mugged

I got mugged last night. Some of the folks from the hospital think it was a gang initiation, but I think they just saw me working on my laptop on the BART train and decided to follow me off the train.

It's two short blocks home. I was entering the intersection on Oak and 10th when I heard foosteps behind me. Clearly running. I clenched my bag, which was over my shoulder and not firmly on my back, and the grab failed. I turned and the assailant got aggressive. He had a friend a few feet off. I decided that this was a failed snatch attempt and decided to play my "I'm as big as you, don't fuck with me" card. One of them saw the keys in my hand and warned his friend, thinking I had a knife.
Bravado might have worked, but I glanced behind me for an instant and saw four others running towards me from the shadows. I got sucker punched in the head. Then again, again, again. I finally went down and they kicked the shit out of me. I kept fighting back, blind with anger, and they got away with my wallet, but not the backpack they had clearly been after. It was the middle of a brightly lit intersection. If they had waited another half block they would have had me in total shadow and might have killed me.

Bleeding, without my keys (I still haven't located them) or glasses, I got myself the final block home. I didn't see which way they went. I buzzed the manager, but she didn't answer. There was movement in the apartment right next to the front door, so I knocked on the window and asked for help. I was getting blood all over the doorstep. They let me in, helped me clean up, and got an ice pack for my head which was already swelling at the temple. Most of the blood appeared to be coming from my nose.

They leant me their phone and I called the non-emergency line. After all, it was over and no longer an emergency. I let the cops know where I was and was told to expect them shortly. My neighbors found the manager who came and joined us. She called 911, since it had been 20 minutes since the first call. After what was almost an hour I headed up to my apartment with the spare set of keys the manager had located for me, unsure when the cops would show up. As soon as I got in, and begin figuring out how to cancel the credit cards, the cops and the ambulance arrived. I suddenly had an apartment full of people. The cops said they would meet me at the hospital and the paramedics took me.

I made my statement, wishing I could have been a bit more clear in some of the details, but I only saw one of the six clearly, and only for a second or two. The only actual words I could remember was after they thought I had a knife. "you gonna stick me? you gonna stick me?".

The first question the nurse asked me (a Philipino male) when he learned I was mugged was "black or white?" The first question the orderly asked me (an Afrian American male) when he learned I was mugged was "black or white?". Same with the doctir (a white female). For me, it isn't the color but the age. That was the second question from the orderly. "Young men?"

Yep. Young thugs.

The cat scan shows that if anything was broken in my skull it's nothing that requires surgery. It will heal itself. My nose may or may not be broken, but it's not deviated. I'll be getting more information over the next couple of days. I need new glasses too. I got my cards cancelled when I got home around 4am (thanks to the taxi voucher the hospital provided) and they hadn't tried to use them yet. So, all they got from me was $8 in cash and a couple of checks. If they succeed in cashing those, they probably got around $150, or $25 each.

Me? I'm just glad to be alive. If I had seen 6 men from the start, I would have handed over my stuff. I thought it was a simple foiled bag grab and resisted. I'll be ok, and I'll be a lot more wary, but I'll be ok. But I could have died.. repeated blows to the temple could have killed me, but it didn't. I have a harder head than I thought.

Still. I'm an assault victim.

And I keep wondering how I'm going to tell mom without her becoming hysterical.