My Personal Mugging Experience

Crime As I Know It...

        “The bar scene is not my thing.” I remember making that statement long before the incident occurred. It happened late summer of 2003. My boyfriend took me to a bar named Sinibar. He is older than me, and was a regular at that bar. That made it easy for him to get me in. I was eighteen at the time. I was anxious to go out and mingle with the older crowd. I tried to go out several times with my girlfriends. I was told repeatedly that it was dangerous. The crowd out on Friday nights didn’t seem to think it was dangerous. The only way I was allowed out long was with my boyfriend.

        I was extremely excited. I bought a new outfit, fixed my hair, and did my nails. I made sure the locks on my jewelry were secured and that my clothes weren’t wrinkled.

We left to the bar at about 10 p.m. that Saturday night. We left from the bar a little after midnight. I wish we would’ve just waited a few more minutes. As we walked out of the bar, there was a line forming. It was rather cold outside. I held close to my boyfriend to keep warm. Neither of us had jackets. I had a sleeveless top on. We had walked quite a distance from the bar. The sidewalk was narrow. Whenever a group of people were walking opposite us, I would walk behind my boyfriend to allow room for the other people. Our hands were still intertwined.

        Once we arrived at the street where the car was parked, we turned the corner. It was pretty dark down the street. As soon as we turned, I saw a shadow coming towards us. I instinctively drew behind my boyfriend to let the figure pass. After that I froze. The figure came at me and yanked my chain from my neck. He did it casually , as if no crime was being committed. I made no noise, nor move. My boyfriend didn’t realize what happened until he felt himself pulling me. He turned and saw me, stone-faced. The shadow had pulled the chain so hard that it skinned my neck. I had nail marks on my chest from it. My boyfriend quickly went after the guy. I still hadn’t moved. It was when I saw another man coming with a golf club that I ran to them. I started screaming “ Stop it, you assholes! Leave him alone.” I jumped in between them, Thankfully, they weren’t fighting yet. My boyfriend told me to run and get out of the way. I couldn’t listen to him. There were two guys, and one had a club. I didn’t care what he was saying to me. I just kept trying to pull their attention away from my boyfriend. The two guys circled my boyfriend and started saying “ Come on punk, fight! Tough ass, let’s see!” It was hard to make sense of the actions occurring. Not only because of the darkness, also the shock I had frozen into. It didn’t seem real to me. I didn’t care about the necklace. I just didn’t want anything crazy to happen.

        I started looking around and saw a black Chevy Blazer watching. I quickly knew they weren’t going to help. That is where the guy with the club came out of. I knew it was going to get worse. I started screaming “There are the cops, HELP!” There really were no cops around. It made t he two guys instantly take off into the truck. My boyfriend hadn’t seen the blazer, so he had no intentions to look for plate numbers. I was so glad they left that I ,also, made no attempt to jot them down.

        After the car sped off. My boyfriend began yelling at me. “Why wouldn’t you get out of the way? Next time run. I would’ve gotten your necklace back!” As I heard his words I felt horrible inside. I knew why he was so focused on retrieving the necklace. The necklace had a charm that was a half a heart. The words big sister were engraved on it. My little sister had the other piece. I wore that charm everyday since she was born. Nine years later, it was torn from me.

        We continued to walk to the car, I was crying. I was extremely fearful that the guys would be waiting at the end of the street for us. Thankfully, they weren’t. Once we drove off, we saw cops. We stopped and told them what happened. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough information for them to lead on. I couldn’t even remember what the guys looked like. Everything was just a blur to me.

        My night ended terribly. It scares me to know that you really aren’t safe anywhere. After that, I always made sure my jewelry wasn’t flashy. I didn’t want that incident to repeat itself. I carry mace with me at all times. My life changed over a night’s span. I hate that I walk at night and look behind my back repeatedly. What I hate more is that a single individual had the power to do that to me.