How'S $20 Australian SouNd?

Yesterday afternoon J came home around 2:00, a bit earlier than usual. He always calls before he leaves the office, and I always feel compelled to tell him to be careful, as if that would stop him from getting attacked or something, or that my constant reminders will make him more alert than he otherwise would be. It's just something I always want to say.

(My first semester here, before we were dating, he used to come over to my apartment and we'd grade homeworks together for a class we were TA'ing. Every time he left I made him promise not to walk through the alley shortcut on his way home, because I knew his friends had been mugged there a couple of years earlier. As he left, I would always watch out the window to make sure he didn't go down there.)

Anyway, I don't know if I actually told him to be careful or not this time, but it was 2 in the afternoon, so maybe I didn't. I'm sure you can see where this is going...

On his way home, as he was walking on Calvert about halfway between 31st and 30th Streets, he passed three kids (late teens). Soon after passing them he thought he heard footsteps, so he quickened his pace and made the turn on to 30th Street, and then found himself confronted by them. They demanded his stuff and one of them pulled on his backpack. Thinking of his dissertation (probably not fully backed up elsewhere), he refused and pulled away. The oldest kid then acted like he had a gun, though it was probably just his hand or something under his jacket since he hadn't threatened it before and wasn't actually showing anything, so J offered money.

And this is where it comes it very handy to carry your wallet separate from your bag because then you don't have to go in your bag in order to get it out. (Seriously, I would have to put my bag on the ground and dig for my wallet, which probably wouldn't go over so well.) So they didn't push for the bag and waited as he pulled cash out of his wallet. I have no idea how he managed to think quickly enough to determine that he didn't think they had a gun, that he didn't want to part with his laptop, and that he didn't have a lot of money in his wallet but that if he negotiated with money they might be up for it. But it worked, I guess. He handed them the whatever cash he had, which was probably about $12. They noticed other bills in his wallet and asked what they were, and so he handed over a $20 Australian bill which is red and obviously not US currency. They looked at it, asked what it was, and when they heard it wasn't US money, they handed it back!

And then, that was it. They parted ways.

Someone at the Schnapp Shop on 30th saw at least the end of what happened and he called the cops from the pay phone there, and J immediately came home and called the cops from here. When I first heard about this, I was so angry that I wanted to go outside and find these kids and mug them myself. For obvious reasons, I didn't do that... But then, by the end of this whole thing I found myself feeling almost sorry for them because it was such a stupid thing to do and so poorly done that it really amazed me.

You'd think that after robbing someone, you'd like, hide or something. Right? But no, they walked right on up Calvert Street, past all the shops and stores between 31st and 32nd Streets. By the time they got to 35th Street, the cops had found them and brought J to ID them, so the idiots got arrested. Turns out the oldest one is over 18, so he'll have to be tried as an adult while the other two will be tried as juveniles. And that makes me kind of sad, because how stupid is it to have an arrest on your record all for the sake of robbing someone of $12?! Not that I wish they'd taken more, of course. It just underscores the stupidity of it all.

Of course, I am relieved that it wasn't a violent mugging. And I'm glad that J was calm and rational through it all. It's funny how I always tell him to be careful when he's walking home, but yet as soon as I hang up the phone I stop worrying about him. I know stuff happens around here, but we've been fortunate never to have a problem before this. Anyway, those of you in or near Charles Village, keep this story in mind because apparently there have been a "rash" of these lately (by different kids)...

Comments

[jwer]

That sucks. I'm glad he's OK. One of the things I've never liked about CV is that Baltimore's criminal element is keenly aware that it's full of a bunch of dumb (comparatively) rich kids that have no idea how to avoid danger or protect their stuff.

When I was at JHU I knew several people who'd had CDs stolen through the security bars on the first floor, or similar petty crime.

I'm very worried about this ever happening to me, because I seriously doubt I could keep my cool. Props to J.

[jwer]

It occurs to me that my first paragraph makes it sound like I think J is a dumb rich kid who doesn't know how to avoid danger; that was not my intention...

:o)

[Fool]

That's terrifying, Seadragon. I am glad everything turned out okay!

[anonymouscoworker]

Yeah, I'm glad you're both safe. Also, I'm finding it hard to feel bad for those kids.

[Malnurtured Snay]

I'm glad J wasn't hurt!

[karenology]

I'm glad J is all right! Not to sound like a nag, but maybe he should think about backing up his dissertation, so if he ever runs into more serious muggers, he won't have to hesitate.

For kicks, he should have told them the bill was one of those new colored $20s. I'm betting they would have believed him.

[chiaroscuro]

Thank goodness he kept his cool, and that those muggers weren't the professional kind.

[Super G]

I happen to know there is a huge black market for drafts of J's dissertation. Those kids really were amateurs!

Seriously though, good to hear that J is OK. And as a previous occupant of your apartment, I am thinking that I probably should have been a lot more careful.

[J]

Just to let everyone know, all of my dissertation is backed up. :)

I was coming home to fix my desktop (which is kind of busted) and I didn't want to be w/o any computer (hence the clutching of the bag w/the laptop after much tugging)...also, my bag had a bunch of articles and some recent patient testing results that I hadn't scored yet. They can have my cash, but they can't have my late 19th-century journal articles.

It's funny how fast you can think w/o thinking though. All of the above quickly flashed through my mind and I just decided that they weren't getting my bag w/o showing a gun. He didn't show a gun, I thought money would make them go away, and it did.

Fortunately the cops acted fast...caught the kids less than five minutes after I was robbed. Baltimore PD was awesome throughout the whole thing

[ianqui]

Glad to hear everyone's OK!

When Prairielanding and Colliculus were visiting NY in December, we were reminiscing about all of the trauma people had experienced in Baltimore. My car was broken into 2x (the robber tried and failed to get my stereo, twice), (y)our door was attacked with a crowbar (the lock is very strong, I can tell you that!), Super G's car was stolen the first day he got there. C & PL have their own stories involving junkies and muggings with weapons.

The joys of Baltimore, I tell you.

[JtH]

Nasty. I'm with you seadragon. Whenever I hear of this sort of thing I want to go out and give the bastards a taste of their own medicine. Glad J was calm and came through ok.

You realise that if it happened here and I had a US $20 bill they would have taken it over the Aussie dollars.

[eliaday]

dang... i guess that's a little worse than having someone steal a pink barbie kid-sized jeep. but somehow, i'm not surprised that J made it out only $12 poorer.

glad you're all ok!!

[Colliculus]

Prairielanding's coworkers in the projects near Little Italy always made potential muggers show them the gun before the handed over any money. If there wasn't one, they would scold them and send the kids home to their mothers.

Ah, Charm City. Now that I've been away for a few years I understand a little better why prospective grads would be freaked out by "Oh, CV is safe--I've only been mugged once in 9 years." (I figured if I left out the "at gunpoint" part it wouldn't be scary.)

[amber]

Dude. I am glad J is ok. (Otherwise I would be making flight plans right now to take care of those kids.)

I'll avoid telling mom about this :).

[Sister Lindsey]

I had no doubts of my brothers street smarts. He's been pure gangsta since I saw him shoot off 12 rounds of those punk birds in Duck Hunt whilst reading the sport section of the paper.
But still glad to hear he is ok.

[J]

FYI, the mother knows. Wanted to let her know that Bridgeport is in da' hizzie!