A guy just grabbed me on the street, scary, never happened to me before

[soleft]

I was late for work so I figured I'd be really late and stopped for a coffee, then I was cutting down this side street, still kind of half asleep and not very alert.

Suddenly this guy jumped out from behind some boxes and grabbed my arm. First he asked for money then he said he wanted my coffee.

My reaction was so odd, I kept saying "Sir, sir" like I was trying to point out to him that his behavior was inappropriate.

Finally I was just able to run across the street and get away. Needless to say I feel very alert now, still kind of shaky tho.

[Seneca]

1. whew

What a horrible interlude to your morning. Glad you made a quick getaway. :-(

[StaggerLee]

2. whoa

Anything can happen at any given time no matter how alert or aware.
Desperation can be ugly.

I am so glad you're ok Soleft.

:hi:

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. obviously

The guy was in need of some decaf.

:)

Glad you're okay.

[underpants]

7. Yeah some decaf right in his face

soleft good to hear you are alright.

[La_Serpiente]

4. I always give money to homeless people if they ask

But if they are hostile to me or even touch me, I am like, "Boy, get yo hands off me before I lay the smackdown on ya'!!!

[GOPisEvil]

5. Holy smokes!

Scary! Glad you're ok. :scared:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. I would counsel...

Learning how to at least break a grip(quite simple), if not learning to effectively defend yourself. Effective Self-Defense is a life skil that is too often discarded. It is every persons right and, in fact, responsibility, to learn how to protect themselves effectively.

You will not always have a gun, knife or other over-mystified tool at hand. But you can still protect yourself.

[soleft]

8. I actually have a blue belt in taekwondo

If flight hadn't done the trick...but I better get my ass back to class.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Yes m'am...

Get yer' happy ass back to class. ;-)

On edit: Do not, repeat, DO NOT let a small amount of knowledge of martial arts lull you into some false sense that your skill level ensures effective self-defense. Ask your Sabum. ;-)

Also: Don't attempt to kick someone in the head, on the street. A good fighter will usually eat a high-kicker's lunch, in a real confrontation. Having one's lunch eaten in a real confrontation is a Really Bad Idea.

[jonoboy]

10. my girlfriend

just came back from visiting New York were she was walking back to her hotel near Washington Square at 3am.

A guy was shuffling towards her in the deserted square..when he was about 10 feet away from her 2 guys jumped from out of the bushes and grabbed him.
They were cops and under his coat he was holding a ten inch carving knife.

[soleft]

11. Holy shit

I actually live a few blocks from Washington Square Park. I know after midnight the cops try to keep the Park empty, looking out for drug dealers and stuff. Wow, glad she's okay. I always feel so bad when people come to town to visit, or have just moved here and horrible things happen to them.

[jonoboy]

12. oh no

she still loves New York but she loves New York cops as well now

[number six]

13. oddly enough...

When I used to live in Glasgow, I was walking along Sauchiehall Street and some random guy punched me in the face. I would have hit him back but I was just stunned, rabbit-like. Maybe someone out there watched Pay It Forward a little too much!

[corarose]

14. That's frightening!

Sorry, to hear about what you just went through.

What city do you live in?

[soleft]

16. NY, it was down in the Wall Street area

After talking to some coworkers, they've relayed incidents they've had on that street, and I remember hearing about a woman was mugged there after hours a few years back. It's kind of a back street no one really goes down even tho there's a Holiday Inn up the block.

Now I'm coming down off the adrenaline rush, feel a little out of it.

[corarose]

17. OMG

That is scary.

I was on the L about one month ago at 7:PM coming back from Ikea in Chicago and I had sat in the back because I didn't want anyone to see that I had teeth missing.
Two Large guys got on the L and sat in the two seat by me. One of the guys weighed at least 400 pounds and I am not kidding. The other guy was 6'4 and skinny.
My heart was beating out of my body because they asked me what time it was and they kept looking at each other. I knew something was going to go down and I am short and I didn't know what to do.
I sat on the L for about 7 stops and we had to go past very bad sections of town and I kept thinking what and I going to do. I can't afford a cell phone right now so I just couldn't think of what to do and the whole time I was panicking on the inside but keeping my cool on the outside.
Finally we arrived downtown Chicago and a couple of people got on the train and they were small like I am. The fat guy stood up and blocked me from leaving the train and I didn't know what to do so I pushed him and walked past him and I went to sit by the people who got on the L.
I was too afraid to get off of the L because I knew they were going to attack me. When I got up to Clark & Lake which is a busy stop I bolted out of the train and into a crowd of people.
The whole time I was shaking and I went to the people at the booth upstairs and they said that 2 guys were robbing people on the trains.

A couple of nights ago I heard on the News that a man was stabbed by 2 guys on the blue line L and that's the one that I was on.
I hope that they got the two young jerks and put them in jail.

