Thursday, November 09, 2006

Robbery in motion- off the bus onto the tube

So I am on the tube and I see 5 young "yobs" which is the best description of hooded 18-20 year olds travelling in a pack causing trouble. They push through the train and I go back to reading.

They get off at my stop and threw something at a young woman and banged on the tube doors.

I'm usually reading a book, but I decide this is a better time to be wary, put my book away, place my bag over my shoulder properly, and uncap my pen and hold it in my fist inside my pocket.

I check into the tube to see the two bewilldered girls and look back up at the youth laughing and then running up the stairs.

I follow warily, and they cross the street in front of me. The blockbuster they tried to go into is closed, and I walk past them, checking inside the windowpanes for anyone getting close to me. I'm not nervous, but calculating.

I see a young woman with a large cary bag on my left going to her car as I walk past and I think to myself, dangerous target, I hope she is wary too. I kept going.

I'm half a block away and I hear the pelting and running of the youth, laughing as they rush past me, followed quickly by screams for help "I'll give you anything, money, whatever you want, pleeaaaseee" she continuously screams.

I run after the youth half heartedly, trying to keep contact and within visual range, but aware I'm all by myself, with a bag, a plastic pen, and a nice suite...

A truck pulls in with two guys looking out, I wave at them, they are around the corner, and I rush in... it's a blind alleyway, 5 little criminals, darkness, and me. I stay back. The guys in the truck observe then drive away.

I walk back and two of the young guys are lurking in the bush, I move towards them and they run off... neither had the bag, what's the point?

Now a little group of people gather around the frantic woman, it has all her keys, wallet, all her work on her laptop, she is alone... no shoes on.

We're standing there and a yobbish looking bloke tries to saunter out across the green, the place they had run into was a culdesac, the only exit was to launch over a security fence onto the tube lines. I can't recognize him, but I stop him. He gets irrate with me. I tell him he looks like one of the guys who was part of it. He claims innocence, gets angry with me for accusing him of "looking like a criminal" and says "he would never cause a young woman so much misery" he then asks for a fag and one of the guys gives him one, some of the women who have gathered apologize to him and say no one was accusing him.

I walk up and say, "what are you doing here."

"Visiting a friend."

"What is his name?"

"Punch you..."

"Go ahead, that would make things a lot easier."

"Charlie Hackle, punch you is his tag."

"Fuck off."

He goes around and mingles and then walks off. I'm annoyed, I should grab the fucker, but really, what's my interest? He'll deny it, no one saw him do anything, he has no bag on him, the victim doesn't recognize him... Still I should have grabbed him till the cops came, the others aren't as keen though.

The cops come, calm the lady down. I go to the tube station to see if any of them have tried to go back.

We mill around waiting for the cops, but they don't need any statements unless we actually witnessed the snatch. None of us have. I offer to escort the attractive blonde home, she's nervous. I give her my card, we walk, she's from Brazil, USA, Birmingham. She'd never been robbed once in Brazil, or in the states, in Birmingham she was mugged twice and burgled once.

An aspiring actress, was rather pleased to meet her. But I'm still aggravated. I made the right calculation, the 5 of them could have beat me down and probably enjoyed caving my head in, but I was still tempted to run in, although I am pretty certain most people would have watched me get shit kicked.

I have decided I did what I could, that I would have done more if a vigilante crew had formed, but my philosophy of a fight is finish the fuckers hard, so I'd probably be in a jail cell with a ruined suit and a black eye with the laptop still gone, and my bag too...

So I've decided next time I'm in a situation like that I'll aim for a preventative approach. I'll take the warnings and stay with the woman instead of walking past and minding my own business. I knew she was a good target, and I should have taken responsibility for that.

Still hoping the attractive brazilian girl gives me a call...

16 comments:

  1. yup - you shouldve offered to help carry her bags early on and the whole incident wouldnt have happened...

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  2. She was 27, it was one bag, she was next to her car, it was parked outside the tube station, directly across the street. Not exactly a "can I hold your bag" kinda situation.

    I could have walked slower, maybe checked out the store window. She'd probably have thought I was stalking her, but then at least she would have been wary.

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  4. That is a horrid story but as lovely as I'm sure you are I imagine that as you mentioned a girl would be very wary of a guy hanging around (even in a nice suit) and perhaps wouldn't jump with joy over the offer to carry her bags for her.

    igotlife, I can imagine you offering to carry her bags then getting completely fucked off telling her that she was ungrateful when she said no!

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  5. unique forms - she was a woman so would clearly have been very receptive to my attention!

