass who does not believe in working for a living.
i tried going back to work but the fear i had everytime someone walked through the door was too much for me.
i feared for my life for the entire 5 minutes that piece of shit was in the store. i said every prayer i could think of. i have never been so close to death in my life and it was horrifying. he is pathetic and i hope he rots in hell.
he hasn't been caught yet but he was in jail last year for armed robbery on the same side of town.
i live in fear that i will happen to run in to him somewhere. this whole thing has made me more aware of my surroundings and far more cautious than i ever was before. having a gun held in your face can do that to a person.
jennifer {hipswervy1@hotmail.com} Not only did two friends and I get mugged, but it happened on Valencia between 15th and 14th Streets, probably right around the corner from Rebecca's incident. We were dumb and also ignored the warnings about the Valencia Gardens, thinking we had strength in numbers (two normal sized guys and one small female). It was 2:30 a.m. about three years ago, we'd left the Albion Bar and stopped at my friend's house on Albion Street and were heading to my place in Hayes Valley. A guy stepped out of the projects in front of us, "Give me your wallets. You think I'm fucking around? My buddy's behind you with a gun." Right then I felt a push from the back and us two guys were down on our bellys while the guy behind us deftly grabbed our wallets and my friend's backpack. In an instant our two assailants disappeared back into the gloom of the projects. J, the woman with us, had stood to the side with a dollar in her hand saying, "This is all the money I have." They left her alone. What did they get from us? Maybe forty dollars, one chess clock, some college textbooks, and worst of all my friend's daily journal. We were scared, but not injured, and had a new story to tell.
Chris {fillius@sirius.com} I spent a great deal of time in East Africa not more than five years ago. I spent much of that time learning the language and integrating myself into a culture I didn't fully understand. I struggled to validate myself to the people who taught me how to live their lives and soon scoffed at the tourists who I had learned to take advantage of too. I had succeeded in reinventing my life in the spirit of those I admired.
The night before I was to leave and return home to the United States, I was walking to my shack in a remote part of town. It was dusk and I was thinking how odd it was to be leaving. I was wondering if I would miss the smell of the air after it rained or the sound of the accents on the streets. I was playing what-if. What if I decided to stay? What if I sold my plane ticket, called my friends and family and just said no, I wasn't coming back?
I saw it coming from a mile away. Two men walking in front of me side-by-side, then seperating and slowing down to fall behind me. I had seen it the first week I was in the country, the victim also a white woman walking alone. I heard their footsteps as they ran up behind me and I felt their hands on my neck and throat, ripping at my clothes to find the pouch I had tied to my body underneath.
When I came to, my pouch was gone and with it my credit cards, money, plane ticket and passport, not to mention some photos and other odds-and-ends. Some people helped me out, gave me some money and got the police even though we all knew it was futile. The police in East Africa are about as useful as a bachelor's degree in basket-weaving.
Just a few minutes before, I had been pondering what my life would be like should I stay in this country forever. I was choosing between this scattered, slow, underdeveloped existance and the excitement of the big cities of the States and this place was winning. Now it had been decided for me, in one act of conscious debotchery, and I was pissed. It was no longer my choice. I chose to go home.
Sara Twice mugged. Once for a bottle of gin somewhere in San Francisco by a big black man. He asked what I had under my jacket, so I showed him the bottle. He took a swig gave it back to me, I took a swig, he asked for it back and put it under his jacket. He just stared at me and I stared at him, realizing what was happening. He turned away and walked off into an alley across the street yelling
Scotty in Anchorage Alaska I was 17, living in Madrid, Spain...and my first week ther I got mugged. I'm not a demure country girl, I've spent lots of time in cities and I'm always smart when I travel. But this time, despite every precaution I took, while I was sitting on a train going to visit my college, an asshole with a knife stole my friend's backpack...with all my stuff in it. He had come up asking for money but since we were poor, we had none to give him. At the next stop, all the other passengers got off, but before we could get up to change to another area...here comes the greasy. nasty bastard with a even nasier knife. Yeah, the knife was only a tiny pocket knife and I'm sure that if I had only had a second to think, I could have kicked his ass, but at that moment I hardly had a clue what was going on. It was the strangest kind of feeling that came over me. One that I have never felt and hope to never feel again. Way beyond fear, I was actually cold frozen. He grabbed the baga nd then started to run off. My friend stood there too, in the same state..completely dumbfounded. I snapped back into reality and realized that he had her bag...with my cds and stuff in it and I asked him (hell, it couldn't hurt) "Hey, can't we just pull the money out and give it to you? there's nothing else in there that you want." (in spainish) He actually stopped and thought about it and then decided "no" and turned again. I saw my cd case peeking out of the top and asked "can I have that box, there's nothing in it important to you?" I knew we wouldn't know or apreciate any of the cds in it. Again, he stopped, thought, and then said no, right as the train stopped and her ran out. At the stop there was absolutly no one, only lots of garbage and old graffittied buildings, so running after him wasn't a possiblity. It all took about 4 seconds probably for the whole thing to happen, but I remember every second vividly. Then the rest fo the day was spent going from police station to police station, explaining it in spanish, until finally 6 hours later when we finally went home. My friend and I have known each other forever but never seen the other cry, cried together for 2 days straight. Then the next day was our oreintation where we learned that you never do anything on sundays (the day it happened) because that's the day "all the crazy people come out"...like they have it marked on their calendar. But after a few days, I was okay about it, even a bit relieved that it happened (although I still miss my cds). It was obvious that this was a lesson that I, and my friend needed to learn, we had to be on guard and aware all the time. I wisht hat I till had some of the stuff, but none of it was worth getting hurt or killed over (which I doubt could have happened, but still..). After that, I had the "it can only get better" attitude (which happened and didn't). And thank god it didn't happen in the US, guns are nowhere to be found in Spain.
anna {alucia@mailcity.com} I've been mugged in Paris. I was there over the summer with some of my roomates from UW-Madison. We had just gotten out of a restaurant when 4 or 5 locals encountered us and immediately began to pound the shit out of us. There were 4 of us present, but we were so stunned that we didn't realized what was happening. As the locals were running, we realized that something very fucked up just happened, our wallets were gone, we were extremely pissed off, and we weren't going to let them get away. We proceeded to pursue the locals, catching up to them and returning the favor by beating the shit out of them, taking our wallets back. It was at this time that we were all taken in by Paris police. It appeared as though we were going to jail, and that the locals would be let free, as the Paris police didn't believe our story, but fortunately, some of the locals involved had prior criminal records, so we were let free. I would have to say that there are few feelings better than revenge, as unsophisticated as it may seem.
Sulieman II {voxtron@geocities.com} First of all I have to comment on the first posting in this thread from Robin Miller. While I am not black, I am deeply offended by your statement "I stopped picking up blacks." Talk about a racist generalization!
That said, I was out walking this past Saturday night, around 9pm to a friends house. She lives a mere four blocks from me. At night I usually drive, but for some reason, on THIS night, I walked. When I arrived, no one was home, so I headed back home. Half way I was approcahed by two black males who demanded "all my money." I produced my wallet and offered it. I was told to throw it which I did. One caught in and they both ran to a waiting getaway car and were gone. Thank God I was not touched. They did not brandish a weapon of any sorts but I was not going to chance anything. The police properly chastised me for walking around with $200 in my wallet. What pisses me off more than the money is having to relpace the damn drivers license, social security card, etc. DAMN!
Jim {peejayboy@hotmail.com} I've been mugged. I got myself into the situation in the first place. I'd had too much to drink and I let this guy drive me home (in my car--my friend who I'd gone to the bar with but who wanted to leave with someone else, said she knew this guy and he was okay). We stopped and parked for awhile. I'm a bit hazy on the details but at some point he ended up hitting me in the head and knocking me out.
I came back to conciousness a few seconds later to see him hopping into another car (some friends of his had obviously followed). My pants (which had $80 in the pocket) were missing. It was 17 degrees below zero out that night. I knew that my "friend knew who the jerk was. I reported it to the police.
I got my money back. The police asked me to make a weird deal in order to get it back. Seems this guy had a wife and she wrote a check for $80 out to me that I went down to the police station and picked up a few days later on the condition that I never bring up the subject again or try to contact the guy or his wife. Who'd want to?
That was about 9 years ago and I've only told a couple of people about it. I never told anybody what his name was or his wife's name either even though I copied the address and telephone number off the check and stuck it in a drawer. I've probably got it around somewhere still since I'm a pack-rat.
Forgot to add that it was pretty embarassing knocking on someone's door at 3am with out any pants and asking to use the phone to call the police. Luckily I had a coat that was at leat thigh lentgh.
My brother has gotten mugged several times. Once was on the square in San Francisco around noon and at gunpoint. He'd just gotten off the bus and arrived in SF for the first time from the mid-west.
Another time reminds me of the story above about the guy with the battle axe. My brother was on his way to a rennasance fair. He'd borrowed a beautifully embroidered silk shirt of mine which I'd not wanted to really loan him because he was always getting into weird situations.
He promised me he'd take care of it. He'd decided to hitch-hike (I think but he may have been waiting for a bus--in any case he was on the side of the highway outside of Sacramento).
A lttle while later along comes what my brother described as "a weird looking guy with strange clothes and a machete'". Now, my brother had a sword. Also for my brother, who's not your average sort, to describe someone else as weird is a bit odd.
First off he figures this guy must be on his way to the fair too. That must be why he's dressed like a pirate (or something) and carrying the machete'. My brother's a freindly guy so he says "Hi." and asks the guy if he's on the way to the fair.
The guy growls at him and charges at him waving the machete'. My brother raises his sword to fend the guy off and backs away a bit further down the road. The guy then yells at him that he wants this spot on the road so my brother says "Fine." and takes off a bit further.
But awhile later the guy decides to move further on up too and gets closer to my brother and then charges again. A real sword/machete' fight ensues. My shirt (which apparently the guy wanted) gets shred to pieces in the process.
Finally somebody passing in a car calls the police and they come and take the guy away and my brother goes on to the fair. He came back still all scruffy from the fight with my shirt hanging in shreds still on him. He'd managed to find a pretty nice embroidered silk scarf at the fair for me.
Anne Well, I've never been mugged, but from reading everyone's experiences, I get the feeling most don't want to go softly into that gentle evening when they do get confronted with an ugly situation. I do have a quick story to tell: More than once now, I have chased down people who were obviously drunk and racing through my quiet neighborhood. One almost ran into me while I was pulling in my driveway, the other was accosting the car next to me at a red light. Both times the situation got a little hairy, but both times, I kept thinking to myself, "screw looking the other way, I'm doing whats right for once." Both times I almost got my ass in a scuffle, and most certainly my family gave me all kinds of flack for giving chase in the first place. Yeah, I could have been hurt, I could have been shot, but I most certainly couldn't live with just letting things go and have something terrible happen to the kids that play around our house. If more people had a sense of pride in that they can change the bullshit that goes on in this world.  I got mugged at syringe-point once and it wasn't scary at all. it was like something i expected. i almost enjoyed it because it felt so real. i have read that only when you are threatened do you really feel alive. i learned the truth of that when i was mugged. that's all. This isn't me. This is Justin, my friend.
On his return from downtown (Blacksburg, it's tiny.), Justin (Tall, reasonably muscular, intimidating, and mildly drunk) had to cut through a small side street that runs along the edge of campus to get back to his apartment.
It's dark. It's quiet. He's alone. He's tall.
Two guys step out of the shadows made by the abundant trees on the lawns. Justin thinks they want a cigarette, bum a dollar, something, anything but...
"I think you need to give us your money." Justin replies, "Uhm, are you serious?" Because, you know, students have tons of money. "Yeah, were serious. So hand it over." "Well, do you have, like, a knife, or something?" One looks at the other. No they don't. "I mean, come on guys, you gotta have something, a gun, or at least a bat, I mean come on. Otherwise I'm not giving you shit." The other looks at the one.
The one takes a swing at Justin. Justin, promptly, blocks it and shoves his fist into the guy's nose which, promptly, explodes in an impressive amount of blood.
The other goes for the big kick to the groin but Justin blocks it with his knee. The guy is startled because he expected to lay Justin out. And it isn't happening. Justin says that he's doesn't know where this came from, but he used to take karate. Even though he hasn't stretched in a long time. Justin does (incredibly, especially to him, and especially to the guy) a spinning roundhouse kick that lands squarely on the guy's larnyx, knocking him out cold.
With one unconscious, and one bleeding profusely, Justin walks home proudly and with a slight limp from a slightly swollen knee.
Chris Doering {cdoering@vt.edu} So that guy right above, Chris- He is writing about me. I did, suprisingly to me kick a little ass. After all, I am no small guy. I'm 6'4". 210 lbs. No one messes with people my size. I was midly drunk, hungry, and tired. Blacksburg is a small town, and there were two redneck punks who thought that they could stongarm me for my wallet. I think not. They attacked, I dropped my Hamburger, defended, then prompty picked up my flame-broiled sandwitch of death, and steped over the result of the mele. Easy enough, right? I felt sorry for the two. Being so pitiful. So thinking that I was an unsuspecting easy give-in drunk. Well, maybe unsuspecting, and midly drunk, but I still have my wallet, and I plan on keeping it. If I do not see a weapon, then I will defend myself, and I will win. Next time, I will be the one walking away with the wallets after someone tries to mug me... Place: Campbelltown Suburb of Sydney Australia Time: Approx 1am, Saturday late 1991
Walking home from a nightclub, a few notches below sober. Stupidly examining the beauty of graffiti on a telegraph pole when a very big "bikie" sorta guy approaches and says, "You're in trouble". I believed him. The other gang members approach me from behind, and I quickly start to cross the road. One catches up with me, hitting me in the kidneys with a knuckleduster. Addrenaline plays a part in these events, as I hardly felt it. Now for the best part. The police happened to chance upon the scene, pulled all the "gangers" up in an impromptu lineup and got me to single out who hit me. They ended up being a bunch of wimpy Hells Angels wannabes, but I still thankgoodness for Police.
Pete
Pete {peters@next.com.au} It was 1:45am, and I was hunched over my drafting table finishing an assignment for my book cover design class. Tiredness seeped in, and I went to the refrigerator for a Coke Classic. We were out, so I stuffed a bunch of ones in my pocket and told my roommate I was going to the store.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes unless I get raped,” I joked, immortal, untouchable and confident that because I was me and would never be one of them, a crime victim.
My apartment was on the corner of 13th and 5th Avenue. The deli was a block walk that I’d done at all hours many times before. On my way back, grocery bag in arms, I wasn’t aware I was being shadowed. I was still immortal, my protective shield an invisible bubble around me. I walked into my building and a man was behind me. I held the door.
“Thank you,” he said. As we waited for the elevator, I noticed he was swaying. I looked at him, and saw that his hair was matted and his clothes were dirty. I had let in a street person. My heart beat faster and my palms dampened the paper grocery bag. I made a quick decision and went into the stairwell.