[northzax]

21. I sure hope you reported this

after the stabbing. You might be the only person who can identify the cretins.

[Crewleader]

15. It's happen to me soleft

luckily in the daytime too.

When I lived on the beach I could actually walk the beach to work and even go off the beach get some groceries and that day I was carrying one brown bag.

I was just exiting the beach for the street where I lived to the apartment house in view but no one was on the street but this tall dark long haired man in his late twenties and so was I.

He came up to me so friendly and I've always have a nature to be helpful to anyone, when he asked for the time my wrist watch was on the arm I carry the bag, so I switched over to the right carrying it to lift my left arm to look at my watch for the time. When I did that he grabbed on to my left breast with a big grin that was very scary. My reaction was of anger, I dropped the grocery bag and back off screaming and ready to kick at him and yet hoping someone would hear but that day the wind was strong and would drown out any sound but he knew I was not going to let him touch me again I was damn pissed. He headed for the beach as I'm still yelling at him as I walked quickly to get on the phone and call the police and I even gathered up the groceries too.

The police picked me up in their crusier and search the area, did not see him but the officer pointed at everyone asking if it was him, to the cable man,guy cutting a lawn and Florida Power & Light man on a pole and I certainly didn't want to make any error even though I was pretty shaken afterwards because in the area with his facial and body descriptions was a man raping women. In my gut feeling it was the same man, but luckily it wasn't at night or my story would of been different too.

To this day it taught me to be more careful when someone approaches me, I am more aware for my own well being that the world does have some sick individuals in it and you have be ready for anything.

You be careful friend. :hug:

[soleft]

18. Crew and Corarose, I'm even more pissed off about California now

I was sick on an intellectual level that Schwarzeneggar's actions were ridiculously minimized. Now I feel like, if I was that scared that someone grabbed by arm, I can't imagine what it must feel like to have someone of such a greater size intimidate me, or someone grab my breast. And I'm still weirded out by my reaction, "Sir, sir" What the hell was that? My girlfriend just said I was so polite, like Jackie O responding to a mugging, but without the hat.

[cally]

19. I'm glad you're OK

You responded perfectly because you are now safe and not harmed. :bounce: I am so angry that we are not safe and we have to always be observant. :hug:

[HEyHEY]

20. What a sad state of affairs we live in when you get mugged for a coffee

;-) glad you're okay soleft

[geniph]

22. Happened to me some years ago, too

and my reaction was also not at all what I'd have thought. I was waiting for a bus and this gigantic man, must have been at least 300 pounds, grabbed one of my thumbs and started lecturing me about "you teenagers today" (I was about 17 at the time). He had a deathgrip on that thumb and he was easily three times my size. There were a lot of people at the bus stop, and obviously, none of them had a clue what to do either. I finally, in desperation, said, "Oh, that's my bus!" and fortunately, he let go my thumb and turned to look at the bus, which I jumped on instantly (it wasn't my bus, but I got off two blocks later to wait somewhere ELSE for my bus!). I don't know what I'd have done if he hadn't let go - I couldn't have made him let go.

My only suggestion when things like that happen is to get loud and make it clear that this person does not have your permission to be touching you. "LET GO OF ME" at the top of your lungs is good; then a passerby might intervene. It's not the time to be polite when you're being assaulted, but you don't want to get physical if you don't have to, either, not with an unknown quantity who might be able to turn you into applesauce.

[soleft]

23. we have a running joke in my family

when we want to distract someone, we say, Look the Hindenburgh! I'm not sure how that got started, but it also reminds me of when I was a kid the neighborhood bully had me cornered against a house, and all I did was say, Hey look, he turned and I bolted. Amazing how that works, glad your thumb is okay.

[geniph]

24. It takes a lot of the starch out of you

when something like that happens. I thought I was oh-so-tough before that because I was a down-&-dirty streetfighter with other kids, but I was so helpless when that behemoth latched on that it really taught me a lesson about being a small female in a world of large, predatory males. It works the same even if you are a martial arts expert - you have no way of knowing that the oversized lunatic assaulting you didn't get a black belt before his cerebral moorings came adrift.

I'm glad you're okay. It's a very scary thing to have happen.

Women have a tendency to be unwilling to use their voices, which should always be the first line of defense. "NO!" "LET GO OF ME!" "GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" - women are afraid to make a scene and really YELL those things, but we have to learn to do it - the cops say most of the time when a woman yells, a casual assaulter will back off. When I took a self-defense class, that was one of the things they were working with us on, and it amazed me how many of the women could not just holler "NO!" and sound like they meant it. (I, on the other hand, being the youngest of 13, scared the shit out of my sparring partner and may have permanently impaired her hearing.)