mugged, being taxed or getting done over. your stories.

i lost all my things at a rave in an old warehouse on new years eve in london, my passport being one ofg them

it was later returned to me.

(happier story)

i was semi-mugged on the train once, on the way to cricklewood. it was about midnight and i was going to hitchhike back to leeds, so was heading to the M1 at brent cross. this group of 7 or 8 lads, made me hand over my money, but then they saw my sign with LEEDS written on it in big red letters, and they gave me my money back, saying i needed it more than them. they taxed everyone else in the carriage, but, even so, they were quite a friendly bunch really

At this point they started punching and kicking me and one climbed onto my back forcing me down into the footwell area. I really felt like my back or neck was going to get broken, so had one of those "unknown reserve of strength" moments and managed to force my way to my feet. To my mind this was like Poseidon rising from the deep, but a casual observer would have seen a flailing, swearing blur. I started bellowing for the driver at this point, and when the bus stopped they high-tailed it downstairs and ran off.

I was shaken up pretty badly by it. I realise that I was incredibly lucky that I didn't get seriously hurt (or worse) but at the time it took place I just felt hugely indignant that these little fuckers were going to rob me of my money, phone, etc and reacted based on that. Made me think differently about riding upstairs on the bus too!

I took off down the street and caught up with him as he turned the corner. He was holding a plastic bag that obviously had my stuff. I yelled at him to give me shit back or I'd call the cops. He took off running through a field where some guys were playing soccer and ducked into an apartment complex. I followed him round and round through the back streets, cutting him off when he'd come careening out of a complex. Once I nailed him with the hood of my car. While I was doing this I called 911 on my cell and the lady told me to stop chasing him and sit still so they could find me. :( Well the cops eventually found him and brought him around for me to ID. He didn't have my stuff on him though and claimed he had been merely standing by my car when I began accusing him of breaking in. grr.

Unfortunately that would not be the first time my car was broken into at those apartments.

xpost
yeah, makes it almost sound legal.

I've been mugged four times and twice in a week once. Avoid Quito after dark is my conclusion.

I forgot to mention, after it happened I met my friends outside where a battle (I use the word battle because of the numbers) was about to start. We left just after hearing one of the goons say “ I’ve got an axe here, don’t make me use it” to the group with iron bars.

there's alot of random violence in Dublin but seldom muggings IME, people just get drunk and want to knock heads.

i can laugh about it now, but jesus it was grim.

KTHXBYE

>It really made me angry, how dare they take my money (albeit not that much) that I’ve had to earn by going to a job that I don’t like. Grrr

Totally OTM there cavern, that was exactly how I felt too.

I got mugged in a market, with a cut to my trousers pocket to remove my wallet and in my confusion I saw a young girl hide something in a wicker pot. So I tipped it open. Wasn't her at all. Nearly got a second beating for that.

guess i need to learn more english. :-)

You sure you're on about the same Didsbury? You want to try having a stroll around Leigh, pal. Nah, Didsbury (much like the town next to it, Chorlton - as ftd in Cold Feet) is generally pleasant and leafy and populated with young professionals and grans. There are a few scattered groups of tracksuits there but nothing like the swarms of scallies you'll find in Wigan and the other satellite towns.

Anyway Cavern, I thought this party was more Withington way than Didsbury? Plus, you forgot to mention how you dealt with the aftermath of this thuggery (he locked himself and a couple of mates in a room and got fucked up on horse tranquilisers).

According to the people who put these parties on, that was the first one which had real trouble. They've had dozens before, in disused mental homes & hospitals, with zero trouble. Somehow a bunch of scallies got wind of this one and BROUGHT THE FURY. I don't go to them because they play bad techno and IDM - hurrah for my elitist city centre-driven music tastes!

I was referring more to Manchester in general than Didsbury, although can see I didn't make it clear - I lived in Chorlton for five years, so know that area well enough, as it goes: That'll be the same Chorlton where a mate was threatened at knifepoint by five balaclava'd youths in his own house after they kicked the front door in to get his car keys. Just because it's less visible in south manchester doesn't mean it's not there.

My basic point is - these scum seem to be pretty much everywhere!

http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=10&channelId=26&programmeId=27729222&jspLocation=/jsp/prog_details.jsp

"Happy Slapping: A Tonight Special
10:00pm - 10:30pm
ITV1 London
Subtitled

An investigation into 'happy slapping', the alarming new teenage craze for using mobile phones to film violent attacks on innocent people. Tonight speaks to a gang who think happy slapping is fun and the victims who suffer for their entertainment."