He followed behind me and asked me for a quarter. I asked him if he lived in the building, heart beating and shield deteriorating. He told me an apartment number and the smell of liquor wafted over my face. I knew he was lying. He knew I knew, and stuck out his arms to box me in the corner. He was at least a foot taller than I was. He asked me again for the quarter. I tried to dart past him, but he grabbed and shoved me back into the corner, breathing hard, making horrible sounds. I pried my hand from the grocery bag and reached into my pocket. He noticed my wad of ones. “What’s that?” he asked and grabbed my behind. It was there I froze. He grabbed the money out of my pocket and then forced himself on me. My groceries were the only thing keeping us apart. At the time I was still a virgin. I was losing the fight, and imagined his penis being forced painfully inside me and having my virginity stripped from me by a filth from the gutters. At that came something we both weren’t expecting. A blood curdling scream so deep from within my diaphragm I physically felt it travel upward through my lungs and out of my mouth. It reverberated through six floors of concrete stairs and the force of it threw him off of me. We stared at each other for a second, both breathing hard, the echoes of my voice still bouncing off the walls, then he ran off. I filed the report with the police and came down to the station. I walked into the gritty police room, a fresh faced nineteen year old among the hardened NYPD and met eyes with two women looking through photographs. Though they looked at me in sympathy, it was the first time I remember where pleasantries weren’t exchanged. We were all there for the same reason. Someone had tried to take something from us. The detective gently led me by the arm toward the table and pulled out two drawers full of mug shots. Halfway through the second drawer, I found him. Just looking at him, I could smell stale alcohol, a flurry of body odor and dirty clothes. I told the detective, who filled out more paper, then sent me home. Two months later they called me and told me they got the guy on another charge and I might have to ID him in a line up. I was never called back. Ever since then, I am no longer immortal. I shut the door on people who follow too closely, I look behind me every so often when walking alone. I carry my keys sticking out in my fist and let men walk me to my car. I learned how fast my life can change, that the world can indeed touch me and mostly, how loud I’ll scream to preserve what is the most important to me.
VF {velvetflux@aol.com} No, but your story made me laugh. I just like your attitude. This morning I was thinking if Monica Lewinsky had a Madonna or Courtney Love "fuck all you guys" attitude, kinda like you, she'd be hilarious to watch on an interview. Instead, she'll be paid millions to probably cry about how sensitive she is.
Joanne VanMeter {joannev@san.rr.com} Washington D.C. 2 a.m. drunk washington circle sawitcoming the little one did the Jaws music "da nant da nant" behide me spun me around and stuck a 9 in my face i gave it up like a cheap whore spent the rest of the night wishing i was BRUCE LEE
steve {wheelys@laser.net} wow, vf. i'm impressed that you could scream. i didn't have exactly the same experience, but i have been mugged.
it was the last day of fall classes my junior year of college. the air was warm for december and i was done around noon. i lived about 1.5 miles from campus, across a rich neighborhood.
i was strolling along, 20 years old and full of optimism. i knew our neighborhood had ocassional crime, but i grew up in the city. i usually had my wits about me. for some reason though, i was happily spaced out on this day. plus it was noon... what happens at noon??
the mansion to my right had a high brick wall that extended to the corner. when i reached the corner, a man walked from the right. my initial reaction was, "oh, i'm walking into another pedestrian." i started to say excuse me when he lunged at me and grabbed my backpack. he had one strap and i clutched the other in my right hand. and we tugged.
it all happened so fast. it never occurred to me to let go. we had this tug of war for a few seconds, when i realized, "hey, i should be yelling!" i would draw forth the deep, blaring, fire engine holler i had been saving for this moment.
WRONG.
my voice was this pathetic, hollow, air-filled whistle-scream. yikes! the guy got pissed. he punched me in the jaw and jumped into a waiting car. a waiting car. not only that, they MOCKED my scream as they drove away laughing. when i put it all together later, i realized that they had driven past me, scoping me out. damn!
it's bad enough being mugged, but to be mugged AND mocked?! sheesh. to this day i thank the guy for not hitting me as hard as he could. he was big, big, big. he could have broken my jaw in a second. but he just punch-tapped me to shut me up.
the funny thing is, i thought i chipped some teeth. supporting myself at a ridiculously overpriced private university, i hadn't been to the dentist in years. when i went to get the chips checked, my dentist informed me that the mugger hadn't chipped anything, he had merely knocked loose a substantial layer of tarter. YUCK-O!
the moral of my story is, don't assume nothing will happen at noon on a nice day. you can win in a tug-of-war mugging, but it might not be worth it. and get your teeth cleaned annually.
kelly I was mugged once when I was 20 and living in Boston. Before it happened, I thought that if (god forbid) I was ever mugged, that I would immediately turn over all my money.
I was walking down the hill from my house to the subway. It was dusk. A man emerged from the shadows, came up beside me, put a knife(?) against my side and said, "give me all your money." And I said, "no." To this day, I couldn't tell you why I did that.
We walked side by side for about 20 paces. He faded into the night as we approached a busy street and I went out to wherever I was going.
But when it came time to come home, I was too scared to leave the subway station.
Rebecca {rscott@idirect.com} no, never been mugged.......but i've thought about it, mugging someone myself. i can be intimidating when i'm in the character, and most people aren't going to fight over $10, unless it's their last...it would be so easy. but i just couldn't. i'd get too scared. i get scared when i steal, i get scared when i tag sometimes. nervous. and i might get killed, too. but, if i was desperate enough, if i NEEDED food or clothes or something, i would consider it again.
ANGEL {poppinjay@hotmail.com} I went to school in NYC for four years. Being the musician type, I was usually out every night at Carty's bar drinking up a storm until three or four am, then walked to Penn Station to head home to Jersey. While this sounds insanely stupid, I knew the city well, was friends with some cops (Even my brother is a cop) and though quite "caucasion-looking," I speak fluent spanish, which helps in New York. One day, this car comes rolling up to the curb, about a block ahead of me. Four or five young kids get out slowly. There's lot's of sidewalk (i think i was by Macy's or something, cause i remember thinking to myself "If these punks try to roll me, I'll smash the window with my guitar case and set off some alarm." Well, as I get closer, i hear some soft, popping sound. They start closing in, but they are all kind of laughing. It wasn't like they were serious at first. Very surreal. One kid catches up to me and says "Stop." I kept walking. He grabs my arm and shoves a gun in my side. I look down to see if it's real; I see what looks like a Luger. (I am NOT some gun buff, but I've seen enough war movies to know a Luger when I see one.) So I'm thinking "either this kid stole some old guy's world war II memento, which can't have any bullets, or....." Mind you, all these thoughts were occuring in a millisecond, the same time which I was nearly shitting myself!) The popping noise. The luger. These fuckers were gonna roll me, steal my stuff, take my guitar. My guitar. I realized it had to be a bb gun. Daisy Corporation, even young kids dream, the Daisy bb gun, the hand held, the popping noise, the rather mild attempt to make me stop, which I never did. I pushed the kid away with the hand holding the guitar, screaming "Get the fuck off me, or I'll kill you!" with the glare of a psycho for added measure. Don't forget, I was drunk as hell. The kid sprawled back, almost fell over, and his friends started laughing. They were laughing,and not coming after me. I kept walking. I never stoped moving during the entire affair. Three blocks later, I checked my crotch. I could have sworn I pissed myself at the very least. I was safe. Dry, and with all my gear intact. When I got to Penn station, I found a dozen cops standing around. I told them what happened, and the reply was "That's not my beat."
gary {garygore@hotmail.com} In Boston, on my quiet South End street on a beautiful sunny morning a guy, banged into me from behind (i thought maybe it was a friend surprising me) and grabbed my purse. I didn't even think twice, just started to chase him through alleyways. An awesome yuppie woman in her BMW in an alley opened her door and yelled to me, "get in." We tried to chase the guy down but he eluded us. We called the cops and they scoured the area for hours. It sucks that I lost some cash and had to get a new driver's license and car keys made, but I love that woman in the car. She rocked.
A year or so prior, walking to my even more sketchy South End address of the time, a guy popped out from behind some bushes on Mass. Ave. "Give me your money. I've got a gun; I shot that white bitch the other night, did you hear?" I had no idea what he was talking about and I just elbowed him aside and kept walking. My head was pounding but there were people all over the place and I didn't believe he had a gun. Turned out he was eluding to the Stuart case--where a husband claimed a black man had shot him and his wife--and he really did it himself (and eventually commited suicide). I guess the mugger thought it was a good story to make his own.
chan (excerpt from my web journal)
tuesday november 10th, 1998
disaster. devistation. depression.
i walk down the stairs to my car, and i notice that the door is open, swaying in the breeze. i stop on the stairs, frozen in shock. i knew exactly what had happened, without even looking closer. i continue walking down the stairs, with that funny feeling in my stomach. i look in. wires coming out of the dash, where the stereo used to be. the two back seats are folded down, and i can see inside the now empty hatchback. i think to myself "i didn't leave the door unlocked, i couldn't have" as i scan the area. i start to walk around the car, and when i got to the rear, i noticed glass. i peak around the passenger side of the car. the right rear window is gone. glass is everywhere. i close the drivers side door, and run back upstairs. once back inside my apartment, i return the coke to the refridgerator, and my lunch to the freezer. i walk into the bedroom, and ask melissa if she could call into my work and tell them that i won't be in today, while i go back down and write down everything that is gone from my car. melissa tells me to check her car, while she calls in as well. i get back upstairs into the apartment, and melissa asks if i checked her car. "no, i forgot" i reply. i call the police, and make the report. it's only done over the phone. they don't even come out to look. i go back down again, to clean up the mess, and take pictures. melissa tells me to check her car, again. i take the pictures, clean everything up, and go back upstairs. melissa asks me if i checked her car. "no" i reply, forgetting to do it again. for the third time, i go back downstairs, and i check her car. i see she her right rear window is smashed in. i run back upstairs and tell melissa "they got yours too." at first, she thought i was joking, but she finished getting dressed and went down there with me. she inspects her car, as i check other cars on the street. i found only one car with the right rear window smashed in. luckly, in melissas car, they only got the stereo. in melissas car, there is no trunk access, unless you have the key to unlock it from the outside. the thieves realized this after they had tried to pull the immovable back seat forward, bending it all up. we run back upstairs, and call the police again, to add her car to the case. melissa calls her mom again to tell her that her car was also hit. the crime had to have happened sometime between 2a-6a, as there was a bad storm that ended sometime around 1 or 2 in the morning. when i had checked the cars, the inside was dry, thus justifying the time it happened. i estimate that $900 worth of equipment, and $500 of damage was done to the cars. thank god for insurance. the insurance covers everything. all we have to do is pay the $50 deductible for each car's window, and $250 for the stereo equipment. i emailed my dad, since i had not heard back from my 2 emails to him. i asked him if i could get that "computer" money, so we could use it for the repair costs, etc. he says he would glady give me the check. we decided that melissa and i would go over there to pick it up after we got everything fixed. we spent all day getting the windows replaced. we went to this shop in arlington, which seemed to be a "mom and pop" shop. the man who owned it looked to be about 50, and had a wife. sad part was, the wife had a stroke a few years ago, and it left her disabled. the man rambled on about people using handicaped parking spaces when they aren't really impaired, and about how the government should increase disability checks. after the windows were repaired, we got the tint redone on the new windows. the shop who replaced the windows said that if we brought the reciept back, he would refund us the money we spent, and add the tint to the insurance claim. sweet. we drop off the reciepts, and leave to go to my dads to pick up the $500 check. dad invited us to eat with him and his significant other. since it was time for rush hour traffic, we decided "might as well". we left at hit the remains of rush hour traffic, making it from north dallas to east fort worth in about 45 min. we get home, and get into bed. melissa remembers she has school in the morning. she starts to cry. come to find out, her backpack, with all her notes, books, calculator, etc were in the car. the thieves took the bag. "now they have my name, and my savings account number" she sobbed. the weirdest part about all of this, is knowing that someone out there robbed you, and you don't know who. if that person ever saw you driving, they would know who you are, and what they did. they could watch you, and you would never know. they could be watching to see when you replace everything you lost, so they can do it again... Today I got mugged. It was 11:30, ablock away from home. I live in Brussells, Uccle neighbourhood. This is a primarily Jewish neighbourhood (no loiterring of gangs , good neigbourhood). I was walking with 2 firends (by the way im a 15 year old male, and so were the friends)to an ice cream shop, like 10 minutes away. All of a suddenn ten Morrocan dudes come out of nowhere and ask us the time. Being the naive idiots that we are, we eached pulled out our nice 200 dollar watch adn told them the time. All of a sudden, the leader, like a 6'4" guy grabs my wrist and tries to take of my watch. The ironic thing is im 6'3" and im pissing in my pants. I could have beat the crap of that guy, but i didn't. My friends ran to call this Man with a big dog we know, and after like 30 seconds they returned with the guy and his dog. Just at that moment, a police car arrives and my friends start jumping and asking the car to stop. 3 police officers get out of the car, the gang of ten disperses. Except the leader, he started headbutting me for not giving th watch. I think it hurt him more than me. Finally i realized he was mugging me for real so i gave in. He notices the police and tells me in french "I protected you from them, right?". Since i grew up in Seattle, my french kinda sucks so io say, "yeah yeah". He hugs me like apal and walks up with me to the police car. He says "i protected him". Miraculusly i start speaking like a frenchmen. I say: "He did it, he took my watch." I demonstrated my wrist.They took him in. My watch wasn't found on him. Probably threw it away when the police came and his friends took it. He was arrested for the night,and me and my dad filed a report. In Belgium the law is pretty strict. I moved here a month ago and so far hat it (primary because of today). I hope the DA decides to fuck his mother fucking ass (boy that felt good)and give him some time in prison. Hes 18. The thing that scares me though is that in the police car we wnent to my house to call my dad, so they know where i live. Mother Fucker
Matan Cohen I've been mugged on the 71 Haight Noriega, had my head kicked in, and have had a knife pulled on me, by this one fucker who made it his life's mission to do nothing but harass me and call me retard (when he's probably illiterate, and I know for a fact that he'd never graduated from high school. Gawd, what a loser.)
There've been plenty of days when I felt nothing but rage and would have liked nothing better than to have run into him and have taken out my anger and pain on him, but somehow by the forces of nature, we never crossed paths on those days. Getting arrested for assault and battery would've been worth seeing his bloody face splattered across the pavement.But the last time I've seen him was about 2 or 3 years ago, and like they say, "Let bygones be bygones". He's probably rotting in a jail cell somewhere or fucked up on crack, and that's good enough for me to know.
Merry X-mas!
Hara_Kiri I did this stupid thing that invited mugging. Was in Chicago, ready to leave the US, so I took some cash form an ATM downtwn to pay my travel agent up on North Kedzie -- got me a great deal on the Pakistani flag carrier to Frankfurt. Why I took all that cash downtown and carried it in my pocket all the way, is a question I was trying to answer on my way home from the L station. That was soo stupid. Got thinking of it deeper and deeper and hardly noticed the nearing dusk and all my lively Latino neighbors darting in and out stores, etc. Then this big palm lay on my shoulder, scared the shit out of me (I'm 5'4 and 127 lbs) and saw at my other side a white working-class type guy with a black rocker T-shirt and straight-leg jeans. "Man, you should put some meat on. Don't you ever eat?" "I do, it just won't stick" I said and I was turning cold. "I'm Greg. I just hang out. Care for a drink?" "Nah, thanks, I don't drink" (what a lie!) "OK, have a nice evening." and he turned away toward the seedy bar he'd been pointing at.
