Getting Mugged in MD

As Chuck said, maybe DC area really does not like me.

I was walking home from the Metro, with my iPod on as always, when I felt someone tapping me on my right shoulder.

I turned around, and this kid sucker punched me right in the mouth.

I looked at him, and it took me a while to get my bearings straight. At this point I was bleeding all over the place. I got a pretty deep cut lip, my shirt was splotched with blood, and my hands were completely red. The guy looked at me, and with 2 of his accomplices behind him demanded my iPod.

I said no.

At this point a couple of pedestrians had walked up behind me (this is a high traffic area). The gang of 3 really picked a dumb place to try to mug someone- a public parking lot 2 blocks from the police station. They looked at me, now covered in blood, and kind of put 2 and 2 together. The 3 kids kind of slowly retreated away, except they made another mistake, they tried to "blend" into the crowd by walking towards the shopping center crowd.

I walk after them and screamed: "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU FUCKING PUNCH ME YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!?". The 3 kids turned and ran.

Given what I must have looked like, and the fact that the 3 ran, the shopping crowd immediately zeroed in on them. The police showed up in 5 minutes, and as soon as the first police cruiser pulled up, there were all these people coming up and telling the police where they went. Within 10 minutes they were caught. The police called for an ambulance and after a 10 minute check, the EMT let me off. I then when to the police station to ID the suspects and make a statement with the detective.

Lesson learned: my 1/2 marathon training prohibits anyone from running with headphones- it destroys your situational awareness: a couple weeks ago a jogger was killed because he had his headphone and ran straight into traffic. To some extent this lesson applies to walking.

And don't try to mug someone next to a police station.