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Last night, my boyfriend was mugged at a casino.
A casino he wasn't even supposed to be at... stare
He's absolutely fine. Just a little scuffed up from the fighting.
The man was playing roulette with him, and my boyfriend cashed in his winning and gave the guy maybe $5.00 or $10.00 as a courtesy since they were playing together. The man then asked if he could get a ride to a nearby hotel.
Despite the fact that my boyfriend had a bad feeling about the guy, he obliged and gave him a lift. The guy asked my boyfriend to wait and then went in the lobby. He came out, asking if he could break a $20.00. As soon as he pulled his wallet out, the guy tried snatching it from him. My boyfriend fought him from the inside of the car. A few punches later, and the guy tried stumbling away with the wallet, threatening a gun. My boyfriend put his car in reverse and floored it. His friend had opened the door so she could get help, pushing the door into the vehicle next to them and pushing her under the car. Luckily my boyfriend stopped, so she wasn't hurt. But the guy got away.
Here's the best part about the entire thing-
The guy mugged my boyfriend over $75.00 that he won at the roulette table, which wasn't even in his wallet. During the scuffle, all his credit cards fell out. So all in all, this jack a** got away with his Driver's license and a fairly new Lamb of God wallet...
My mom says he must have been desperate. I say he must've been a dill hole doing something stupid...
The damage done to my boyfriend was nothing more than a few scratches to the chest (WTF?) and a cut under one of his eyes. He said he nailed the guy in the face a few times-the guy's nose and mouth were bleeding.
I'll spare the details of the hotel clerk's car, except to say that he mentioned to the police that he was mugged at gun point a few weeks earlier just down the street from the hotel. Also-apparently, he couldn't call the cops until his manager came up to the hotel... Our friend snatched the phone from him and dialed 911 herself.
The really scary thing about all this is that the area it happened in is/was really nice. It's almost as if you can see the community well getting poisoned with the way the crime rate is getting out there. And now it's as if it's not safe to go anywhere around here after dark...

Discuss-
-Good Communities going/gone Bad
-Why you should never give rides to strangers
-Good deeds gone wrong
-Desperate people taking desperate measures vs Idiotic people who do idiotic things
-If it's safe to go out at night anymore
-How if you're going to mug someone, make sure you have the leverage to attack and make sure your face isn't plastered all over security cameras...
- Feeling incredibly relieved and incredibly pissed off at the same time
-Guardian Angels (Something was definitely looking out for my boyfriend)

Well, I only know second hand that the city of Kansas City (on the Kansas side for those of you familar with the area) used to be a very safe place to live and work. My parents both grew up there and so did their families. 3nodding While it wasn't exactly a city where nothing bad ever happened it wasn't as bad as it seems to be now. I turn on the news and nearly every day I hear about at least one crime in the KCK (Kansas City, Kansas) area. Even Kansas City, Missouri, (KCMO) isn't exactly safe either. I hear about shootings and all kinds of bad things from there. Where I live, Overland Park, I feel fairly safe. Our neighborhood has only had one major incident to my knowledge (which just so happened to be in my backyard neighbor's yard, but I'll spare you details and just say the police had to shoot and kill an armed suspect -- my former neighbor) and that was years ago now. I also feel fairly safe because we live on the corner of an intersection and have a huge street light that illuminates most of our front yard (maybe not like daylight bright, but bright enough to feel safe) and we have plenty of motion dected lights and "security" Christmas lights on our second garage to illuminate the sidewalk between it and our house. The only other incident that comes to mind for me is the Kelsey Smith case (look it up on the internet for more details -- I'd rather not bore anyone with it and besides it's getting late here).

I believe the only time you should offer a ride to a stranger is if they aren't really a TOTAL stranger. For example, I usually offer a classmate or two a ride if we're going on a field trip or like today -- it was really windy today and my classmate (who was picking up some material to make my mom and me some blouses) was heading to the student union which wasn't too far, but given how cold and windy it was, I offered her a ride. So I guess as long as they aren't TOTAL strangers and/or you are only going a short ride/drive, then you should be safe. Note the keyword SHOULD.

The only good deed I've done that seems to have gone wrong was when I was in high school and loaned my friend some money for lunch. He promised to pay me back, but even to this day I have yet to see the $5+ he owes me. (Maybe I should charge him interest and ask for it back after all these years. rolleyes )

We must be talking about all the idiotic drivers I see on the road every day who take stupid risks to avoid stopping at a red light or thinking that the speed limit doesn't apply to them. Even the people who don't obey the traffic laws because they're in such a hurry.

I guess it depends on how safe you feel. I think as long as you are aware of your surroundings and such you should be safe. I dunno. I still feel a little wary about going out at night without someone, so I always put a friend on speaker phone (on my cell phone) when I'm out at night just feel like I have company if I can't get anyone to go with me.

I DO believe in guardian angels. That is why I believe that I am here today actually. Back in 6th grade I had an acute appendicitis and my appendix had ruptured. Well, needless to say I thought I saw an angel hoovering over me before I fainted and was rushed by my family to the ER. I was later informed I would have died had they not got me to the ER when they did. Also during my hospital stay I was told not to get out of bed without help. Well, I heard sierns one night when a fire drill was going on and I got scared. So I sat up, felt someone's arms around my waist, turned to say "thank you" but no one was there, made my way to the window and looked out. Only an ambulance pulling into the ER entrance was there. Breathing a sigh of relief, I made my way back to my bed, felt the same hands/arms around me as I crawled back into bed (no one was there as before), and just as I had snuggled into bed the nurse came back and was pleased to see that I "hadn't got out of bed."

I could answer more of the questions/discussion topics, but it's late and besides I feel I've done a lot of sharing tonight. blaugh

i felt they save in my area, until they brek into the home of my bothres gf and just 2 months later they broke 3 time into our cellar and once into our neighbours flat(that was last spring, at daytime!)....what else...a friend of the was threaten with a knife just becase she yelled at a boy(he was little drunken) who threw a bottel after her in the subway.
i´m doing martial arts for ten years now. i started with Judo and now since one year i´m doing Ju-Jutsu it´s more self defence than Judo. i stared with it just for fun and to get slim but now i´m happy know some moves if something happened.
but all that facts are not going to stop me to go out where i want at anytime.