Nice country, America. I'll go back to Chicago when I'll get a chance, and pay a visit to Senora Hernandez, my landlady on North Kedzie.
Max Klapsch {klapsch@hotmail.com} I once got mugged near a housing project in San Francisco by a guy with forearms the size of my calves. He grabbed my neck from behind and demanded my money, then very calmly, almost politely, led me through the process of being robbed. He had obviously done this to other people. The lesser angels of my nature hope that he got caught the next time and was repeatedly violated in prison by some even bigger thug. It was more than a year before I could hear footsteps behind me on the street without feeling my heart pound nearly right out of my chest.
Chris I used to valet cars in downtown Cincinnati. One night I was organizing the lot to maximize space when a seven foot tall emaciated man grabbed me from behind and tried to take the keys to a car out of my hand. When he was too weak to do that he shoved me away, and tried to threaten me into giving him money.
I refused.
Then he started to cry (yes, really). What could I do? He was just some poor strung out junkie. So I gave him twenty bucks, and let him use my phone to call a cab.
Then I was pissed at myself for a month.
Pat Rock {rock_pat} I was sort of mugged about five years ago. My mate Sanjeet and I were on the train, on the way home, just chatting. Suddenly, a black man in a white baseball cap comes up and points at Sanjeet's watch. Thinking he is asking the time, Sanjeet tells him. But after a while, it becomes clear that this guy is after the watch.
I did not want to say anything in case he started on me. He threatened to pull out a knife if we did not give him the watch or any money. Not wanting to put this to the test, we obliged.
Sanjeet lost his watch (£17) and £3 in cash. I was more fortunate. It just so happened that I had forgotton my watch that morning. Also, I only found 21p in my pocket. Later, I realised I actually had a £10 note with knowing.
What is annoying though is that there was one man sitting behind us who heard exactly what was going on, and did nothing. Instead, he had a go at Sanjeet and I for submitting to the mugger's threats.
Pravin Jeyaraj {Pravjey@aol.com} I was mugged 47 times in a single year when I was twelve years old and growing up in Brooklyn, New York. Yes, I averaged about a mugging a week on my way home from school.
After a while, it became part of the daily ritual. A sacrifice of my dignity, a little piece of me offered up to the city to get me home safely. I couldn't avoid the tormentors, the Furies of the street. I kept wondering what sin I committed to earn their attentions.
Eventually, I began to think of myself as evil. Catholic upbringing. Does wonders for the self-esteem. The only way I could survive this abuse with anything resembling sanity was to accept it as part of the world in which I moved, thinking that I had done something wrong merely by existing, and that God was punishing me for it.
To this day, I haven't recovered entirely from my need to do penance. My life is one long sentence of community work. Something in me never recovered from that year of hell. I think I've been trying to appease an angry God through the penance which is my life so that He never sends me back there again.
C.C. {kidkreyol@aol.com} It happened to me in the fall of 1995. My boyfriend and I were just leaving a bar in Center City Philadelphia..it was 2:00 a.m. He had just got done telling me he loved me for the first time and I was in a daze. We both were. The weather was still nice out so we decided to walk back to the apartment.The two of us are very familiar with the city but that night we weren't paying attention and walked towards the "bad section" of town to get back to the apartment. We were walking down the street, arm in arm, when we heard someone whistling behind us. We decided to cross the street but he crossed it with us. Right in back of us. We crossed again knowing that something wasn't right. I reached in my pocket for my mase and held onto my boyfriend tight motioning to him that I had my mase in my hand. I then handed it to him to use it on the perpetrator. The man came around in front of us and said: "Don't even think about using that on me." He had a huge gun down at his side. He then said: "Give me all your money and your jewelry." Both my boyfriend and I looked at each other knowing we didn't have more than $4.00 between us because we just left the bar. We told the man this and said that we would give him what we had. He wasn't happy but I think that he figured he was taking a risk because we were taking too long to give him what he wanted. He then turned to me and asked me for my jewelry. I tried to distract him by saying: "Let me see what I have in my pockets." I didn't want to give him my jewelry...although it wasn't worth that much, it has sentimental meaning to me. The distraction worked, he finally walked away whistling and saying: "Have a good night." Right after he said that, a car pulled around the corner and picked him up. My boyfriend and I looked at each other in releif and kept walking...but at a faster pace. I am now engaged to my boyfriend and late at night, if we're out and hear someone whistling, we look at each other in fear and walk REAL fast!!!
Jennifer {Trixie_25f@yahoo.com} I have never been mugged. I just moved to Baltimore City so I am sure in a few months I won't be able to tell this same story. But I am one of naive ones. You know the kind. We think that people aren't really out to hurt anyone. My kind believe MOST people are honest and good.
The ironic part about all of that thinking is that if it ever comes down to it, I, somehow, believe I could kiss some mugging ass. As if when the mugger attempts his crime, I am going to whip out some kung-fu move I have kept secretly to myself in the event that this day would happen. Then when I tell everyone how I beat the guy down, they will be so impressed and awed at my skill and quick thinking. My whole life I have really believed my instincts would simply "kick - in". Most likely I'll run away crying..
Jessica {Porcchswng@aol.com} my grandparents owned a grocery store in a "white trash ghetto". one night my great grandmother (about 70 or 80 years old at the time) was closing up the store when two men with guns came in and demanded all the money in the register. she gave them each two dollars and told them to go to the bar down the road and have a drink instead of robbing her. they did.
mary ann my freind and i just got off the bus heading to our dorm. this kid just yelled at us from behind and start running toward us. we stop. he asked us if we have spare to lend. i said no because i really didn't have any. then he said that whatever he finds in us, it's his. my friend disagreed because in his wallet is his last ten dollar bill. we continued to walk on but the kid insist. he pulled his tiny knife and stepped in front of us. he kept threatening us to give his money but we kept walking. then he just gave up. i guess we almost got mugged. but, inside of me, i felt like killing him because he mugged my heart to lose control on what is should do to him
dennis {kanalukai@hotmail.com} I had the opposite experience -- they didn't get my money, but I got all the bones on one side of my face broken. And I was still lucky: hit in the face with a glass bottle, hard -- I could easily be blind now or have huge scars on my face.
It does occur to me that if the last self-satisfied, idiot liberal my muggers had attacked had bothered to fill out a report, maybe the muggers wouldn't have been there hiding in the dark for me. Funny for a crime victim to think of saving someone ... from the police? Puhleaze.
eam i was never mugged, and I've lived in new york city pretty much all my life. i was almost mugged once, about 4 years ago when i was in 7th grade, right outside my junior high school up on east 94th street. i was walking home by myself around the time school got out, around 3 pm it must have been. there weren't that many people around.
as i crossed the corner, i noticed a young man standing across the street. he looked like he was waiting for something. i had a premonition that he was going to mug me. i crossed the street anyway, and he stopped me. he asked me "do you have any money?"
i felt a bit nauseous. i put my hand in my pocket where my wallet was, and realized that i didn't have any money (i had spent it all that day).
"Uhh... no...." i answered, and nodded no.
"Come here" he said. i did.
"What school do you go to?" he asked.
"um, i go to school there" and pointed at my junior high school.
"who do you know there?" he asked.
"who do i know?" i asked. what the hell was he getting at?
"yeah, who do you know who goes there?"
i think i stammered there for a bit. for some reason by this time, i was oddly calm, perhaps a bit annoyed. i wasn't afraid at least. i didn't know how to answer him: was i just supposed to start naming all the people i knew at the school? why would their names mean anything to him? i knew hundreds of names of kids at my school!
"uh, i dunno, i know a lot of people," i shrugged.
he sort of just let me go after that, and i continued my walk to the subway station. as i got further away from him, i think i heard him stopping another student. but i never looked back.
Andrew Doro {zahgurim@brainlink.com} i don't even know if this counts as a mugging...
i was on a fairly packed public bus in los angeles on my way home from school, reading. it was a typically sunny day, and it was the bus i took home nearly everyday. three older, larger kids i'd not seen before came up, took my book away and began beating me. i think i sat there for a moment, just incredulous. i'd never seen them, they hadn't asked for anything, and no one on the bus had even turned their head. when the pain started kicking in i tried to fight back; this just made them grab my arms and hit me harder. and then as quickly as it had started it was suddenly over. they threw down my book and got off at the next stop. as the bus pulled away several people turned to me, and the driver said "are you ok?" "no i'm not ok!" i yelled back, basically at the whole bus. they all turned back and patiently ignored me. i didn't know what to do, so i sat and did nothing. completely surreal. i rubbing my arms and neck where the bruise were beginning to form until my stop came, and i walked home. i blustered the story angily at my mother, but she had no response for me either.
to this day it doesn't even feel like it happened in this universe. Best friend got mugged by two animals who saw him leaving the Market East Station (Center City Philadelphia) and seeing he was tired, shoved a gun in his back.
Closest I got was after some animals stole my car. I took the El (Philadelphia subway) up to Kensington to look at a used car for sale. At the Frankford Terminal I was leaning against a street lamp waiting for the bus. An animal was making a beeline towards me with that gangsta- -constipated-angry look on his face. He made no attempt to move around me, finally veering away when he was two inches from my face.
The animal was trying to see if I was going to back down because I am white (in big cities white=weak). Me, I'm 28, too old for this kind of p_ssing contest. But he probably would have robbed me if I had stepped aside. This is the way the animal's brain functions: What I can take from you is mine.
Jason {lafamilia@yahoo.com} I've been successfully mugged several times as I walked my skinny ass down the streets of Long Beach, CA. Once a few hours before my high school graduation, once when I was going to the corner market to buy my girlfriend a soda... but the mugging that stands out clearest in my mind was the time the would be mugger came away empty handed. The dude walked up behind me and casually said "how much money you got?" I told him I didn't have any, which was true except for some change. He looked at my jacket pocket, noticably bulging, and asked me "what you got in your pocket there." I told him it was a cheeseburger. Getting somewhat agitated, he replied, "empty your damn pockets, fool!" So I reached inside my jacket and removed a messily wrapped, half-eaten cheeseburger covered in pocket lint and a tattered Kleenex. The dude just laughed his ass off as he walked on past me down the street.
Barnum {shaunl@uclink4.berkeley.edu} I was working at a run down movie theater, I was the assistant manager and I was about 3 seconds from locking the door when, in flies this guy with a freaking fencing mask and a sawed off shotgun!!!
I was told sometime later by one of the employees that I had said "I'll handle this" which I don't recall saying to this day...
He tells the only male working at the time to go to the end of the snack bar and lie on his stomach, and put his hands behind his head, with his forehead on the ground, that had to be the worst position, not knowing...
He didn't want any box office or register money, he only wanted the safe money, he seemed to go towards the safe before I did as well...-that's when most of us concluded that it was an inside job.
I remember being so hot from the adrenaline and so messed up that I gave him about $100 in quarter rolls. He also had to have put the gun down, one hand for holding his coat open and the other to take the money from me.
He also said "count to ten" and I remember thinking "is he talking to me? Does he want me to count out loud?" Just at that moment, a man walked out of one of the theaters to use the restroom, and I heard the robber stop behind my back and I thought that was it. He left on 4. But I kept counting, thinking he would somehow know and come back in and blast us all.
The man then asked "did you guys just get robbed?" UUUhhhhhhhh.. yeah? (scratching my head)
He helped me call 911 (yes I forgot the number)
I realized how truly stingy my boss was when he went looking for money the guy may have dropped in the parking lot before asking how any of us were. (I was the most shaken...)
Something like that really brings out your true instincts and personality, I just wanted the guy out of there. My friend Heather who was working at the time decided while I was getting the money out, she would memorize what he was wearing as well as skin color cause she says "there's no way you can cover all of your skin" and "she had nothing better to do" Turns out he was wearing golf gloves with the velcro on top, that little patch of skin was all she saw. The other girl, was smiling some of the time, thinking it was a joke and to "tell Carson's friend to stop"
Later on, everone involved, some 15 people, were standing outside discussing the excitement of it all. Just as I walked up, they were discussing the gun and how the blast would have "torn a hole in my stomach" "no forget that! She wouldn't HAVE a stomach" thanks for the visual guys, i appreciate it.
I got very frustrated with the police, all 5 of us saw him and all seperately told the police it was a fencing mask with black hose over it, and he kept saying "hockey mask?" IT'S NOT JASON YOU IDIOT!!!
They never caught the guy, but someone had laundry money for MONTHS...
jen {j_ferocious23@hotmail.com} Much like the phrase, "Can't rape the willing", which is thrown around in jest in my circle of horny, frustrated friends, you can't mug the stupid.
I was about 17. Leaving my home to go back to school . Back then, I used to think that the bus was safe.
In the bus station, looking like some bizzare urban frat boy nomad, i was approached by a shady looking fellow, asking in an over-the-shoulder manner "Weed?". Until that point, I had never smoked, and really had no intention of smoking weed.
MISTAKE 1) I followed this guy into the bathroom stall, where he proceeded to pull out a tissue full of cocaine. He needed something to snort it with. Like a dollar bill.
MISTAKE 2) I opened my wallet to get him a bill and he oogled the horde of cash my parents bestowed upon me. I handed him a single. He said it was too wrinkly.
MISTAKE 3) As I was about to hand him a $20, we heard the ominious clicking of handcuffs outside. The security officer told us to come out, and before I could get my wallet back into my pants, he grabs all the cash out of my wallet.
We are led out by a security guard and as soon as we are out of the bathroom, this guy (with all my money) splits. They catch him outside.
MISTAKE 4)I didn't want to tell anyone that he had my money because I didn't want to get in trouble for trying to buy weed. Eventually, this guy got away with about $70 of mine.
Man, I was stupid back then.
Like I said, you can't mug the stupid.
Patrick {empty411@hotmail.com} Cop This Attitude!
So I shouldn't have been walking alone through the park, after dark in one of the worse neighbourhoods in Sydney after a movie.
So I shouldn't have been carrying around $260 on me.
So why was I so surprised when three kids ran up behind me and snatched my handbad?
They sure were surprised when I snatched it back.
So I got threatened, and the guy walking his pit bull terrier didn't stop to help me, even though those scrawny little teenagers would have made a nice, minced meat meal for the dog.
So after pointing on the ground to where my wallet was and telling them to have a nice day, the kids ran off with my money, and I was left to walk to my home, in the worst part of Sydney.
Racism is rife in Sydney. I got a pretty good look at the kids, but I wasn't sure, you know? It was dark.
So I reported it to the police, just in the unlikely case the wallet turned up. There were some photos in it that I wanted back.
"So, love," the policeman said patronisingly, "can you give us a description?"
"It was dark," I replied, shaken up, "but they had dark hair, were about 14, there were three of them, and I think they had dark complexions."
"Bloody rotten little abos were they, love?" the policeman asked. "Probably out to score a fix. Little shits are such a bloody problem for us around here. Sooner they move 'em out, the better."
So I knew the kids had less than me, and probably no hope to do something with their lives. Still, if I make a $260 donation to a charity, I at least want a receipt for tax purposes...