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  6. Anonymous1:41 pm

    If only there were more guys in the world that actually cared about us single women on their own! Luckily I've never been mugged, but I have been in situations where I've felt threatened by odd balls around me and I would have welcomed someone like you to rescue me as it were! You could have stayed with her from the beginning, but we all have a self preservation instinct and maybe there was something in your subconcious telling you to stay away? Obviously that chaged, but in that first instance you did what made you feel comfortable at the time... Well done!

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  7. I guess its just VERY difficult for a woman to evaluate whether the guy offering help is genuine or is the odd-ball themself?

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  8. Anonymous4:04 pm

    I think you have hit the nail on the head!

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  9. Hold on though...This was doing my head in a few years ago so I bought 10 rape alarms and gave them to my closest female friends...I'm not even sure if they bother carrying them all the time (except for my sister)

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  10. I know what you are saying "who am I" even the girl I escorted home at the end was a bit wary.

    I'm a big believer in fearlessness, but calculated risks. I've had my head kicked in enough times to know self preservation isn't high on my agenda- but being smart is still there.

    I agree that subconsciously I was hoping nothing would happen, life is just easier that way.

    I spoke to someone after who delayed his reaction because the last time he got involved he ended up in hospital with a smashed up skull.

    I'd like a better total vigilante attitude, where everyone gets involved quickly... then we could actually trust the involvement of others. But we can't, I was running into the alley way on my own...

    Those rape alarms might draw a crowd to a victim, but wouldn't really be much good I don't imagine, unless the perpetrator ran off. Funny how crims natural instinct is to run.

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  11. Anonymous7:23 pm

    I genuinely hate Australians. I do, really. not all of them, of course, because I haven't got the chance to meet every single one of them on the face of the Earth. If anyone knows a truly good Australian, I would love to meet him/her, because that would probably lessen the hatred towards Australian, that have grown in abundance in me. And I am a person who isn't very likely to feel hatred towards others, so take very good notes of that.

    Most of all, I despise Australian women. Not the little girls, they are as cute as any other child in the world, but they tend to grow into women who do this for most of their lifetime:

    1. They drink until they have no self respect. Disgusting ugly creatures.
    2. Of course when they don't even respect themselves, who are stopping them from not respecting others? hence the next issue;
    3. Racism. This applies to women AND men, woo what a surprise
    4. They are unbelievably loud, and can't (or won't, for reasons I never really understand), speak and write English properly. Honestly this is hilarious.
    5. They think they are better than others, they would do anything to stomp others and humiliate them, when they are actually humiliating themselves
    6. The girls have no shame, throwing themselves to boys and race in having as much dicks possible in them in their lifetime
    6. Their number one purpose in life would be to have ridiculous amount of fun, spending money that they don't have, going to Bali and fucking as many locals possible, playing with their hearts and using them before disposal. When I went to Bali, all the other tourists were just peaceful to look at, just pleasing. And then there were the Aussies, shamelessly getting drunk on the side of the road trying to punch the life out of each other even when they're actually friends. I know for a fact that Bali is a peaceful and respected place, and when I saw this I wanted to stab these stupid fuckers to death for disrespecting the Balinese people and polluting the road with such undesirable scene. That is such a shame. If I were a government representation there I would kick your asses out of the island because you are all such a DISGRACE.


    My suggestion would be isolating yourselves (Australians of course!) in your desert-filled country and never go out of it, since they all think that their country is all rocket science. We do not need your money, contribution, even your FACES to be displayed anywhere in the rest of the world. Please, do the right thing and drown yourselves in Bondi Beach :)

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  12. Sarcaustic7:26 am

    You guys actually have time to think about this stuff let alone write about it on a website!!?!! Go and find a job for everyone's sake, including your own! PS I'm an Aussie. Mwhoohaha!

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  13. Anonymous2:17 am

    all the Australians using swear words and condescending the other people on this blog just proved this guy point

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  14. Im Australian and i love each and every one of you. Enjoy life my brothers and sisters! P.s I love you and all your irrelevance, we are all slowly dying. ENJOY!

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  15. Im Australian and i love each and every one of you. Enjoy life my brothers and sisters! P.s I love you and all your irrelevance, we are all slowly dying. ENJOY!

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  16. Anonymous4:21 pm

    Omg... Really? To everyone that's a Brit on this site where did Aussies come from??? Dumbasses seriously and also you can't talk about racism against native populations if your American of British or most major European counties as they have all been colonial or conquered there native populations

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