Almost got mugged!

[0098386]

Well... if you know me you know i love stories. things just seem to happen to me; good and bad. and heres a bad, or maybe good one!

I had a lecture at Manchester Met Uni at 10am this morning. Now I got off the bus on Oldham Road (or is it street?) as per usual, making my nice shortcut way to the university. only my travels take me past Canal Street. whilst there being nothing wrong with any of that I'm usually a little bit more worried about walking past nightclub districts- daytime or not.
The street is empty. i walk down about half way and notice these 3 guys coming my way, they were walking on the other side of the pavement so i thought nothing of it. until one guy starts to head towards me... so i turn my iPod off at this time.
he gets closer and his mates join him. he asks "got the time?" and they start to close in on me. I just say no, as is the way right?. so this big guy in the middle asks me "what you listening too?" and i sort of half play a game with him "Franz Ferdinand" i say. first time i've played them for months too. i say whilst laughing my head off in my... head. "I don't think much of their second album though". i dont know why i do this! even when confronted with danger i always try and make myself laugh.
he says "aaaw can i have a listen" so following this jesters command i let him have a little listen. then he says "aww can i have a look?" referring to my iPod (as if the white headphones didn't give it away).
then for the most insane reason he asks "I'm gay y'know"... which... he wasn't. he was a blatant skinhead trying to make pals with me. him thinking that walking down Canal Street makes me gay, that and my orange Crumpler Wee bee bag
so i say... "listen mate, im a student. im not buying a new iPod". then his mate says "cummon just leave him" and then I just walk around them and continue my journey.

sorry its quite an anticlimax but y'know

my first iPod-near-mugging related encounter! i feel quite proud. that'll teach me for using the main roads! they were quite polite for attempted muggers though...

BUT! what is just too mental is that just last night i was looking at my iPod Mini thinking to myself that i should have gotten a larger capacity iPod. i even said here that i may get an 80gb model if they released one. if there is a god was he giving me a polite option there? my parents would have bought me a new iPod- i bought my mini and currently have no money, and knowing them . i could have just said "yea sure, but pretend to punch me and steal my iPod for the CCTV cameras ok?".

anyone else had any similar encounters?

PS. Canal Street is the gay centre of Manchester to those not in the know. unfortunately its slap bang inbetween my bus stop and the university.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Three muggers on an empty street; sounds like something from a movie! Glad you're okay.

 

[tech4all]

Wow I got a little scared myself as I read that! Glad your iPod is ok.....oh and you of course

 

[rainman::|:|]

Wow, near miss, good to hear you're OK. i've been in some situations where I'm surprised I didn't get mugged, rolled, or beaten... hindsight is 20/20. But no stories as dramatic as that!

 

[dcv]

sorry its quite an anticlimax but y'know

I'm GLAD of the anti-climax... i'd hate to be reading a story of someone actually being mugged. sorry to hear about this anyway, hope you're not too shaken up. I'd have **** myself!

I've heard of similar stories in the news. i guess the trick is to change the white ear buds so they're not such a giveaway.

Yeah I went to Manchester Uni (not the met) so i know what a dodgy place it can be. I lived on the edge of Moss Side in my second year... there were always a lot of very unsavoury characters hanging around...

 

[0098386]

funny how you get the best idea's after the moment. whilst walking back home i thought i could have hidden a tiny but uber sharp knife next to my iPod. said "yea here have a look" dropped the iPod and thrown the knife into the guys throat, instantly grabbing 2 guns from my pockets and pointing them at his mates. saying "**** look what you made me do now! i hate killing"

then they both ran off and i jumped out of the Matrix...

but seriously. now im going to buy some new nun-chucks (hey thats the way OS X spell checker calls them) keep them in their bag and always carry them with me. in the UK you can apparently carry nun-chucks so long as they're bagged (aka. just been bought). had a bit of training with those. better safe than sorry right?

 

[AlBDamned]

A fortunate ending Jimmi, these days an encounter like that can go either way. Can you confirm if a pair of 'muggerphones' were present?

 

[0098386]

oooh yea and once i got beaten up by some gang in a nearby village. that was worse but sorta good for me. i had some drink with my dinner, first time i'd ever drunk alcohol and i went a bit tipsy ... only they got me so its put me off booze for life. which is a good/bad thing i suppose.
good thing is my cousin sorted them out for me

gawd! i better shut up. i've got lots of stories im just gonna save them till another rainy day.

cheers for the replies guys i couldn't have asked for more politer muggers though!

 

[GFLPraxis]

I'm GLAD of the anti-climax... i'd hate to be reading a story of someone actually being mugged. sorry to hear about this anyway, hope you're not too shaken up. I'd have **** myself!

I've heard of similar stories in the news. i guess the trick is to change the white ear buds so they're not such a giveaway.