Nurse Wasabi {wasabi731@yahoo.com} I was almost mugged in India a few times, but this particular time was in San Francisco about 5 years ago. I lived at the corner of Fell and Webster, and there was a housing project diagonal from the apartment building and there were always thugs walking around. I worked evenings, and I rode a motorcycle, and it had been raining on this particular night, so I was wearing my waterproof overpants. I pulled up to the garage, got off, unlocked and opened the garage door, and parked and locked my bike. I stepped out of the garage and closed and locked the garage door. I'm always aware of my surroundings, so I noticed the two guys (about 35) wandering in my direction, but they seemed like they'd been drinking and didn't seem to be focused on anything in particular. Just as I started away from the garage door, however, one of them tried to bump into me, which I sidestepped and continued moving toward the front door. They tried to get me to slow or stop by asking me if I had a light (nope, still moving toward the door), and then they followed me with diliberation. Continuing to be unconcerned (though by now I actually was) I realized that, as usual, I'd left my keys in my back pocket which was under the waterproof overpants, so to delay a bit I turned around (walking backwards) and reached into my back pocket for the keys -- to my amazement the two guys yelped and ran away. After a moments thought I realized that they thought I was going for MY gun! I laughed as I went up my stairs, but resolved to be more careful in the future -- I'd avoided that mugging by carelessness and luck. There are some people who think that guns cause crime, but in my case, the (inadvertant) threat of one saved me.
This place had a window with a view of the housing project, and I saw muggings just about every night. Sometimes I would yell out the window, sometimes I would call the police when I saw the trap being set up. Here are a couple of things to consider -- when it's about 2AM and there's a poorly lit housing project and you're leaving a bar a block from the project, don't be by yourself and obviously drunk. Almost every night there'd be one, and the goons would wait behind a parked van or under a tree, push the victim to the ground, kneel on his/her back, take the wallet/purse, and run into the project. Another frequent (daylight) gambit was to wait at the stoplight for cars which were forced to stop while going up Fell (essentially a freeway offramp in those days). Every light would leave several cars in the lane closest to the project, a quick visual scan showed which had unlocked doors or were convertables, and which had a purse or package on the passenger seat. They would simply walk over, open the door, grab whatever was there and run into the projects. No one would chase them.
By far the worst I saw, because it would have suckered me, was this one: A white girl who lived in the (almost exclusively black) projects would go to the Webster Street gate when there was a fair amount of backed up traffic on Webster (like during the evening commute). She would stand there until she saw a big, youngish guy in an expensive car, at which point she would make a signal and a medium sized black guy would come out of the project and grab her. She would scream for help while the medium sized guy dragged her into the project and frequently (not always) the guy in the stopped car would jump out to rescue her (he being larger and not about to allow the crime to occur). Unfortunately for him, as soon as the guy & girl were at the border of the project, a bunch of other guys would jump up and take the rescuer's money.
I hated that one the most because, as I said, if I'd not seen it in operation from my apartment window, I could be the guy going to her rescue.
There is an odd idea these days that people aren't responsible for their actions. But as other people have said here, humans have the choice to do right or wrong, and while I'll help those who choose to do right, I'll never feel sorry for someone who chose to do wrong.
Several people here have written that they were mugged on busses with other people on board. How cowardly is that?! How can a group of people sit idly by and watch another be victimized? How can a person refuse to alert police to criminal activity in an area because the criminals "have had a hard time in life"? You have a responsibility not only to yourself, but also to your community, and leaving criminals unpunished (even unreported) is simply wrong -- it encourages more criminal behavior. I have a friend who is in the Mission SFPD, and he tells me that muggings occur within 2 blocks of Valencia Gardens (the project where Rebecca was mugged) about 10 times a week.
He was correct, whomever it was that said "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Waldo {device@flash.net} my two buddies and i were leaving a bar when we were mugged. we were taking a shortcut through an alley when a man stepped out from around a corner. he pointed a small gun at us and told us to line up faces to a wall. we stood there stunned at first, but when he repeated the order and waved the gun towards us we lined up like he said. the mugger went up behind josh, put the gun to his back, and then took josh's wallet out of his right back pocket. he also checked josh's other pockets. then he came up behind me and took my wallet out of my left back pocket. he then went to steve and unbuttoned the left rear pocket of his dockers and pulled his wallet out of the pocket. the mugger then ran off. we immediately contacted the police. while at the police station looking through mug shots, the police caught the man and brought him in. he still had our wallets on him when he was arrested, and we got our wallets back with nothing missing from them. another time my wallet was taken was more of a pickpocket than a mugging. my girlfriend and i were dancing at a club when a group of people squeezed by us. i got knocked in the shoulder by a person. i then realized my wallet was being removed from my back pocket. with the strobe lighting and deafening sound i had no idea who took my wallet. i then went to a bouncer and told him what happened. he said there was nothing the bar could do and that i should be more careful the next time. what a jerk.
thom {thorin314@yahoo.com} i was mugged once................. me and a friend, outside a theatre. s.o.b. stabbed my friend when he resisted. I was shocked and scared to death. My friend reached into his back pocket and pulled out a 22 caliber pistol i did not know he had. 6 rounds fired, 5 made the mark. My friend was ok with a little surgery. i was not, scarred for life i suppose. If i ever get mugged again, they better not let me get to my back pocket. I do not want to hear that crap about gun control either......cause only the criminals will have the guns, and where will we all be then......mugged. In a nut shell, I was running late for work a couple of years ago & decided to take an elevator instead of stairs in a NYC subway station (the station had 3 levels to the street) As I waited, in front of me there was a young hispanic male waiting for the doors to the elevator to open. This elevator opens on one side to get in and opens on the other to get out. So this guy would be the first to get in & out. There were 3 other people besides us waiting. A woman who seemed to be on drugs (I was worried abourt her more than anyone else) a business man with brief case & all and a Chinese man. So this elevator gets to the top & as the doors open I try to step out...the punk turns around, pulls out a gun & announces a robbery ...no one gets out. Unluckily no one was waiting to get in & the token clerks had their backs turned the whole time. I don't know what got into me & I told him I was late for work & I had to get out he blocked my way but I managed to place my foot in the doorway so the doors would automatically open. I did this for about three times until he caught me & put the gun to my face...right away I backed up & walked to the back (front going down) of the elevator. As he proceeded to rob the others I went into my back pocket & pulled out a bill, crumpled it & put it in my front pocket...when he demanded my things I pulled the bill out, a twenty, & told him that was all I had. Luckily with what the businessman had given him & the Chinese guy, he was satisfied..He told the crack head he didn't want anything from her..he probably smoked dope too & thought of her as one of the gang...anyway (sorry this is long) finally he demanded that everyone turn around..this is when I thought we were all dead, as soon as the doors opened I booked...I ran those three stories like they were nothing & pounded on the clerks booth to call the police, that we were robbed in the elevator. The anger I had in that elevator buried any fear that I might have had...If I had been armed, I thought, I could ahve easily shot him but I think It turned out better that I didn't...he's probably in jail or dead, & I sleep great at night knowing that he only took a "donation" from me & not my life.
A word to the wise...never ever take an elevator in a public subway system...EVER!
Aries Cortes i was in an under 18s nightclub with my best friend whe we were approached by 8 girls who told me they were going to take my purse and i was to act normal ! so i got very woried straight away ! i am only 14 and the girls looked around 17 ! i did manage to confuss the girls by getting mudled up in a group of guys i knew who were close by! i got away with only cuts and scratches but they got my purse and everything in it including my new watch worth 450 !!!!! i alerted secuirity as the club is known as the best club in Leeds and my friend walked around with 3 secuirity guards and found the main girl! she was arrested and me and my friend gave a statement ! we are still waiting to here from the police ! this was the worst expeirience of my life !
Lauren Guest {miniloz@hotmail.com} I've never been mugged. I have been assaulted a few times but never successfully. I have seen several muggings, assaults, attacks, and one piece of domestic violence that could have been on Cops. If I was to get philosophical about it I would say that there are several reasons I have not been victimized.
Reason #1: My mom. My mother taught me at an early age to pay attention to what is going on around me. I have seen people get victimized just because they were not paying attention to the world around them. Young white girls are especially bad about this.
White people seem to be think that nothing bad will ever happen to them and they can just go where they want to. I am 6', 240lbs, with a wrestler's build and I am black. There are many places that I know even I can't go, so I don't go to those places. Just because it is your right to do something does not mean that is the smart thing to do.
The second reason I feel that I have never been successfully mugged is that I try to project an aura of "bad ass" when I encounter people who look like they are trying to size me up. This has been a very good technique for me. Criminals pay close attention to the way a person moves or carrys themself. They tend to avoid those people that look like they know how to handle themselves.
Reason #3: Weapons. When I go out I am usually armed like Gengis Khan. I have open handed fighting skills from greco-roman wrestling in high school and martial arts experience from college. But even Bruce Lee can't stop a bullet. Typically I have on my person 2 knives (one folder and one fixed blade) and a Glock 9mm.
My attitude is very simple and basic. If some scumbag is going attack me and try to do me bodily harm, I am going to try my best to take some of them with me. My mother won't be the only person burying a child when the music stops.
James {jlbclan@aol.com} I've never been mugged. My mom had her purse stolen though, and my office has been robbed. It's a really unnerving feeling, very scary.
retrograde going to work one night on my cycle,about 2am,when i saw two guys in the distance,i'd never been mugged before so i was this arrogant person telling myself it could never happen to me,,well,as i approached these guys,one of them said something,not sure what he said causei always listen to music as i cycle,,,next thing i knew i was on the floor and what felt like 20 feet swinging into my head,i was screaming out in pain,but they made sure i was not gonna get up before they made thier escape with my bike,as i looked up i saw them cycle off so i got up,,at the time i was more shocked than hurt and was concerned about getting to work,,,so i flagged down a police car who dropped me to work and told me to make a statement the following day,on returning to work the day after (my usual shift) i was not aware at that time as to the extent of my injures,i had very servere bruising to the rear of my skull,and around my left ear,it was about 2 years ago now but i can remember it still like it was yesterday,i now never cycle if i see two guys in front of me and i'm always alert to people lurking about,,,,so you could say it helped me to look after myself and pick up street awareness, hopefully i will neverr be mugged again,,but then again who knows¬!
terry {terry@parks1001.freeserve.co.uk} it was when i was 17, and in my final year of high school. it wasn't your stock-standard mugging [if there is really such a thing], but a full on assault.
i am of indian extraction, and the school i attended had as many kids of colour as hens have teeth. it was a very vanilla society which i inhabited at that time.
i stood out.
i was academically streets ahead of the pack, and unfortunately too arrogant and self centred to appreciate the resentment that this could cause. not the being bright part - just the rubbing in of my superiority.
i was going home late one winter evening, too self absorbed in my most recent triumph to notice the gloom, the cold, or the potential for danger. we had had a debate that day in class, and speaking last for my team, i had torn apart the paltry arguments of my opposite number and generally made her look a complete dolt.
she was a blonde, blue eyed cheerleaader type, and definitely unused to being so publicly humiliated. i had savoured that triumph to the maximum. poor foolish me.
so i'm walking home and suddenly there she is, with her boyfriend - a hulking football type. she said something snide - i really can't remember what - but i do recall my thinking how pathetic she was and calling her a "loser".
i got about 2 steps past them before suddenly i felt like i'd been hit by a train. the boyfriend had crash tackled me into a dark alley, then pulling me to my feet by my hair, he ran me the length of the alleyway and slammed me into the wall. i sagged, stunned, to my knees.
she then tore my head back by my hair and looked me in the eye. i'll never forget the feral look of hatred on her face. "let see who's the loser now, nigger", she snarled, and punched me in the face.
i must have been groggy for a few moments, because i was brought crashing back to consciousness by the pain of my hymen breaking. the brute boyfriend was raping me.
the bitch looked down from above my shoulders, put something sharp to my throat and made the obligatory unoriginal threat you'd expect in these circumstances. i choked back a scream.
i instantly became 2 people. one half of me locked itself away, and almost chanted a mantra of "i will survive; i will survive; i will survive". i was immediately determined to do whatever it took to live beyond the restrictions of their violence. life was the goal. life beyond ..... .
the other part just did whatever they wanted. when they were working over my ponderous breasts, i mooed like a cow just as they demanded. when he was fucking me from behind, i barked like a dog - just as she demanded. and when she pulled out an oversized strap-on, i lay there and just let her bang away for all she was worth, grimly determined not to give any sign of the horrendous tearing and bruising that was happening inside me.
"i will survive; i will survive; i will survive."
and finally - when i worked out what she really wanted - i gave that to her - i gave her my pride. i let the tears pour down my face; i cried as piteously as i could; and i even unlocked my bowels. and she only then got off me, and left me lying in that cold dark alley in the pool of my own blood and excretions. but i had survived.
it took me 2 years of therapy before i could finish my final year of high school [in a completely different school], and i only really started to get back on track a couple of years after completing my degree in law. after a disasterous marriage to a fellow indian, i am now very happily married to a sweet gentle man of european extraction and expecting our first child later this year.
and this story concluded last month, when that same female was brought before my bench [i am now involved in the judicial aspect of the law] and i passed a sentence of 12 years imprisonment on her.
the best thing about that case was that the heavy sentence was not due to any notion of revenge on my part, but because that particular crime [coupled with her extensive criminal history] made that result inevitable and appropriate. i was incredibly relieved to learn that i could view her case completely impartially.
i left my chambers that evening with no sesnse of revenge - only one of vast triumph.
i had survived!
kali we were stripped down to our undies. five of us. me and my four buddies who were out gargling beer till three o'clock in the morning. serves us right, right?
well, maybe. but getting mugged and stripped to prevent us from reaching the police precinct to report the incident is such an experience to look back, laugh and shiver about.
it happened in 1998. it was my friend's birthday and we decided to celebrate it over beer, nuts, seafoods and fond banterings. then at about three a.m. we decided to split. parking lot is a block away from the bar so we staggered in a rather jovial mood. then out of nowhere, three guys blocked our way--two, armed with guns, one holding a long knife. we turned around and three equally armed jerks are behind us. armed as well. we froze.
"strip!" one of the muggers shouted.
"wait, we're not fag, all right?" my friend protested.
"shut up and strip!" came the steely reply. so we did.
