Big City Hospitality

I was involved in a mugging attempt! And to clear all your worried minds, I am completely fine and nothing was stolen, save for a bit of my innocence. But it was quite an experience.

We had just finished a museum tour of gold and silver artifacts from South America (which was pretty cool in and of itself). We were headed back to the oblate house in the city and were walking down a road that was just off the main downtown area (code for lots of people around). I wish this story was more exciting but it was all over pretty fast and not much came from it.

I knew there was someone behind us but in my peripheral vision I thought it was a young boy walking. I was the caboose of our train and was simply walking behind one of the guys when I noticed that this child was really close to me (he was definitely ghosting). Either he was new to thievery or a mastermind at distraction because he bumped my foot once or twice the way that accidently happens when you’re walking too close to someone (I have done it several time to Andrew). I like to think he was trying to get me to turn around or stop and be unawares, but I just kept walking on because, like I said, I thought that this was a little boy behind us.

SUDDENLY (all caps so its tone) the guy grabbed my camera strap and tried pulling it over my head. Lucky for me that I had my arm securely on top of the camera bag and I was about a foot taller than him so the strap never really separated from my shoulder. There’s probably several things that I could have done better but I remember either turning or being jostled by him and getting pushed into the wall of the building we were walking by. There wasn’t much reaction on my part, simply a quizzical look at this man. I guess I forgot I had a posse of 5 walking with me so I could’ve thrown down, but nothing came of it and we continued our walk. Overall, it was just a strange experience and I am very thankful/lucky that he did not get my camera (at the time my wallet was in there as well – I thought it would be safer to keep it in my bag rather than my back pocket – I’m currently revisiting this idea). But once again, I’m pretty fine save for a bruise on my back and now a little wiser about the less-than-savory people of the world.

Take Care,