What I Wish I’d Known Before Getting Mugged
I was 16 at the time. I had spent the day and most of the evening at my first ever girlfriend’s house and I was feeling good. I had got off the bus at McDonald’s as I always did and then proceeded to walk the final ten minutes home. I got about a minute down the road when a voice from behind me sneered:
“Alright mate, can I have your phone?”
I had never been in a situation like this. My mind whizzed back to what I had learnt at school. Stand up to bullies came to mind. This guy was bullying me. It wasn’t in school, but it had to work the same, right? So, I told him firmly “no” and carried on walking.
He kept following me. That’s ok I told myself. This isn’t going to work the first time, it rarely does. Be even more firm, I told myself. So, I told him again.
“No”.
Then he started to get angry, and I realised this was not the same as facing a school bully.
His voice changed. He wanted that phone. It was then I knew that saying no wasn’t going to work. I didn’t know what to say to him to make him stop. I started to plead. And it was then I truly realised that the world does contain some truly awful people.
“Nah mate, I want your phone”.
He started to count. I pleaded harder.
“Just leave me alone. Please.”
“Three”.
“Please…”
“Two”.
I didn’t let him get to one. My instincts kicked in and I ran. I got about a few strides in before his hands clasped around my mouth from behind. We wrestled as I struggled to break free. We crossed the road as I tugged and pulled. I managed to get one cry of help out. But the road was quiet, no one was about.
We eventually stopped our struggle halfway down the other side of the road. He asked for the phone again. I looked down the road and saw people approaching. For a brief second, I thought people were coming to help. For a brief second, there was hope. Hope, until my eyes focused and I realised it was a group of about ten people, some my age, some younger, some older. The attacker asked again.
I struggle to explain what happened next. Perhaps it was because everything I had been told and thought before was wrong, and my world got that slightest bit darker that day. But I didn’t want to let him win. I was too stubborn. Foolish and stubborn because I did not know any better.
“Take the fucking phone then!”
I threw my phone onto the pavement below. It smashed into pieces, and as my attacker realised what I had done even before I myself did, he swung at me with his fist. I remember not feeling any pain. I guess because of the adrenaline. But blood dripped from my mouth, and in that moment, I suddenly knew what to do.
I ran.
I ran as fast as I could all the way home, tears pouring from my eyes as blood dripped out of the now open wound. I remember the look on my mum’s face as she opened the door, a look I don’t think I will ever forget. Nor will I forget how she held me as she sobbed. But there was only one thing going through my head. Can some people truly be this evil?
It all sounds like some fictional short story, but the truth is this all happened to me one night on my way back home in Brentford, London. We hear about people getting mugged all the time on the news. But that’s what it is these days. Just another news story. “That’s awful,” they say. “Bloody youths,” some others say. But they sigh and tut, and then the same thing happens again tomorrow and the same things are said. To attempt to put it into perspective, the total number of personal robberies in London in 2012/2013 was 32,335*. That’s just London, plus one must remember that these are only the ones that are reported to the police. Some people become too afraid to report it to the police, and It was only after much insisting from my mum that we reported my mugging to the Police. As such, the number of muggings that occur is in fact much higher. I got lucky that I got away from it all with only a bust lip. Some people do not always get so lucky.
I didn’t know what to do in that situation because nobody had told me what to do. Perhaps therein lies part of the problem. I know now the best thing is to just do what they say and get out of there as fast as you possibly can. I know that now, from experience. But I shouldn’t, and nor should anyone else have to have it happen to them in order to know how to best handle the situation.
You are taught about safe sex, drugs etc. at school, why aren’t young people taught how to be streetwise and what to do if they are ever mugged? We as a society seem content to shelter young people from the dangers they could actually face out in the world. Parents all want to keep their children from danger, but ensuring their children know what to do in these situations is also so very important these days. Mugging, sadly, is not that something that can be eradicated. There will always be people in this world who don’t understand right and wrong. But if we can be more open and more knowledgeable on the topic of muggings, there can hopefully be a new and continued generation of young people who have the knowledge on how best to deal with these awful situations they may find themselves in. Don’t leave it to experience.
- Stats are from Metropolitan Police Service Crime Mapping website, found at http://maps.met.police.uk/tables.htm
With thanks to Elena Iodice