"shit," i was thinking. "i'm not gonna survive this." i have good reasons. most cases like this usually ends up with gruesome death. i just can imagine the tabloid headlines the next day. two of my good buddies were freaking out, but not too loud to provoke further hostility from our attackers.
then we were asked to throw your clothes towards the muggers direction. they took our wallets, our watches and rings. and our pants, neckties and shirts. then they fired three shots at the trashcan about two feet away from us. i closed my eyes thinking i was already dead. when i opened my eyes the muggers were about a few hundred yards away from us.
we were rescued by the police car patrol a few minutes later who responded to the gunshots.
yeah, we laughed our asses off the next day, but for that few excruciating minutes while geting mugged, we have seen and realized that some life's worth can be devaluated for a few crumpled bills.
sonicsundae {sonicsundae@hotmail.com} Hehe mugging not only occurs up there but down under too. After walking my girlfriend home at about 9pm I I walked to the trainstation to get home, as I went down the stairs in full view of the station gaurd, I heard running so I turned around. Unfortunately I had never experienced anything like this and so I was surrounded by three guys who asked for my money, I just chuckled and tried to walk off until the one in front pulled my head down while the other two kicked me senseless, they then took goes of holding me down. Holding two rather large presents whom I bought as a present for some friends I refused to let them go but to cop all their beating. Then my glasses flew off. I pulled out of them and picked them up, then they asked for my money again. They couldn't even bruise me first round so I was sure they'd give up, again I tried to walk away only having the same thing done to me, at this point I could taste blood in my mouth, this wasn't happening I thought, that was when I clicked. I dropped the presents and began to fight back, firstly by grabbing the next kick and throwing the guy down 12 or so stairs. The other two then got shocked but little did I realize my wallet had fallen out in the little clash, next thing I knew they called to their injured buddy that they had my wallet and ran off. Dazed I ignored what I heard until a few seconds later then I realized how stupid I was. As I walked down the stairs of the open platform I glared at the station master and got on the train.
Matt Interesting. No-one has ever tried to mug me, but one time some idiot attacked me on the tube in London.
He was sitting down with his bags blocking the aisle: I walked over them, just to get to the open part of the car where no-one was standing, and he jumped up, spewed some fake wannabe gansta jive shite, and hit me in the face. It felt like a pat from a kitten. I walked over and pulled the alarm: walked back and put him down on his ass (no violence beyond the legal definition of self-defence); and had him taken off the car and charged with assault.
He ended up crying and asking the cop to shake hands.
Four things.
1) I'm not *that* hard, but I'm big. Not everyone can stand up to the muggers like this. Use your brains.
2) If you can call the police, call them AT ONCE.
3) If you are witness to a mugging, an assault, or any crime, remember: the police depend on several independent witnesses to achieve a conviction. Don't "walk by". If you have an opportunity to give testimony when someone else is attacked, that is the same as fighting back physically.
If we all just spat at the same time, we'd drown the bastards
m
Pinlighter Once I was walking in a very very small town in West Virginia, when an old beat up car pulled up to the curb next to me, and the passenger said to get in the car cause he had a knife. I don't know why this struck me as hilarious, but it did and I was you know, slap-my-knee laughing. How silly he looked, all scraggly and missing teeth. They ended up just driving away. I laughed the whole way home.
Teresa {wvtisa@yahoo.com} I can sympathize with you Rebecca. I was a skinny 15 year old going home from school on a beautiful Spring day in 1969 when it happened to me.
At the time, I lived in East New York, Brooklyn. It was a pretty tough neighborhood then and it's even tougher today.
So I'm walking along not really worrying about much, hey, I was 15...I'm wearing brand new pair of shoes, slacks, shirt, jacket and feeling really good that I had just started taking Karate classes. I was actually rehearsing the lesson from the day before when out of knowhere I heard the voice, "Don't run, don't do anything."
I turn around and I see three black guys coming up to me. I was wondering whether I should right there go into my Karate stance or not, but I thought better since I'd only taken a couple of lessons and didn't know what the heck I was doing.
So there I stood on that beautifull day, while these punks rifled through my pockets and took all of 50 cents from me. I offered to give them my ruler and other school equipment I was carrying with me, but they weren't interested at all. I guess, that's why they were out on the streets being the pests they were.
I've never forgotten how upset that day made me and I've always said that it would never happen again--you lose too much if you're just a willing victim and give them what they want.
Jay Rivera {jayoct54@att.net} Yes, I was mugged. After having been all over the world (well, some parts anyway): I didn't have any trouble in Cusco/Peru, downtown Mexico City at night, Beijing suburbs, Santiago de Chile subways, Rome, London, Paris or even Moscow.
No, it was about 300m from my apartment, on home turf. Three guys at night. No, I wasn't so stupid to try to find out if the gun was real. What is 90 German Marks (about 40$) compared to nasty wounds or the end of your life?
I went on my planned vacations the next day, and it took me a while before I could shake off the paranoia afterwards. I was just angry that it happened at home. yes, i was mugged, my boyfriend and i. the really sad thing was it was two guys that we knew.
from the first time we met them, i knew they were trouble. in fact on of the guys was aka "trouble." he was the least one i suspected would do such a thing. the other guy was well lets just call him "Derion". the first time i met "Derion" i told him i didn't like him (which i now realize i should have kept my mouth shut). he said "why, is it because i'm black?" that had absoulty nothing to do with my not liking him. it was because he was a f*** up. the other guy (also black) was 'nice'.
i remember the instance the mugging was first mentioned. i went to my sisters apartment, not knowing he was there ("Derion"). they always "joked" about me not liking black people and my racism (which i am not). then he turned and said to me in a serious voice "im going to kill you racist bitch, im going to kick down your door and make you get on your knees and make you like this nigger."
i ran out of there crying. my sister ran after me and said that he was only joking. she tried to persuade me to come back in and just laugh it off. but i thought better and went home.
a couple of weeks went by of nothing. then late one night there was a knock on my door. i check to see who it was, it was "trouble." since i knew well enough, i opened the door. he asked if i had seen my sister, to which i replied no. so he left. then about a minute later there was another knock. i looked out, noticed it was him again, so opened the door. thats when i saw "Derion" with him. my thoughts went back to that afternoon. he never came over to my apartment. then thats when he put the gun to my head, i looked him straight in the eye and said "why the hell are you doing this." thats when they proceeded to rob my boyfriend and i. then locking us in the utility closet. all the while saying things like "would you ever f*** a nigger, well we'll find out"
they never actually touched me in any way. and the cops never followed up on the case, even though we've called in and made sure they were. but they said they didn't anything on thier whereabouts. *these were direct quotes not intended to offend anyone* *marie*
marie {butternuts7@excite.com} attempted mugging i guess.
i was at a party one night. a saturday night in late 1997, my last year of high school. the
regular sort of piss up thing that high schoolers do. but this one was different. there was
this girl i had had my eye on for the last three or four months. being from a boys' school,
i hadnt had much contact with girls, and i was nervous as hell. i knew she liked me, or at least her friends told me that she did anyway. so tonight was the night to ask her out.
but.
i got shot down.
so, i went for a walk.
now, the neighbourhood i was in isn't one of the friendliest in my city. mount druitt in
sydney for any locals. it was 3am. i came around a corner of hedges and was confronted by
two guys. one was about my height (i'm 6'3") and biult like myself (fairly slim),
and the other was about 5'6" and stocky, and they were both about my age. in the glow of the
street light above us, i could see that the smaller of the two was holding a knife, i'd
guess it was about a 4 or 5 inch blade. after being shot down by a girl, i was in no mood to
be trifled with. but obviously these two didn't know that, and they demanded that i hand
over all my money.
when i look back on this moment, i remember thinking for about half a second that i should give in and hand it all over. but my anger from my earlier humiliation took over and punched the shorter
of the two square in the face. this sent him reeling on the ground. he got up and he and his friend ran away slowly, turning around a few times to shout that they'd
be back to get me.
and i went back to the party.
and obviously i never saw them again.
Crayon {crayon@crayonlogic.cjb.net} I have been in the park down the block for almost every day of the past 12 years. Then one day, crossing the bridge going to a deli a man approached me with a gun. He said give me your money and I did as I was told. Then he hit me over the head with the gun and threw me into the lake. My friend who was with me helped me out of the lake and called the police. The man wasn't caught yet.
Joe Higgins {Tj2987@aol.com} I haven't been mugged (thankfully) but a co-worker of mine (former co-worker) told me about a time he was mugged whilst on holiday in London England.
He was walking back to his hotel at about 1.30am after a dinner in a very posh restaurant. He was wearing a suit etc (so looked like he had money)
Two guys (on drugs probably) came up to him from behind and forced him into an alley. They did not ask him for any money, they just pushed him to the ground and started kicking him. Two teeth were broken.
When they thought he was unconscious (he wasn't) they rifled his pockets and took his wallet (£100) and his keys (???) They ripped the watch off his wrist (expensive) and thay tried to take his wedding band too. He then must have given them a clue that he was aware of their actions because they said (screamed) "give us all you have" he said "take anything you want, just stop fucking kicking me" That was the last thing he could remember of the attack.
He woke up or came to with a terrible headache. They had really gone to town on him. They took his ring, wallet, watch, chain, jacket (was on the floor beside him) and his shoes were gone from his feet. Unbelievable what the heck did they want his shoes for? The Bastards.
Needless to say he did not visit London again.
It took him a long time to recover from that attack. Once back in the USA he considered himself safe again. Is that a contradiction?
Annonymous Hey Annonymous, nothing strange about your friends attack. I know two people that have been mugged for their footwear.
One of my friends was pushed to the ground from behind and was told to take his Nikes off or they would stab him. He didn't do what they said straight away, but the sight of that knife soon persuaded him. They ran off with his brand new Nikes.
Going even further back a friend of mine was mugged on the NY subway one night. He was hit over the head (rendering him unconscious) The next thing he knew were the paramedics in the ambulance. They told him that he had been mugged and they were taking him to hospital. Only on his dis-charge did he notice (amongst other things) that his Gucci shoes were missing. Either the hospital messed up, or the muggers took them when he lay on the platform. Either way he lost a $200 pair of shoes.
It's not un-common in NYC!!!
Parker Yea,
But that punk got his ass kicked and I spooked the shit out of him!!
Dont fuck with a Drunk Rican!
Christina D {sf_coquie@yahoo.com} Got mugged one time. In Dublin, Ireland. I was waiting in the city centre for my girlfriend at the time because we were going to the cinema with her little sisters. I was sitting at a bus-stop and there were two guys sitting there too who had been there already. As I sat there, every warning bell I had started going off and I got the urge to get up and leave...but I didn't because I decided that I was being foolish.
Then the two guys stood up.
They stood really close to me so that I could not stand up too...and to be honest, I would have probably tried to take them becuase they were a lot smaller than me...except while I was sitting down of course. So, one pulls a syringe...blood-filled he says, and I believe him because I don't want to take the chance.
"Give me your wallet!" "Ah shit! I just got this wallet for christmas! I'll give you the cash..." "...uh...ok..."
So I gave them the cash (25 quid) and they were about to leave when...
"So...have you got bus-fare and all to get home ok?"
I was very taken aback at this that I just answered yes and they went away.
I then went and told the cops just out of formality so that I could become a statistic. Then I went to the cinema. Spice Girls the Movie. It would have sucked had my day been able to get any worse...
nightfever {nightfever@ufie.org} I live in Sydney, I got mugged yesterday I had no money in my wallet, so they took my bank card and asked for the key number
It doesn't bother me if they stole the last eighty dollars, I'll just get paid in another two days...
Ah dammit, the hassle of having to wait up all night in the police station, waiting to get a new electronic card from the bank... and renewing my overseas identity card.
In the self-dignity dept, one might call me a wimp, but rather than fight, think: hell, it's kill or be killed. And I won't wanna end up being on either end.
Not against a bunch of unemployed, low self-esteem youths from out of the 'Western suburbs'. Vietnamese kids who haven't quite realised the war is OVER.
Trembling in their self-inconfident boots... they seemed more afraid than me... perhaps they were Rookies at mugging.
The most they could have done with my money was catch a cab back to Cabbramatta... *laughs* geee, I would have spared them the cash if they just learn to ask!
panda I have been mugged. It was when I was 18 and very naive.
I was on my way home from a party at about 3am when two guys came up behind me and pushed me to the ground.
I managed to get up and started running like shit off a shovel. They chased me and soon caught up, as I was wearing loafers and couldn't run in them. They tripped me from behind and I went dowm like a pack of cards. Normally I'd outrun anybody as I do athletics, but this day I wore these damn slip on loafers that kept slipping off the faster I tried to run, so I had no chance.
I did not give them the money they demanded. They tried to take my wallet forcably. I never saw any weapons. They must have been high. One of them held my arms while the other was in my pockets. I managed to kick him a few times, but he just held my legs too. I said they were high!!
Even with all this happeneg I still managed to wriggle free somewhat, and I bolted. They had my wallet, but I still ran like the wind. This time I kicked my loafers off as I ran. They had no chance of catching me this time. They gave up.
I went to the police who took me back to the scene. They were never caught, but at least my shoes were still around. I went home and never heard from the police again. I learnt a lesson that night, don't walk at night with slippery slip-on loafers. Wear sneakers!!
Jason yeah i've been mugged. i was hit on the head by a crack head. knocking me out cold. they took my money and my watch. stupid dumb fucks didn't know that i has $200 stuffed in my sock. ha ha. when i woke up i found that i had my $200 still on me. the police did not seem to care. i spent a few hours in the hospital but they only got$10 and a cheap watch.
annonymous I have been mugged, but I HAD the last laugh. I was sitiing at the lights when a huge looking muscular forearm smashed through my passenger window and grabbed my cellphone. It was about 2am and the roads were pretty empty. Not happy with that he came around to my side and grabbed my throat (trying to get my chain)
It was all happeneing so fast. I floored the accelerator and flicked the window switch. His arm was inside the car and he was tring to drag hinself free, but I was goind too fast for his legs to keep up. He finally got his arm free and fell to the road. I felt the car go over his leg.
I stopped and he was trying to drag himself away, but his leg was all twisted. I called the police from a payphone (the little shit had my cellphone) I stood over him whilst they came. I really enjoyed the look on his helpless face. One foot was facing the wrong was and oozing blood. Serves the little fucker right!!!!!!
Tim My experience still haunts me today. I was attacked by four men who jumped me from behind throwing a canvas bag over my head. I was helpless to do anything as they forced me down on the ground and held my arms and feet with plier-like grips. The funny thing was, I had nothing on me worth stealing. No money, no watch, no expensive jewellery....nothing. That didn't stop them taking a good look though! I felt them pulling at my pockets, ripping my slacks in the process. Tearing my shirt and my jacket was tugged off. I shouted that I had nothing on me, but they just said "Where is your loot" They thought I had it hidden on me someplace. They ripped my shoe off in the hope I was hiding cash in there.
Finally they gave up. Leaving me with the bag on my head, ripped trousers, torn shirt, no jacket, and shoeless. For what?? I'm still asking myself that question after four years. I now carry a gun. Next time I'll be ready.
Jason I just got mugged about an hour ago at King's Cross in Central London. I'm pretty annoyed but i'm not sure why. I don't really feel much animosity towards the two fella's and i did the sensible thing and gave them my money (about 18 pounds and an insured mobile phone) and i wasn't frightened at all which is weird i think. I suppose the reason i'm annoyed is that i just gave in and handed my money over. I'm 6ft tall and i don't think i'm a wuss but c'mon, i didn't even see a weapon. One of them said he had a knife in his pocket and even at the time i didn't really believe him but i wasn't 100% sure. Amazingly they gave me my wallet with credit cards in back so i guess they just wanted money for drugs or something. Should i call my mobile? I'm quite tempted. You know as i write this i'm feeling better about my lack of action. If i saw an old lady getting assaulted or if i had something of sentimental value i'm pretty sure i would do something. I hope so anyway.
