Real Life Randomness!, “Give me your iPhone.” This is what I heard as I...

1 year ago

“Give me your iPhone.”

This is what I heard as I had my key in the door of the gate entering
the yard to my building. The building where I live.

I’ve always made sure that I’m aware of my surroundings. Pay
attention to who is around you and if walking alone, be in public and
well-lit areas. I know my neighborhood well and I know which streets
and allies to avoid. Friday night, after a 15 hour day at the office,
I was too tired and made a bad decision.

I was walking home from the train around 11:30 at night. The short
walk is to enter my building through the back which is accessible
through an ally. There were a lot of people out and a neighbor with
his dog in the parking lot two buildings over. I thought it was ok.
No one was walking around lingering. No one was following me. I was
tired, but I still paid attention.

For someone who despises routine, I have one that I wasn’t aware of.
I always have my keys out and ready when walking home. I’m thankful
for this.

My key is in the door and as I turned it, I looked to my left. Two
men were running toward me. One ran behind a dumpster as the other
approached me. He said ”give me your iPhone”, as he was approaching.
My headphones were in and I was listening to an audio book about the
Tao Te Ching. —Irony.

He grabbed my shoulder and said it again. “give me your iPhone.”

I’ve always wondered how I would handle this type of situation if it
were to occur. Living in Chicago means being aware that this type of
thing is common. You can’t realistically have the attitude that “it
won’t happen to me.”

In a matter of seconds…it’s fascinating how many things go through
your mind.

First things…I looked at his face, I looked for a weapon, I
recognized my key had opened the door to the gate, and remembered
that I saw a second man that was now hiding. My phone was stolen last
July during another one of my recent life lessons. So another thought
that went through my head was “Hell no you’re not getting my iPhone! I
don’t have another upgrade!” (I wonder if that thought would have been
there if I would have seen a weapon.)

Because I didn’t see a weapon, I was not interested in cooperating
with his request.

In those same few seconds I thought there was a strong possibility
that the second man could be approaching behind me. It’s Friday
night, people are out, possibly in my yard that is shared between two
condo buildings.

So after making the poor decision of walking into an alley after dark
alone, I made the decision to push this dude off me with everything I
had and scream as loud as I could at the same time while pushing open
the gate to run into the yard.

I don’t know if this was the best thing to do. But I’m not hurt at
all and I still have my iPhone. My gate key however, took a beating.

Lesson learned. No matter how prepared you think you are, there will
always be a day when you’re a little too tired or distracted. And
those are the times when you should be the most aware and cautious.

I’m assuming that the scream I belted out scared the dudes away
because as I walked up the stairs of my deck and looked back, they
were nowhere to be seen. I’m also assuming that they could have been
hiding behind some parked cars waiting for me or someone…you never
know. Lots of thoughts also occur after the fact.

What will I do differently? Never walk alone at night. It’s a pain
in the ass but the alternative is so much worse. If I am alone, I’ll
cab it to my door and always ask the driver to wait for me to enter
the building.

I’m SO lucky and fortunate that I walked away okay from this. It
could have been a really bad situation. It could happen to anyone,
anywhere.

I don’t recommend fighting off attackers. …that worked for me, but
I don’t feel good about it. I recommend being more careful than I
was.

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