How To Avoid A Mugging

A little while ago I was out eating with my parents and a bunch of people my mom works with at an awesome Italian restaurant on the north side of Chicago. We ended up leaving around 1 or 2 in the morning and had to take the red line (I think it was the red) down to Michigan and Roosevelt. We get on the train, and it is filled with shady characters. Thankfully, though, they all seemed pretty content focusing on their own problems and not us. We did not fit in there at ALL!

My mom is totally oblivious to her surroundings, which is normal for her, but I’m just kind of keeping an eye on the crowd. After all, it’s around 2 AM, we’re on the mobile apartment of Chicago, and some of these people just did not look right. As I said, though, everyone was minding their own business and there are no problems.

There was a cop on the train for a little bit, and as soon as he got off, two people lit up cigarettes. My mom’s a heavy smoker, but tries to be courteous (when she notices) to others with it and is very outspoken. Probably where I got it .

The two people who lit up were very different. The first one to light the smoke looked like the cliché crack head. Gangly, completely out of it, missing teeth all over the place, dirty, and just didn’t look good. He was probably in his early 40s, too. The other person was a drunken college kid. In his 20s, goatee, trying to look tough, and lights up a smoke when he sees the other guy doing it.

Then I hear some terrifying words. “I’m going to ask them to stop.” Already knowing the battle is over, I try to explain to her that this is not the situation to do something like that. Her response? “I’m going to do it.”

And she does. The college kid, after being berated by this dumpy middle-aged woman, looks embarrassed and puts his treat out right away. The other guy’s response is…slightly less civilized. This guy starts out angry, and starts building off of it. Every word you can imagine starts flowing out of this guy’s mouth at my mom. I think she defended her statement at first, so this guy stands up. Crap, he’s at least 7 feet tall, towering over us, spewing forth filth from his mouth.

We ignore him, and he goes back to his seat, and starts trying to rally the other people on the bus. Making comments like, “who does this white bitch think she is to tell [I]us[/I] what [I]we[/I] should do on [I]our[/I] train?!” He told the other kid who was smoking to pick it up, start smoking it again and “F#$% that fat bitch!”

This was just going from bad to worse, and my mom is totally oblivious. Thankfully, Roosevelt was the next stop, so he didn’t have much time to rally up a mob. Plus, everyone on the train was actively trying to ignore this guy. One guy was looking at us with a pretty dirty look, but it didn’t look like he was going to get much support; most saw him as just a complete dink.

The train stops and we go to get off. I look over my shoulder as I step off, and the guy’s still sitting there. Whew! We get off the train and start walking to the stairs to get outta there. I check behind me again, and there he is as the train pulls away, face like a storm cloud, staring at my mom as he walks towards us.

At the time this happened, I had been going to a private instructor for martial arts for about 2 years. I was at that super dangerous point where I started getting the basics down pat and thought I could take anyone and their army.

I lean over to my mom (she’s about a foot shorter than I am, so I gotta lean ) and tell her to keep going towards the exit. There is usually a cop up there, but where we were there was zero visibility from the upper floor. It also turned out that the cop wasn’t there that night, either. She looks behind her, sees the guy, and looks over at me with a huff saying, “quit it Jake, the world isn’t as dangerous as you and your dad seem to think it is.” (When this was recounted to my dad, I heard about 10 similar stories from him about her.)

I tell her to just go, she huffs, and starts walking towards the stairs. The other guy is still coming. I turn around, stop, and just stare at him as my mom starts to walk off. He sees me standing there. It looked like it was the first time he noticed my mom wasn’t walking away from the train alone, because he was a little taken aback before he responded with, “what the f$^# is your problem, cracker!?” I didn’t say a thing, just continued to stare at him. As he got closer to me, he started to slow down, and I sidestepped to block his view of my mom and get in his way.

You could see the conflict that was taking place in his mind on his face. He really seemed to want my mom dead, but he was unsure about me. He started to step forward, looked behind himself (I can only imagine to see if anyone else from the train followed him), screamed some obscenities at my mom, looked at me and yelled, “And F&%$ You, too, man! F%$$ you!” Then, he turned around and walked back to the end of the platform.