Matt {m.plummer@ucl.ac.uk} I was in a city (in the midwest, but still a suburb of a bigger city, not Chicago) and my friend and I were out to coffee. She dropped me off and I told her she didn't have to wait. I started to walk to my door and I saw a man walking about 20 feet away from me. He was black (im not being racist, he WAS black) and I thought, "wow, that would be really wrong to think that he was up to something, stereotypes= bad" so I turned up my path. I called my sister from my cell phone to have her come get me (I didn't have my keys). Before I pushed the 'end call' button the man was behind me and covered my mouth with a hand and was choking me with another. I couldnt breathe (im also asthmatic). At first I thought it was my friend, and then when he told me to shut up and he had a gun I realized it wasn't. He said "Don't say anything" and I tried to scream, and he said " I havea gun I'll kill you. So I kept trying to scream. Finally he said, where is your money? and I opened my purse (it was amazing I could still function because I had so little oxygen,) and he said, don't say anything and ran off.
I stood up and screamed for people to call 911. THAT is what you should call... it instructs people, and they dont feel compelled to find out what is going on before calling. The police department told me that the switchboard lit up with calls.
I saw the man run away. Police came and I gave them a description and within 5 minutes they had someone in custody matching my description. I went and ID'd him as the person I thought was the guy, and the K9 unit followed his scent back to an alley where they found my purse. On top of that the money he had in his pocket was the exact amount I had had in mine (oddly enough I knew because when I was out to coffee I had gotten exact change)....
So the trial is in 2 weeks. The guy had been charged with lots of stuff like this, but never convicted. Wish me luck.
N {nebula8@juno.com} It's pretty scary lately in my neighbourhood. Muggers are using chloroform to attack people. I know a guy who was attacked last week outside his house by two men who came from behind and grabbed his arms. They put a cloth with that stuff over his mouth. (the police found the cloth and identified it as chloroform) He was after about ten seconds unconscious. They took what they wanted from him and ran away. The police found them, but as he never saw them could not ID them.
Another day another attempt. This time the same thing but they also took the girls car keys and stole her car too.
My neighbour saw a mugging from her window. She phoned the police. When she went down to see the mugged guy he was unconscious.They had taken his money and left him on the sidewalk.
They are cowards, but they think this was nobody gets hurt.
Kai Hey... its N again who wrote a few before this... well the guy that mugged me got found guilty of the crime!!! Yeah to justice... his sentencing is soon, so we'll see what happens, but since he was a parole violator he'll be in for a while
N {nebula8@juno.com} First of all, thank you for this site. It's too late to call anybody and this support group type forum makes it seem a little less surreal. I'm sure when I tell people it will just lead to a "my aunt got mugged once" type of story. I've never been mugged before. I was walking home at 12:00 along Queen St. which is the punk/hipster haunt here in Toronto. I guess these guys wanted some rich corporate type walking home drunk. I had just gone out for some pizza and was actually dressed a lot like my muggers. They started walking behind me and said "yo," very quietly, like three or four times before I even thought they'd be talking to me. This lead to a "what's up, what'd ya got for us?" I really thought they had mistaken me for their dealer and wanted what ever they'd paid for. This lead to a "walk between us, my friend's got a gun." Somehow, it worked out that the guy "with the gun" was actually walking in front of me and the other guy. We kept walking to avoid a scene. Something about the whole thing made my penis numb. Is this common? I thought that maybe my fly was open, but it wasn't. Some side-effect of horror I suppose. As we walked, there was a guy standing in front of a store. I told them I was just meeting my friend. Thank god, this guy played along. THANK YOU. With someone else, I made a stand and the muggers realized they were not gettin' any. It all ended well, but I still just can't figure out why they did this? I'm a student, I have $-0 in the bank and lots of debt. Maybe I should have let them have my maxed out credit card, that would really be a prize.
still in shock, AJ
AJ I was in Oakland late one night years ago and I was looking for a pay phone. I went to a 7-11 which actually closed at 11! (go figure) and there was a pay phone there. I parked my car and got out and took my purse to the phone and picked up the receiver.
Just then, a car drove in and a young black man stepped out of the car and started walking towards me in a manner that I could tell that he was drawing a bullseye around me.
The phone I picked up was broken, but I started talking anyway and I picked up my purse and stuck my hand into it like I had a gun and I was gonna pull it if he got closer...
As he approached, he could hear me growling into the phone, "...and I'm going to kill that motherf***er and rip his entrails out and beat his brains in and...." I emphasized each word as he got closer until I was practically screaming. And I "mad-dogged" him with a look that would sear his skin off if he came any closer.
He stopped, and looked back at his friend in the car and then slowly with his hands up, started backing away until he got behind the door of his car and shouted at me, "Uh, could you tell me what time it is?"
"It's three o'clock in the morning! A**h***!"
"Thank you, Ma'am!"
And he drove off.
That was the closest I ever got to being mugged, and I was so angry at the idea that someone would do that to me on top of being already angry at events of the night, that I acted like I was going to kill and mug him. It worked, but I doubt I would ever be able to do that again. Anger can be a blessing for a small little white female like me in the wrong part of town.
T-Bird {esathehand@hotmail.com} I was mugged two years ago in Oregon. Hit over the head with a bar and left for dead sprawled over the sidewalk. I woke up and just went home with a thumping headache. I never reported it to this day. Funny thing, they didn't take anything from me. Guess they thought I was dead and got scared.
Jasper.
Jasper The last final of my sophomore year in college just ended. I'm driving two and a half hours home at the end of May. My best friend from home Brandon comes, asks when I'm done and coming into town. I tell him I'll be there tonight. He says stop by.
I don't go home first to drop off my stuff. I'll stop by his place first, after all, what's the fun in going home first and not doing anything fun there. I turn and take a right off of M L King Blvd and there is a parking space right across from his ground floor apartment. There broken glass in the space, so I go down a few more spaces on the street.
I get out of my 1990, broke-ass Toyta Camry, lock the doors, and begin the 100 foot trek to my friends apartment.
As I'm walking across the street towards his apartment, I become surrounded by five young guys in the middle of the street. As they approach the antagonist yells at me, "Gimme your fucking keys!" as they all pull their t-shirts up over their noses to conceal their identity.
I'm 60 feet away from his apartment. I'm not going to give these hoodlums my keys. I'm not going to give them anything. I continue walking.
I'm 40 feet away now. "Didn't you hear me?! Give ME your fucking keys!" I'm still walking with them still surrounding me like a pentagon.
Twenty feet from Brandon's doorway, "Give me your keys NOW!" They realize I'm not going to give them my keys. They grab me, throw me down on a patch of grass next to Brandon's apartment. Each punk holding down a leg, arm, or sifting through my pockets. I yell my friends name. "DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD!!" I don't way another word.
Forty-five seconds later, they have found my keys, wallet and cell phone. They race for the car. I stand up and start running to Brandon's door. I fall. I've been hit in the head. I don't know with what. I can only hear out of one year.
I get to Brandon's door. He answers quickly. Jovially asks, "What's up?" I reply I've just been mugged. I turn around and he peers down the street. The crooks are just now getting away in my car, no more than 100 feet away. I call the cops. Ambulence is there in three minutes -- cops in ten.
I give them my statement, and they offer to take me to the hospital -- I may have a concusion. I take to Advil and I told them I would call them in the morning if I needed anything.
A few weeks later they catch the bastards. I testify at their trial. I was the first in a string of at least five car jackings. All but mine had a firearm involved. I still don't know what I was hit in the head with. The conclusion. One not competent to stand trial and two plead guilty. Who knows what happened to the others. I don't care. There lives will not amount to anything. They are a parasite on society and they will eventually end up in prison.
To be honest, they could not have mugged a better person -- in the sense that it does not bother me. It is a freak occurence. I do not have any anguish towards the actual event. Only real hassle was the long (six hour) drives to testify and handling the insurance claims. I still walk that street late at night, and I feel safe.
Though, if I am ever threatened again, I again will not willingly give up my belongings. And if I'm in my car, they will be run over.
Brian Kiefer {brian AT jocund DOT net} I was just mugged 2 days ago and it's quite the experience. I live in a suburb of Ottawa and it has its crime of course, but it's definitely not comparable to a big city. I was coming back home from school (7PM-10PM class). Class had finished early so this happened around 10 at night. I got off at the bus station and proceeded to walk in the direction of the path I usually use to go home. It's a "shortcut" that connects different streets. It's not lit so you have to rely on the street lights nearby to see.
Anyways, I see these two guys walking ahead of me and they suddenly just walk up the small hill that follows the path. I don't see them for quite a bit then the pop up right in front of me, maybe 20 feet ahead. Right then and there I kinda had a bad feeling but I wasn't sure. Just analysing everything. I stop my CD player and when there about 7 feet away, they rush me, one pulling out a bigass knife, yelling "give me all your shit". I'm all confused but I hand over my cd player seeing the knife. I had forgotten my wallet so I had no money to give him. He ends up feeling my fucking back pocket to check. The other guy takes off my bag (I didn't even notice cause I was so bewildered) and they run off. For 20 seconds, I just don't know what to do. I yell out at them asking them foolishly to check the bag and then start running after them, FUCKING pissed.
The bag had school stuff in it, USELESS to them. 120$ textbook, my binder with ALL my notes for all my classes, pencilcase and contents, etc. etc. All in all, they made off with 400$ worth of stuff, and they'll throw it all away except the cd player and the bag.
It's extremely frustrating and violating. I feel sorry for them cause they have nothing better to do, but I'm obviously very angry. What's worse is that I knocked on some house to call the cops. The guy, at least 55 years old, answers and I explain to him VERY politely that I had just been robbed at knifepoint and asked if I could use his telephone to call the police to which he casually says no. Fuck you buddy. Then we wonder why our world is turning to shit.
I don't wish this to happen to anyone. Nice of you to share your experiences. That's why I shared mine. Do what you can to keep our world from going to hell I guess.
Marc-Andre {thesilverheart@hotmail.com} it wasn't actually me who got mugged but my brother...he told me they were holding a knife to his throat and his back and was told to give up everything and start walking with them to the bank so they could take his money out of his account...but he eventually hit one of them and started running for his life.. these people who do drugs and rob people for the drug money really piss me off. if you can't afford it then don't do it.. its not our fault these guys are drug attics with nothing better to do ....my brother was minding his own business, and they had to start shit..life goes on, they didn't cut him up that bad, but fuck!that shit is pretty scary if it ever happens to me i'll yell so loud you'll probably hear me!...
julie {girl_interupted69@hotmail.com} I was out at a teen night club (no one over 20 allowed in) and was having a good time. After it was over I was the DD for my friends, so I decided to go get the car for them. As I was out to it, I noticed a large group of black people standing around, so I just walked through them. I felt a pound go straight to the back of my neck. I thought someone had hit me with something, like ball. So I was just like okay, that was just some stupid prank and kept walking. Then it happened again, and so I began to get nervous and realized someone had punched me both times. Luckily neither time, had I turned around, or would've have gotten hit in the jaw. Then I hear from behind me, "let's pop him." Assuming this meant a gun, I took off in a dead sprint to my car. I looked back once to catch a glimpse of four guys chasing me. I got to my car, put my head down on the roof, covered it with my hands, and then the pounding came. During which I heard it begin to break up. After several moments of not hearing anything, I looked up, to see a bouncer for the club. I asked him what I had done, b/c I honestly didn't know of anything I had done. He said I hadn't done anything. Thank goodness he had broken it up. Also the only shots I got were to the back of the head. The didn't go after money either. I
Red Fox {joshuagilbert@woh.rr.com} i was mugged the other night. i went to get some money out at around 11pm which i know is stupid but i like to take walks at night...clears my head. Anyway, walking back home, down a path, i hear footsteps behind me...and i've seen the films, the thought of being mugged went through my head, as it often does in this kind of situation but i never actually thought anything would happen. Other people get mugged...not me! Then, nearing the end of this path the footsteps were about to pass me when i felt a force on the back of my head where some guy had got me in a headlock. Bending me over another guy swiped the money and my bank card from my back pockets. It was over pretty quick, just a coupla seconds. As they were walking away, they stopped and shouted "oi, here", and i said "can i at least have my bank card back"....and they said yes!!!!! [which was nice of them! ;)]. and when he handed it back to me i remember i very almost said thank you!!! but i refrained myself!!! when i got back home, i told my flatmates and my parents. I'm so glad i had someone to talk to cause i was pretty shaken up and that would have killed me if i had no one to talk to. i wasn't angry at the guys who mugged me....i was scared of them! i didn't wanna bump into them ever again. But i wasn't angry. I wasn't injured or hurt, and all i lost was money, they missed the pocket with my mobile and keys in. So in that sense i was glad it wasn't worse which it so easily could have been. The main after effect i had was to take a lot more care over where i walk, and at what times, and what i carry in what pockets, etc. 3 days on, and i'm still a bit edgy when i walk down the street but i think that will pass over time. and i did call the police...but not straight away, because the muggers told me not to say anything and i didn't want police cars around the area or at my house. i decided to get some sleep and i called the police the next day and gave a statement. I knew it was unlikely they'd be able to help much, but it was the right thing to do i think. it might help somebody else in the future.
jacob Hi rebecca,
well i have been mugged. and it sucked. i was walking home from an audition for a talent show for my school on june 10 2003 and i decided (stupidly) to go down lefferts ave. (queens new york). its not that lefferts is a bad street its just that i like to go down that street because its easier for me to get home that way. i was talking to my sister on my cell phone and telling her all about how i got the piano part in the show.
so while i passed a barber shop a crowd of tall black girls were just hanging out there. for me being a tiny 13 year old asain chic with a cell phone i would look like a good person to mugg. as i got closer the tallest and loudest girl said "give me your money" i just pulled out my wallet and gave her my two dollars. sure whatever, two dollars means nothing to me. then she took my cell phone and pulled my bookbag away from me and looked inside. she took my cd player and gave it to one of the other tall girls. then she took my sprite remix drink and dumped it all over me. i was like take my shit i don't care. then i said "PLEASE, PLEASE give me back my cell phone." i started to cry and yell help. they threw the cell phone back at me and told me to go.
i went and i looked back and saw that all of them were running towards me. so i decided to run too. fortunatly, they stopped and i sobbed histerically. i called back my sister and tolded her to pick me up at my best friend's (letesha's) house. i got to letesha's house and told her everything. she helped me calm down while my mother was on the way. unfortunatly this isn't the end of my story.
when my mother and i were driving from letesha's house that day, we saw the girls that mugged me. i told my mother NOT to stop the car but she did. she asked them questions but (obviously) they denied everything.
the next day, when i was waiting with my other friend christine for my mother to pick me up, we saw them (the girls that mugged me) coming up the road. i ran as fast as i could to get away from them. but they caught me. the tallest and loudest girl from yesterday pulled me by my hair (i have pretty long hair) and kept on asking me why i told my mother. after that i blocked out and forgot what happened but christine told me that two girls held me by the arms and the tallest girl punched the shit out of my head and kicked my legs. i guess i passed out because i couldn't feel anything. then one of my best friends devon pulled me away from them. he knew those girls and carried me (he's 5'10 and i'm 4'11) across the street where i layed for like 5 minutes until i woke up.
my mother came and we went to the police station. i found out that other girls( from my graduating class ) had the same thing happen to them on the exact same day. another close friend of mine named salina was kicked and she totally lost consciousness for a week. but it came back thank goodness.
so this was my experience of being mugged. :(
I'm pushing 63 and all my life have taken the approach that if you don't act intimidated they will leave you alone.
