Can you post about crime here?

[MikeyNYC]

edit: this ended up longer than I thought. Sorry.

Thanks Rob. I had a run in while I was there in Sept of last year. I didn't post back then because I didn't want to stoke the fire, so to speak. But what you say about not relating it here makes sense to me now.

I was walking down the beach road on the sea side from Bourbon Beach to my hotel. It was late, probably around 3am. I wasn't sober but definitely able to walk a straight line, carry on a conversation, and was well aware of everything around me. So about halfway, this girl, prob about 19/20, jeans, t-shirt, corn rows, and kinda butchy, comes from a path in the bush. I have some gay friends at home and found it odd/interesting, she says hello and we're just talking. Everything seems fine. After a few minutes, another kid comes out of the bush with shorts and a t shirt on. She introduces me (i forgot their names, sorry), and we say hello to each other. Young kid, 18/19, maybe 125lbs. He's pretty wasted. Real lethargic, seemed to me like a heroin high but could have been a lot of ganja and rum.

Everything still seems fine. She's standing at my 12 and he's at my nine. He comes over and shakes my hand. Now he's at my 3. She's about 5 feet away and he's next to me. After he shakes my hand, he takes his hand and puts it under his shirt and says "give me what you got or I'll blast you." With the other hand, he's reaching in my right pocket. I look at her and she starts to apologize, saying "he's really messed up" but doesn't try to stop him. I have 60 lbs on him, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a gun, since he only has a ragged tshirt and pretty tight shorts on, plus I've already seen both his hands. I push his hand out of my pocket with my right hand and with my left, swipe towards the "gun" which turns out to be his hand. I push him away and create some distance and start yelling at them. Basically shaming them and saying "go on, get out of here."

So now he changes his tune. He says he's sorry and just really hungry and now begs me for $5. I think I only had about J$1200 left in my pocket and prob would have bought them some chicken if they had just asked. I tell them no and to beat it.

I start walking away towards my place and after a few steps, look back to see what they're doing. They start following me staying about 20 paces back. So I keep walking until i see a chicken barrel with some guys and taxis hanging out. So I stop and start making small talk with the chef and get a water. The kids stop and don't come any closer. I asked the cook who the driver was and took a taxi the rest of the way home.

I wasn't wearing a watch or any jewelry. i only had a tshirt and shorts on. I'm not a big guy, but not small either. Point being is that I don't think I looked like a mark, but not to make light of the situation, that probably speaks to these two kids, just being kids, and not real stick up artists. Looking back, I should should have just given him the 12 bucks, but at the moment, it was a pride thing. I was incredulous, annoyed and insulted at the prospect of getting mugged by these two.

I can't say that I'm not going to walk the road or beach again but if I've had too much, I'll likely get in a taxi instead of walking. One thing I will do is keep more distance in these situations and trust my gut. There was the split second when he started coming into my space where I could have stepped back and changed the situation. I would rarely if ever, let two strangers get that close to me late at night, in my day to day life. Instead of listening to my gut feeling, I ignored it because I wanted everything to be irie. Fortunately, the only thing lost was innocence, but that still is a big loss for me.