I joined my mom at the top of the stairs, glancing over my shoulder to see what he was doing because I didn’t see any exit in the direction he had turned. She, apparently, had watched the whole thing. “Hmm…Maybe that was worse than I thought…”

So, not really how to avoid a mugging, but I have to say that I have gotten out of some really nasty situations without any violence breaking out just by making that person (or persons) question if there is really a threat in front of them. The muggings I have avoided have all been through observation (seeing them before they get to you; it’s usually pretty easy to see when you’re a mark) and intimidation (when 4 guys tell you to give them your money, you say no, they ask if you want all 4 of them to kill you, and you respond with a big grin and a nod, they seem to assume you’re either packin’ heat or another Neo).

Hope y’all enjoyed this retelling of a wonderful event that took place several years ago that popped into my head as something that would be fun to post on BTS as I was coming back from lunch! Rock, rock on!

Wow, just wow!!!! Glade you and your mom made it out all right!

gosh Gald all turned out ok there,

The only hints i have heard is ...

Always keep your head up as this makes you look confident, walk with a good posture and dont look like an easy target,

the reasons are that the robber wants to rob you and get away quick, he dont want too much hassle, so intern look for a person who looks more of an easy target,

and the other thing is just be awear of your surroundings, be observant like you were so you can spot a possible situation before it happens.

Normally when I'm walking in Chicago late at night taking back alley shortcuts, my attire keeps the muggers away. Not sure why, but a person walking down the street with a doc martin on their head, a floaty ring with a ducky on the end around the waist, flippers, an overcoat and plaid (red and green) pants along with a bazooka over the shoulder keeps them away. Can't figure that one out

(For an extra 5 bonus points, name what I just described!)

I have actually visited D.C. on a trip with a bunch of my friends. Everyone split up into groups of 2 (there was about 20 of us). The time we were suppose to leave was about 2:00PM.

So me and my friend were just walking around, checking out the place. *NOTE: She used to live in D.C. so she pretty much new the place by the back of you hand* We visited some really cool musuems, hand some soda and then it was about time to leave.

We were walking back to the meeting spot when I saw this "begger" with torn sleeves and greesy hair and a bucket just sitting there waiting for someone to give him money. I had about 100 bucks in my pocket and wasn't going to just give it away. But my friend here was used to it and she just pulled out a couple bucks and looked at me like, "Just give him the damn money so we can leave". I guess somehow I grabbed a few dollars and put it in the bucket and the "begger" said a long sad thank you and we walked away.

We came acrossed another, which seemed to be a wanna-be....he had white paint all over his close and a pretty nice looking hat on and his feet were covered in a blanket. I took her to the side and said, "Look, it's kind of akward to just give my money away to some stranger that probably already has money." She replied, " Look, just give him a few dollars so we wont have any trouble". I was sick and tired of this so I wiped out ALL of my money in anger right infront of the "begger" that has NO money and started searching through for some dollars.

About 10 seconds into that, I realized ( stupid me ) that my money was in clear sight of this stranger. It was too late for me to put the moneyback in my pocket, so I quickly grabbed three dollar bills and handed it to the "begger". He said thank you and just when we were about to leave he grabbed my arm and said, " I saw you had a little more money than this, maybe you could give me a bit more...." He was not really intimidating, just a little smelly. My friend looked at me and said to the "begger", "Look, you got all that you're going to get, now either you take it or we call the cops and then you will have no money plus you will probably be sent to jail."
*Side note: she took tikwan doe and had currently graduated as a black belt, so if she had to put the moves on him, she would!
The "beggar" slowly took his hands off of me and let us go our own way.



Moral of the story: Always take a friend with you no matter where or what time it is...even if you know the place and have lived their for years. You never know what's around the corner!

hehe and don't flash your wad

I usually keep some extra cash in a different pocket than my wallet so I can just reach in there to give to folks. That way, it looks like I'm going to where my money is, and they'll see it's just several singles if they catch a glimpse of it. No point trying to mug a 6' feller over $5 more. I have had them grab me and ask me if they could have more if I don't give them all of it, though. I usually just say something like, "no, I can't; I have to get home somehow." Technically, it's totally true They just drop it, or add an aw, come on, maaan, but that's it.

Ahh, ain't city life great?

Thank god I don't have to worry about that! I'm a counrty girl!!!