About 9:30 a week ago I hear a soft knock on my Indianapolis cheap truck stop motel door. Not scared of much guy that I am, I open it to find a pair of very sinister looking 25 year old guys. The one in front of the door is standing with his left shoulder to me and mumbles something about "looking for someone else" I look him fearlessly in the eye and say "I don't believe we know each other." There is a pause, I say "see ya" look away, and start to close the door.
I never saw it coming or landing but figure he took a hard as he could, up sweeping swing, with his hand gun, that caught me right between the eyes. I staggered back and fell on my butt. The lens few out of my glasses to hit the the far wall of the motel.
Now they have both invited themselves into the room and closed the door. The one who hit me is pointing the gun sideways at my head and is very aggressive and animated. I'm quite shocked, can hardly see, and am busy trying not to bleed all over everything.
His partner, who kind of looks like Ice Cube, has found my wallet on the bed and the $350 in it. I tell them they have done quite well. They force me into the bathroom where I can bleed into the pot.
Shortly Ice Cube demands to know what the PEN on my VISA is. I tell him it doesn't have one and they leave it. They tell me to lock myself in and if I come out I will be shot. I give it two minutes, peek out, hurry to lock the door and call 911.
Lots of Marian County sherriffs and EMT show up very quickly, but these guys are more quickly gone.
They were very good. I can't believe this was first time they've done this, or will it be the last.
I'm kind of proud that I tried to maintain some measure of dignity and kept the fear under control, but I sure felt helpless.
Doctors tell me I've got no permanent physical damage and a positive mental, "It could have been so much worse" attitude.
I've become convinced that if the bad guys are armed and determined to hurt you they can probably pull it off no matter how scary you think you are.
I will not open the door to them next time.
Live long and prosper.
Larry in Seattle
Larry-Seattle {dawnsgift@hotmail.com} I have never been mugged thank goodness. If I were t be mugged, I would not say some of the things that this young women said to her muggers. I hope that I would convey a quiet strength and give up the money so that the experienc would end as soon as possible. I would not ask if they had a gun or scream at them for fear that they would come back and really hurt me. I would also try to avoid the areas that were known to be trouble spots. Last weekend was the first time I thought it was going to go down. I was walking on 72nd Street. It must have been about 9 o'clock. I had just turned onto Amsteram and was leaving a message on my mom's voicemail because ofcourse I left the directions to the party at home. As I was leaving a message a middle aged man walked straight for me. He obviously had no regard for me being on the phone, and he was staring at me I felt like Clarise Darling, only this time I was stuck in the cell with Dr. Lechter. He got very close to my face, we're talking inches and he asked me if I knew where this address that he had scribbled on a half torn piece of paper was. WIthout even looking, I quickly said no. As I tried to proceed walking to where I thought my party was, he reached out his hand to grab me. He kept looking me up and down and was mumbling something under her breath, but I couldn't understand what he was saying because I was stil on the phone. As his grimy hand touched my left shoulder I Immediately turned and darted through the oncoming traffic on Amsterdam. I 'm not sure why I turned to look back, but when I did, I could see him looking and trying to cross the street. I kept running, and never looked back.
Jamie Thank god I was never mugged but I was robbed.It was the day I reluctantly stopped by my college to pick up my graduation gown (for a graduation I knew I wasn't attending) but at my mother's insistence I relented and bought the gown. I decided to make use of teh day and drive uptown for a video fair. I parked my car in a residential neigheborhood and went on my merry way. after pending a few hours and mucho dinero I decided it was time to go home. I went bak to my car and popped open the trunk. "Hey...where's my gown?" I just knew I put it in the truck before I left. Maybe I put in the backseat. No, backseat. Let's look in the trunk again, no, not only no gown, but my gym bag was gone. Hey.. I looked down and saw pieces of the trunk on the ground. What the... I looked at my tunk and saw that someone had broke the lock. They took my graduation gown and my gym bag (with clothes that had not been washed, but they did get my walkman). I felt so angry and violated. I callled my mother who verbally attacked me on the phoe for being "so stupid" to drive uptown. No how are you... just berate, berate, berate. It was her conversation tht made me so upset. Of course I was angry bu tI was more thankful that my car was still there. What have I learned from that experience ? 1- park in well-lit parking lots (with guards) and 2- never call my mother in times of roube. Walking home from church one night I was followed by two little kids. I remember thinking, "Oh c'mon. I just spoke to God. Isn't there someone else you could bother instead? I'm a decent person. I don't deserve this." I prayed the whole way as I walked toward my apartment. I tried walking slower, so the kids walked slower. I tried walking faster, so the kids walked faster. There just was no losing them. I continued praying for someone to come down the street and help me, but no one was in sight. It wasn't even that late, so why was the neighborhood completely abandoned? I as I approached my block, I was considering whether I should just keep going and try to run a couple of blocks to the corner store. "God, please send help. Oh God, please send help. Oh Jesus!" Then, a neighbor in from the next building jumped up out of the basement door. I hugged her as if she were an old-time friend, even though I had no clue who this woman was. She was an answer to my prayers and that was good enough for me. I whispered to her that these kids had followed me from the subway station and that I believe they were trying to mug me. The kids had a seat on my front stoop and looked at me as if they were just waiting for me to finish up my conversation. My neighbor laughed at them and told them she did not know what they were waiting for and that they should just leave. They waited for about 20 minutes and watched as my neighbor and I became better acquainted. My neighbor's family came out, introduced themselves, looked at the boys, told them to get lost, and laughed as the two kids went running off down the block. Within five minutes the neighborhood was alive with noise and activity. No one took my money or my confidence in God's protection. So no, I was never mugged. But I did have my faith strengthened and made some new friends in my neighborhood.
Kathy {kgernava@beaconschool.org} I was mugged in San Fransico May 2004.
m A Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged.
DFH {sunkills@mail.com} I was mugged this past week. I was walking home the few short blocks from one of my favorite bars on busy streets in a relatively safe part of Atlanta--so I thought. All of the sudder I got whacked on the head three times with a brick. I fell to the ground and was bleeding a lot. The guy started taking everything, and he specifically demanded my cell phone. I'm not an easy target. I'm 6'1", 170lbs, and 22 years old. That's why he had to sneak up behind me. And knock me to the ground. Luckily, I was only about 100 feet from the entrance to my apartment building, and the concierge was able to call the cops. I went in an ambulance to the hospital. I have two fractures and multiple staples in my head now. I'm a huge liberal from the Upper Midwest who came to Atlanta for college. I was not racist at all before this incident, and I think what makes me angry the most is that I know that this experienced changed that. I started asking myself why poor white people cause less than 1% of violent crime in Atlanta, and poor black people cause around 92%. What's the deal? I don't want to think this way.
Zacklanta {zbc42782@aol.com} mugged in NYC
Last nite I was walking to the subway across a busy active main road (Houston St) and was mugged at gunpoint by 4 people. Right on the sidewalk at 11pm! They waited until a bus pulled up and slightly shielded the street, but it wasn't much of a shield for a block with regular passer-bys.
One guy grabbed my purse and pulled it off my arm so forcefully that I fell to the ground. Then the girl patted me down and put her hands into all my pockets, finally another guy put something in my back, took my cell and asked if they had everything. Once I said yes he said, "ok, lets go" we started walking down the street and I was freaking out that they were taking me with them. But after a few steps he just said, "ok, turn around and walk the other way now." I walked 10 feet to a payphone and called the police, not because I thought they'd be caught or my stuff returned, I wanted the cops to know that 4 people were doing this in the area. While waiting for the cops I also cancelled my ATM card. the police showed up and told me to get in, which was a surprise. We proceeded to drive around the neighborhood looking for the 4 of them. They would drive slowly through the park and stuff and say..."is that one of them? how about her? what about him?"
At one point, the police got a radio call about an armed robbery at a store in the area and rushed over, drove onto the sidewalk and blocked the door with the front of the car and ran out with their guns in hand. They arrested a guy and put him into another car. We then drove around a bit more and went to the precinct and looked at photos and stuff. I did identify the girl through a very similar photo - I explained, that the hair was different so I couldn't be 100%, but it was very similar.
The irony was, I didn't have a dollar on me. They got my cellphone, keys, makeup, ID, subway card, and ATM/credit card that I cancelled before it was used, and possibly some change at the bottom of my purse. Replacing my drivers license and losing my ATM phone numbers are the big pains here.
I did have a dream that I beat them all up later that night though, its hard not to be a little angry. These 4 were dressed nice, looked like college students. Certainly capable of working, but total losers who hopefully get their ass beat one time they try this.
Jennifer Was mugged last night on Haight and Webster in San Francisco. Was headed home from a bar with a couple of old friends from high school when we were rapidly approaced by six black dudes from across the street. One held a large knife to my stomach and stripped me of all my valuables, while another guy held a pistol to my friends as they were getting jacked. They then told us to run and fired one shot towards us. This was my first time being mugged and it was truly a grim awakening to the realities of life in the big city. Especially funny, as I've lived in Tenderloin for the past few years and have never had any problems. I've never been mugged. But I'm 13, I like to take a walk around the neighborhood (when I can pull away from the computer, that is), and my neighborhood is a mixture of little kids, old couples, and (pre)teen punks. I see some kids hanging around once on a part of the park just across the street, where I usually walk. A few of them, maybe three (this was last year). They notice my rather conspicuous CD player (jammed into a jacket pocket through some sort of magic), ask what I'm listening to. "Beatles," or some other vague, semi-accurate answer. I probably seem like an easy target -- come on, a 5'8", 120-pound, 13-year-old 8th grade computer geek...how hard would it be to take my CD player, the only decent pair of 'phones I've got left, and a slightly skipping CD borrowed from the library? But they let me walk on. After a few dozen good yards, where I've got enough distance to move fast if I need to, and otherwise hide behind trees, I check back at the tree-shrouded spot where they were; I think I see them, then they're gone. Close call, I guess.
I've learned through natural instinct not to look at anyone my age or general peer group on the street; not to try to listen in to what they say; not to respond if they see me in semi-nice clothes and utter some insult in passing, looking for a good fight. I hate it. It goes against everything I try to do. I want to be more outgoing; nobody else in this mixed-up little neighborhood of mine shares my sentiments.
I'm at risk.
Jonathan A. {milesattacca@gmail.com} I have never been mugged, but, I know someone who was. She was a sweet, gentle 19 year old office worker who worked at the plant I did. She left her apartment one evening to jog, which she normally did. Down by the river, she was mugged, raped and beaten. I don't know the whole reason but, the police never could pick him up for this crime. But, we all knew who did it. A few months later, I saw him in another town hanging with some other street people, probably trying to score some drugs. I followed him to his obvious place where he stays. An abandoned building in this run-down area. I had a baseball bat with me. I found him in the basement and beat him to near death. Shattered both his knees, both elbows, broke both legs and both arms, tried to break all his ribs and did manage to break out all of his remaining teeth. In the process, he sustained a concussion and lost his left eye. He'll never walk straight again, never be able to run, and never be able to 'force' a woman of any size to submit to him again. I wish I could have ended his miserable life but, hey, thats against the law isn't it?
Anonymous {see above} I was mugged by 7 people and rushed to the hospital. They stomped my head in and stole my stuff....
Johnny I have had many attempted robberies(most of which I just walked away from, litterally walked!) and one successful.
The successful took place on a nice summer day behind my high school. I was walking to the lake to eat a pizza with two friends, when we were accosted by three men, about our age, one of whom I knew.
They asked us the usual, "do you have any smokes", "wanna by dope", and my favourite, "hey that pizza looks really good". Then the one guy I knew spoke up and said "I know these guys they're alright", and the three left.
About a minute later the two guys I did not know came back and said "we're still gonna have to take that pizza, or do you want to fight for it". I did not. I politely gave them the pizza, and asked if theyd like dipping sauce with it, which I had in my backpack.
And that was all, no violence luckily. I happened to be sporting a nice watch at the time, which was shimmering like hell in the sun, I'm not sure why they didnt take it. I suppose I have the one guy I knew to thank for that? =)
In all, I'm not bitter. It was just a pizza. I was a little anxious when going in that area for a small time, but I eventually got over it.
We can't let life's small mishaps get in our way, better just to move on and forget.
Bes {zell100_ff8@hotmail.com} June 2005 I am American who lives in Gibraltar. The Spanish border is a 10 minute walk. The bar scene is in the Spanish border town. I left my friends, started the walk to the border, 30 yards away, can see the Spanish police. I see 5 guys, early 20s walking towards me, thinking nothing of it. They were well dressed, probably out in Gib for the night. I didn't even look at them, one guy blind sided me, went straight to the ground, landing on the other side of my head. They started to beat the crap out of me, mostly speaking spanish, one guy in english 'give me everything, wallet, cell, watch' I had a clip wallet, as i pulled my wallet out I slid the cash off in thepocket. They got all my credit cards, Texas DL, cell...they kept kicking my, blood was gushing down my face, tried to pull the watch off, i I told them i can't get it bc you guys are beating the shit out of me. AL i said was please 100 times during the 30 to 45 seconds. They ran off, did not get the watch. As I walk down to the Spanish side border, blood was coming out more than ever, I didn't care, I had to get to Gib. They didn't say anything, they did not care. The Gib border police called me a cab to the hospital. That was another nightmare. Hour of waiting, bleeding wouldnt stop. Got stiches down my face. Huge knots all over my head, brooses everywhere. I thought they were going to kill me. Its been two days and my body is killing me. Scariest thing ever happened to me! Hey, they didn't get my 200 sterling. Bastards! It makes me feel better to get this story off my chest.
Regards to all.