Scariest thread!!

This stuff sounds a lot more prevalent in UK than here in the US. Probably not, but if so, I'm sure it's because of guns.

I delivered pizza while going to school in utica NY. I got mugged once in the deserted parking lot of a pizza place at midnight. (Not while working- never mugged at work funny enough). 2 guys ran up to me on my way to my car holding a box of food- asked for my food and money. I menaged to throw it in the car but they held the door so I couldn't really get in or out. They acted like they had weapons in their back pockets (BS), I argued for about 30 seconds until their guard was down a little, then sprayed them with mace. They ran away and then came back with rocks, it was just enough time for me to get driving. They threw the rocks but luckily, no damage and nothing lost.

I don't have a brother.

Another time I was walking down New Oxford Street when this junkie came up to me and started to try and buy drugs off me. He refused to believe that I had no smack on me, and became more and more insistent that I must sell them to him. I went into Forbidden Planet to try and get away from him, but he just became more and more agitated. Eventually I was nearly crying as I said "LOOK I DO NOT HAVE ANY DRUGS AND AM NOT A DRUG DEALER!" and was on the brink of asking the sales assistants to call the cops when he got the message and scarpered. I think I then lurked in Forbidden Planet for over an hour in case my friend was waiting for me.

it was one of those rubbish rubber ones anyway.

You might be surprised to learn that this had no effect whatsoever on my mugger, who sprinted around the corner.

A man on a bicycle was riding by and saw it happen and took off to chase him, but by the time I got to the corner, he was back, saying that the guy had jumped into a car and taken off.

A passerby helped me up and gave me a tissue to wipe some of the blood away from my face. I got home (only about a minute away) and phoned the police. They turned up, took one look at me and then took me to the hospital (which was only about 300m away). I then had to sit, in pain and covered in blood, in the waiting room in casualty until was finally available to see me. She said to me "oh, what happened - did you fall over?", then sent me off for X-Rays, but there was no one there, so I had to sit on the floor of the corridor for 20 minutes until they came back. I got out of the hospital about 7.30 in the morning and had the day off work. I was temping at the time so I lost a day's wages.

My credit card and debit were never used. My travel card was found and returned to me by a local newsagent. So I got a kicking for the sake of a quid.

They came from behind and it was actually my friend crashing into me that knocked me off my bike. In the confusion of getting up i could just see a load of kids running up to us, already a couple of kids had surrounded my mate (who was still on his bike) and one huge lad towering over me. Adrenalin prevailed and I just launched myself at the tall kid and kept punching his face until he was on the ground.

after a bit more confusion and shouting (there were at least 15 or so of this gang) they all decided to run off.

Me and my friend kept our bikes and we stayed intact. The tall kid (apparently after I'd heard from a contact a week later) had a very messy face.

The second time was the start of the second semester. This really pissed me off, because I was about 200 metres away from my hall, but I remembered what the police said last time - just give in to what they want you do, don't do anything silly. So I gave them my wallet.

The next time somebody tried it was in the centre of Manchester, a kid with a knife. but I just though "not fucking again", so I just walked off into the crowd, and he lost me.

Manchester - it's nice really!

Hmm, I do hope it's not like the Yellowstone Supervolcano - not a question of whether it will happen, but when it will happen. Some kids on the top deck of a 176 smother me with pyroclastic flow.

20-odd years in a rough-ish bit of Merseyside, seven years in SE London, going everywhere on public transport, generally alone - not even one hint of a threat, never mind the actual thing. Luck, please hold.

Dom and I were overcome with sadness for this poor guy, he couldn't afford to get home to his engagement party, how awful for him. So we scraped together about 68p - all we had spare and handed it over with a beaming smile and a wish of 'all the luck in the world, sir' and we continued on to the gig, happy in the knowledge that we had made an unlucky man happy.

Later that week we read in the paper about a guy who'd been mugging people in Manchester, armed with... just a fork. This was the day when we grew up and realised the world was not a nice place.

Following that, never been mugged. My tips: Just glare a lot, and twitch like you could flip out at any second and start stabbing. Most muggers look for any easy target so if you seem a bit messed up they're more like to leave you be. I'm fully expecting to be mugged tonight now after writing that...

what a shitty week.

scary.