Yeah I went to Manchester Uni (not the met) so i know what a dodgy place it can be. I lived on the edge of Moss Side in my second year... there were always a lot of very unsavoury characters hanging around...

I'd rather see a story of him single handedly beating all three muggers to a pulp. In front of an Apple store. Now that's a climax!

 

[GFLPraxis]

funny how you get the best idea's after the moment. whilst walking back home i thought i could have hidden a tiny but uber sharp knife next to my iPod. said "yea here have a look" dropped the iPod and thrown the knife into the guys throat, instantly grabbing 2 guns from my pockets and pointing them at his mates. saying "**** look what you made me do now! i hate killing"

then they both ran off and i jumped out of the Matrix...

but seriously. now im going to buy some new nun-chucks (hey thats the way OS X spell checker calls them) keep them in their bag and always carry them with me. in the UK you can apparently carry nun-chucks so long as they're bagged (aka. just been bought). had a bit of training with those. better safe than sorry right?

What's sad is that when you said that the first thing I thought of was, "Why is he going to put the Revolution controller in his bag?"



Alternatively, carry a normal CD player with you or a $30 64 MB mini-player. When they want to see your iPod pull out the other player and act like you were listening to that. They can steal that if they want... Record some kind of joke on it, so when they take it home and listen to it they hear you laughing at their stupidity.

 

[joepunk]

Nice to hear that nothing happened that would have ended with an injury or worse. Just the reasons why I don't listen to my iPod around the city. And yes, you had some nice/polite muggers there.

 

[Applespider]

Or make sure your iPod is insured and let them have it...

I got mugged last year and the little turd got my 3G 20GB iPod... but thankfully it was 2 weeks after the 4G came out and the insurance company just sent me a new 4G 40GB one...

Losing stuff isn't the biggest deal in getting mugged, it's losing the peace of mind. I'm still wary of walking along my (generally very safe/quiet) road in the dark and of anyone behind me... Glad that you're OK...but at least this teaches you to be aware and to make plans for any future incidents that might not turn out so well otherwise.

 

[0098386]

Alternatively, carry a normal CD player with you or a $30 64 MB mini-player. When they want to see your iPod pull out the other player and act like you were listening to that. They can steal that if they want... Record some kind of joke on it, so when they take it home and listen to it they hear you laughing at their stupidity.

aww im so going to do that! i've got an old tape player i've been meaning to get rid of for a while now. this'll be perfect!

 

[Lau]

Glad to hear you're ok. Sounds like those arsey blokes that you never know if they're just playing around or dangerous as hell.

When I took out insurance on my PowerBook, the same insurance covers iPod, wallet, camera, phone, cash, the whole lot. Though for some reason when I've been in the kind of situation where I could potentially be mugged I don't know what I'd do, I always get the feeling I'd find it really hard to hand it over. Which is obviously stupid.

I suppose you never know what you'd do until you're in the situation.

 

[Applespider]

in the kind of situation where I could potentially be mugged I don't know what I'd do, I always get the feeling I'd find it really hard to hand it over.

I fought, kicked and kept hold of my bag until the darned handle snapped and the sod ran off - just before the neighbours made it out and chased him. Now, if he'd pulled a knife, then I'd probably just have handed it over. My iPod isn't worth being stabbed over...

Handy hints I learned; scream straight off. Don't try telling him to f off or not to come near you. Scream... at least then, those in the vicinity have a chance to get there/call police and hopefully, he'll run off.

If he's trying to grab your handbag, let him have the handles and you clutch the body of the bag. The handles are much more likely to snap, letting him stumble off and you keep the bag...

 

[Lau]

Handy hints I learned; scream straight off. Don't try telling him to f off or not to come near you. Scream... at least then, those in the vicinity have a chance to get there/call police and hopefully, he'll run off.

If he's trying to grab your handbag, let him have the handles and you clutch the body of the bag. The handles are much more likely to snap, letting him stumble off and you keep the bag...

Hmm, most useful. Sorry to hear of it though, it sounds pretty traumatic. And it's the kind of thing that affects you for a while.

Glad to hear you kicked em though, always nice to do a bit of damage back

 

[emmawu]

I'm really glad you're all right. A friend of mine was nearly mugged in Denver while coming home from fencing class. He pulled out his foil and said "En garde". The would-be mugger said he was crazy and walked away shaking his head. It's my favorite "almost mugging" story.

Be Careful Out There.

 

[GFLPraxis]

aww im so going to do that! i've got an old tape player i've been meaning to get rid of for a while now. this'll be perfect!

Don't tell me you're going to TRY to get mugged, now

Consider buying a broken iPod or the casing off EBay and putting a bomb in it. Then give that to the would-be mugger But that would be mean...and illegal...