A friend thinks I should file a report. Should I? What will that do?
bryan sheffield {bryansheffield@hotmail.com} Yeah, I was mugged. I can't even fucking go out of my apartment after dark now without thinking that some fucking asshole or assholes are going to do it again. I live in a different state and I still think someone is watching me. Yeah, I was mugged. May 31, 2005. North Florida. I work late and my parents had come down for the weekend. I was driving towards my apartment. It's not unusual to see people hanging out outside their apartments. Three blacks guys were in long, dark-gray sweatshirts and in really baggy jeans standing around a tree on the corner of a nearby apartment. I saw them but paid no attention because they were so far away. I parked my car in a usual place about 50 feet away from from the guys. I had just made 155 dollars that night (I was a server at a restaurant; I worked late.) I had just put the money in my purse. I was in my car for a minute and got out. Walking to my apartment one of the guys came quickly up to me. He was mummbling. I thought he was asking for money. I yelled at him telling him I didn't have anything. He came right up to me, then I saw the gun. It was a black pistol. He put it up to my left lung, right under my left breast. That's when I really heard what he said, "Give me YOUR FUCKING PURSE!" Over and over he said it. I pushed him off of me even after I saw the gun. I kept telling him to get off of me. With his left hand he tried to grab my purse. I had a good grip on it and he couldn't get it. Only until a second of the third guys came up behind me and started pulling on my purse. He got it when he broke the strap. As soon as my purse broke they started running away. I looked up at my apartment complex and no one saw what happened. Immediately, I began screamming, "help"! and I tried to chase after the three guys, but I have never seen anyone run like that. My parents heard me scream from 3 stories up. Luckly, I had my cell phone in my pocket and so I called the police. Well, I say lucky, what can the police do with this description: three black guys in gray sweatshirts and baggy jeans. I couldn't get a look at their faces because of the hoods over their faces and bad lighting in the parking lot. The rest is history. I hope they had (and I know they did) a fucking great time with the contents of my purse. 400 dollars cash, few tampons, wine key, the regular stuff. I hope they die from the crack pipe they bought with my fucking money. Yeah, I was mugged. May 31, 2005
jenn {twentyfourwithcurles@yahoo.com} My daughter and a male friend were mugged a couple of hours ago on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. They knocked her down, took her purse, beat the young man--she thought they were going to kill him. I am so sad and frightened for our culture.
anne {abz1@moose-mail.com} I was in South Beach earlier this year , I'm from the u.k & I was always knew the crime was bad in the states but i guess you always think it will never happen to you! Anyway , i was walking through a car park by the convention centre at 3am (Dumb I know) But i was with my friend Kerry , i heard running behind me & turned to see some black bloke running at me shouting something , my first thought was that he was just drunk but as another guy grabbed my friend & this Dick grabbed my bag it became a little too real , i never thought i'd fight back but it's just instinct , i held on to my bag for about 15 seconds , it felt like forever , my friend all the while was screaming at them 'WE HAVEN'T GOT ANY FUCKING MONEY' (as if they were going to apologise & leave- i think not) The guy got my back but only cos the strap broke , i didn't feel it at the time but the bruise the next day was from my armpit to my forearm , i was so freaked out i ran after him , He & another guy got into a car that had pulled up , i can't quite belive i did this but i threw myself through the window to get my bag back (didn't work! , The asshole was shouting at me & after a few seconds pushed me out the car & they sped off, he could have punched me or anything but i think he was shit scared himself. We had 2 witnesses who ran up when they heard me screaming , but they didn't see much. The police were shit & even trying to have a laugh with us , the ironic thing is that all that fell out of my bag was my cigarettes & my lighter , I needed that cigarette too! They didn't get my friends bag because it was the size of a small penciel case , They got away with my Drivers licence , Camera (with all my good photos) bank card & a discontinued lipstick! i was pretty pissed off when my mate was moaning about her broken £7 bracelet i can tell you! But i believe these guys are gonna continue doing it & eventually get there just desserts! i just wish i could be there to see it!
Lucy {Lucy_scrubs@hotmail.com} New York fucking sucks..........just today October 2005 I was mugged by 3 assholes near my home. For those arrogant guys that say or think they would do punch this or that if they were mugged you clearly haven't felt the mugging experience. Yes I could have fought my way out and stuff but guess what? all the years of martial arts (that is if you are a martial arts practitioner) you spent training on don't mean shit against a bullet or multiple bullets. We don't live in the freaking Matrix. This is real life and you only have one life to live. Granted I'm already half suicidal (other personal reasons) and crazy enough to defend myself. I could have grabbed my little key knife and stabbed the left one in the eye, elbow the big guy to the right, proceed to kick the guy in the front, then run to the area filled with people that was only a block away and they might do something to help. However, this area was near my home and if I injured them badly with any of the tactics I had in mind, they could stalk my neighborhood, and take it out on my family if they found out where I lived. These are the type of asses who would get revenge by summoning more of their posse on you if you make any eye contact with them. Took a few punches to the face but nothing severe yet I think. Maybe my jaw is broken. I'm not sure if it is or isn't yet. Well after they took like 15 bucks from me and ran. I find out there was one witness in the area that stood there doing nothing and just watched!!!!! sigh Called the police lot of good that will do. But I still wanted to notify them to at least be on guard for these 3 punks that worked together like a sports team since I can tell they will strike again on some other person. I could tell these guys had practiced their mugging on other people too. The police say they will write up a report but you know they want less paperwork. The two cops that came to my aid many minutes after the incident however did put on a good act for me. I have to give them credit for that. I doubt these assholes will get caught but hey one always does hope that they get to be the new "hole" for some scum in the nearest jail. This experience has gotten me thinking. Why the fuck are we stuffing criminals in a jail where they get free food and shelter coming from our tax dollars? The criminal might have a chance to get out and do their thing again too because of the oh so many corrupt lawyers. Shouldn't the food go to someone more deserving like the starving children in less fortunate parts of the world or hmm how about senior citizens? Food is wasted on criminals and they shouldn't be regarded as humans anymore. They should have all their limbs cut off and put to a slow agonizing death. Toss them in an oven or inject them with rat poison. I say death penalty for all the prisoners (that are proven guilty without a freaking doubt). Criminals these days don't have any fear in committing their crimes. Every prison is filled with new worthless pigs each day. These people are unfit to be in society so they should be sent to live amongst other convicts who get free food and shelter. Yeah that's real fair to the hard workers of the country who work to earn an honest buck to pay for their food, bills, rent, kids' education. Oh and for those religious or moralistic people that say death penalty is bad and shouldn't be done. Well let's see you get mugged or worse yet have a loved one killed, raped, etc. right before your eyes? I doubt love and compassion for that person or persons would be the emotion that you would be feeling at that moment. Give them a chance to reform? I don't think so. I don't believe in second chances for criminals anymore. If they were willing to kill for money or for fun, during that moment where their victim was filled with dread, then they don't give a crap about your life or any other life that happened to be in that area. All it takes is that one horrible experience to change your entire outlook on the world.
John I was once mugged on my way out of a movie theatre. I was with my freind, James, the type of freind you would choose last to be with you at a mugging. We were both walking to my car when we heard someone say, "Hey." We turned around to a oddly short man in tattered clothing holding a pistol, its point going from James to myself and back again. I instantly put my hands out towards him, "Whoa," I said. "What do you want?" He told me that, obviously, he wanted my money. I looked at James, and he was just standing there, stonefaced with his hands in his pockets, like this was an every day thing for him. "Fast," the man with the gun said. I took out my wallet and gave it to the man. The man took it then turned towards James, "Now you, buddy." James didn't make a move. "C'mon, I'll shoot ya!" James rolled his eyes. I was completley shocked, I wanted to scream at him, "You stupid fuck! You're going to get us both killed!" But instead I just thought it
James took no notice of my telepathic message however, and just started to smile at the guy. "what're you gonna do, huh?" James asked the guy. "Are you gonna shoot both of us, in the middle of a crowded parking lot. Are the couple of dollars we got in our wallets worth you getting arrested for murder?" The man with the gun moved his eyes from James to me. I just shrugged, wide-eyed. The man then turned back to James and said, "Your lucky day, buddy." and ran off. I looked at James and he looked at me and smiled. I punched him in his arm and we both got in my car to drive home.
Jon Snow Just to add to the last comment, has anyone else ever had a freind get them into a bad situation?
Jon Snow I was mugged this last weekend. I came home from buying some crap at the store, I was leaning in the car and grabbing my purse and bag when this black guy in a red shirt came up behind me and pointed a gun right at my left cheek bone. It was just pushing so hard right on my cheek. He said "Give me your purse bitch!" At first I didn't respond, I was so shocked. He yelled at me again. Then I gave him my purse and he walked away fast searching in my purse for money as he went. I didn't have any cash. He yelled at me "You don't have any money you bitch!" He was about twenty feet away from me. My phone and everything were in my purse. I was just trying to get in my house. Fortunately he didn't have my keys. I thought he might come after me, but no he just threw my stuff down and took off. I watched him take off, trying to remember what he was wearing and stuff. I never really got a good look at his face, just remember thinking he was a young punk asshole. After I couldn't see him anymore, I ran and grabbed my stuff, so I could get my phone. I called the police right away. Don't know if they will ever catch him. I didn't give a great discription. The parking lot was dark and it was so fast. There have been other reports of mugging in the same area with about the same description. I hate it.
Now, I feel like I can't go home or anything. I am living with my sister now, I don't think I will ever live there again. Every time I go back, which has only been a few, I relive the whole thing. I don't feel safe in my own home anymore. I live alone and that makes it worse. How can someone be so thoughtless and mean? My life will never feel the same. I have lost my security.
Ya know, the asshole did all of that and didn't even get anything. He didn't take any of my credit cards, nothing. He just wanted cash. He threatened my life for nothing. FREAKING ASSHOLE!!!!!
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Something like this can make you feel like you are all alone. It helped to read all of your reactions and everything.
Becca i was walking home after work at 3 am in chicago. usually my neighborhood is full of people, even at that hour, but that night it was dead. i started to feel creepy and run--then a man turned the corner walking toward me, rapidly crossed the street, then dashed back in a zig zag. my eye caught a silver pistol. i tried to run, but he was up on me with the gun to my head. he shoved me into a doorway and said to give him my purse. i peeed in my pants. then, i told him my money was in my pocket. i gave him my money-$30. then, he said, 'now give me the purse.'
i went completely beserk as i stared up into the gun. i started screaming like a four year old that i needed my purse and he couldn't have it.
he ran away and i called 911. Six police cars surrounded him. they found the gun, and he was out on parole for murder.
well, you'd think this was just swell, right? wrong. The mugger told the police that i was following him trying to buy crack. i was a crack whore.
the police questioned me for five hours. i had no criminal record, no parking tickets, NOTHING-- but they still thought i might be a lying crack whore.
they wanted to know what other names i had been arrested under, and warned me that if I was lying that i'd be in big trouble.
i went to court and testified. the public defender tried to make me out to be a crack whore.
hopefully, this guy will go to jail.
hopefully, i will not become a crack whore in jail right next to him just because some shit head cops would rather bust whores than murderers.
lotti {lotti_max@hotmail.com} I was mugged a month ago. It was 11pm, I had just gotten home from spending the day in DC with some friends. The apartment complex I live in was repaving the parking lots so the other lot next to my section of the complex was blocked off. All of the cars from that side had to park on my side thus there were no parking spots, so I had to park next to the entrance. As I was making my way up there a guy who lived in the building next to me had looked at me and kind of looked in the direction to the right of me, but I dismissed it. When I got out of my car and started walking towards my apartment building 4-5 black guys came out from between a van and started following me. I knew what was up and I didn't want to cross over to where my building is and have them follow me there, possibly getting anyone in my family hurt/robbed. So I turned around and said "whats up fellas." I kept walking a little bit but went slower and then stopped (my mistake). They then formed a circle around me and boxed me in. Two of them had bandanas over their faces, one a wave cap pulled over his face, and the other his hoody pulled over his head, his face which I could still see. The one to my immediate right asked me for my money, at which point I told him I didn't have any cash. I don't carry much cash on me as I am a broke college student and in case of events like this. I started pulling out my wallet and he said empty your pockets. I showed them that I didn't have any cash in my wallet, and then their focus went to the cell phone I had in my hand. I had been carrying my cell phone and car keys in my left hand the whole time. I asked them if I knew them, and this seemed to stall them and make them a little nervous. Then the guy asked for my phone, and I asked him if I knew him once again. Then oen of them asked if it was a Nextel, I told him no and then they said he aint got shit lets go. Then they turned around and as they were leaving the main one who had been speaking the whole time told me to not call the cops three times. I was so pissed and scared afterwards. I made sure that I was out of their pheripheral and made my way to my apartment building on the other side of the lot and called the police as soon as I got in. About 4 minutes later a police officer knocks on my door and asks me if I would mind identifying them...the police had them in custody. I went with the officer in his squad car and identified them from a little distance while I sat in the back and the other cop cars there shined their lights on them. Afterwards we drove back to my apartment complex and I wrote my statement. Afterwards the officer told me that I may have to testify against them in court, and that 3 of them were juveniles and 1 is an adult. So I get letters about the 3 juveniles in the mail but I haven't heard anything about the adult and it has been a month. I have to go to court in a week to testify against one of the minors. The bad thing is they live like 5 minutes away from me, probably on government assistance/section 8 or whatever as thats what I believe some of the condos/apts up that way are...it's really sad, it's black people like the ones who mugged me who make black people get perceived in a negative manner, even the majority who are hard workers and intelligent law abiding citizens...I'm afraid of retaliation, anyone have any advice for me?
Marcos {kicks101@comcast.net} Wednesday September 27, 2006.9:00pm. My husband and I were sitting in our garage talking…I had just put my three year old daughter to bed and she woke up and came downstairs and opened the garage door. I told her to wait in the living room and that I’d be inside in a minute to put her back to bed. We were just about to go into the house when this tall gansta looking black guy walked right up into our garage and approached us. He asked us if we knew where he could get some weed, we told him no and he just kept standing there and was acting funny, he started backing up like he was going to leave and then he said he needed us to help him out with something. Then another guy came up and he had on a red bandana on his face, the tall guy said in a real calm voice, ”You know what’s going on here, this is a robbery.”
At first we thought he was joking so we just sat there staring at him, then he said “Give me all of your money.” We realized he was for real and we told him we don’t have any cash on us (the truth) They made my husband stand up and checked his pockets and then they said “ What do you have in the house? Is there any money in there?” We said no, that we don’t carry cash. He said “We are gonna do this really calmly, no screaming and nobody will get hurt.” They told us to go into the house and that they were going to look around. I did not want them in my house. I told them I had a young child in there, thinking that might make them leave, but they still wanted to go in. They didn’t seem like they were violent or anything and they were really calm about it, so I figured that they were just going to look around, grab what they wanted and leave. We went into the house and I picked up my daughter. My husband and I were just standing there with our hearts pounding, adrenaline rushing....a million thoughts running through our heads. They stood there looking around and then the tall guy pulled out some gloves and as he was putting them on he looked at me and said “ I need you to put her down and come into the bathroom with me for a minute.” At that point I realized that they might be violent and possibly were going to rape me and do god knows what, I knew I had to get out of there, so with my child in my arms I bolted for the front door…as I was running out the front door, they were yelling for me to stop and pulled out a gun…my husband ran right out after me and we banged on all of the neighbors doors until someone let us in to call the cops.
Luckily they didn’t come after us, they just grabbed my purse and my husbands wallet from the coffee table and ran back out through the garage. I am just so glad that my daughter came downstairs when she did, because I don’t think I would have been able to leave if she was upstairs in bed, and I know I wouldn’t have had enough time to run up there and grab her.
The cops came out and CSI came out to dust for prints. My phone, house keys, mailbox key, only car key and all of my I.D.’s and wallets were in my purse...And I had about $150.00 worth of makeup in my purse that I will have to replace. Nothing they can even use..they just wasted their time. Like i told the dumbasses to begin with...we didn't carry cash.
I am just pissed that there are people out there who turn to crime and theivery instead of getting a real job, they don't understand the stress that they cause the people they mug. It's a big ordeal losing your wallet with all of your licenses and cards and having to go through and replace everything....and my daughter is traumatized now..she keeps asking me why the strangers had a gun to her daddy's face and why were they in our house. She doesn't understand. I just think people like that are pathetic and it pisses me off.
Jennifer {xadamnjenx@aol.com} |
