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Life Nomadic: The Art of Getting Mugged
Here in Santo Domingo I eat at the same restaurant, Ananda, every night. It's an amazing vegetarian restaurant that bears a startling resemblance to my favorite restaurant in Austin, Texas (Casa de Luz). It's an eleven minute walk away through the main roads, or a ten minute walk with a shortcut.
The shortcut goes through the scariest little alley I've ever seen. The buildings on it are crumbling, it's covered with trash, there are no streetlights, and just to make it a little more spooky, one side of it borders an overcrowded cemetery. Worse, the alley is a series of three sharp angles that make it hidden from nearby streets.
I liked walking through the alley. It made me feel tough, and I was proud to not have the same irrational fears that everyone else seems to have.
As it turned out, those fears weren't quite so irrational. After the eight hour bus ride from Haiti I was starving, so I started walking towards the restaurant. At this point I'd gone through the alley so much that I didn't even think about it. Two twenty-something-year-olds were walking towards me. I moved a bit to the right to pass them, but one went to one side of me and the other went on the other side.
"Hola," I said cheerfully.
Just as it started to register in my brain that something might be fishy about them surrounding me, they were on me. Their hands grabbed my shirt, they pushed me back against a wall, and started pulling the rings off of my fingers.
My logical mind kicked in. If I just spoke to them in Spanish they'd see that I'm not a typical gringo tourist.
"Espera! Que paso?"
They couldn't have cared less, of course. They kept tugging at my rings and sliding their hands into my pockets. I didn't have my wallet on me, but I did have a wad of cash. They took my passport, both rings, and the keys to my hotel. I glanced down at my expensive GPS watch which one of them was trying to take off, and realized that the longer I stood there, the more stuff they were going to take.
Cash and watch still attached, I started to run away. I figured they'd chase me, but as I looked back I saw them running the other way.
I felt calm during the actual incident, but afterwards I was rattled. I walked around the block a couple times, trying to process what had just happened. I didn't care so much about what had been taken, but my worldview had just been shattered. I was naively optimistic enough to think that no one would mess with me because I was a nice friendly person who cared about the cultures I was visiting. It hadn't occurred to me that wannabe thugs with probable drug habits don't really care about any of that.
When I got home I went on the internet, determined to learn how to fight. I would buy a knife every time I landed, and learn knife fighting. If someone tried to rob me again, they would get stabbed.
Luckily, my first search yielded this site, which describes exactly why my plan was a terrible idea that might end up with me getting killed. Every post on the site links to twenty others, which meant that the following couple hours of my life were dedicated to learning everything I could about personal defense.
Here are the important things I learned, with links to No Nonsense Self Defense, in terms of avoiding getting mugged while traveling:
Just as it started to register in my brain that something might be fishy about them surrounding me, they were on me. Their hands grabbed my shirt, they pushed me back against a wall, and started pulling the rings off of my fingers.
My logical mind kicked in. If I just spoke to them in Spanish they'd see that I'm not a typical gringo tourist.
"Espera! Que paso?"
They couldn't have cared less, of course. They kept tugging at my rings and sliding their hands into my pockets. I didn't have my wallet on me, but I did have a wad of cash. They took my passport, both rings, and the keys to my hotel. I glanced down at my expensive GPS watch which one of them was trying to take off, and realized that the longer I stood there, the more stuff they were going to take.
Cash and watch still attached, I started to run away. I figured they'd chase me, but as I looked back I saw them running the other way.
I felt calm during the actual incident, but afterwards I was rattled. I walked around the block a couple times, trying to process what had just happened. I didn't care so much about what had been taken, but my worldview had just been shattered. I was naively optimistic enough to think that no one would mess with me because I was a nice friendly person who cared about the cultures I was visiting. It hadn't occurred to me that wannabe thugs with probable drug habits don't really care about any of that.
When I got home I went on the internet, determined to learn how to fight. I would buy a knife every time I landed, and learn knife fighting. If someone tried to rob me again, they would get stabbed.
Luckily, my first search yielded this site, which describes exactly why my plan was a terrible idea that might end up with me getting killed. Every post on the site links to twenty others, which meant that the following couple hours of my life were dedicated to learning everything I could about personal defense.
Here are the important things I learned, with links to No Nonsense Self Defense, in terms of avoiding getting mugged while traveling:
- Low level criminals, like muggers, are not logical. Trying to use logic to dissuade them will never work.
- Criminals are professionally violent. Training to fight them without the same real world experience they have, will lead to you getting hurt.
- Mugging is a low level crime, which means that it is mostly perpetrated by younger people (18-25) with drug problems.
- Crimes happen in "fringe areas", places between isolated areas and highly populated areas. Isolated areas don't have enough victims, heavily populated areas have too many witnesses.
- To escape a bad situation, make sure you run towards a heavily populated area. Running "away" is likely to lead you into a less populated area.
- Criminals are selfish and are obsessed with their status. Challenging them ("You wouldn't shoot me"), is a good way to make them violent.
Filed under: Haiti, Life Nomadic, Caribbean
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul Apr 17th 2009 2:35AM
Good Advice ....stay out of dangerous areas. I've lived in Cali, Colombia for 15 years ...... but growing up in Brooklyn taught me ....you don't go into bad neighborhoods unless you want trouble. I've never had a problem here in Cali (knock on wood) .... and as long as I stay out of the bad areas I probably won't have any problems. Logical, no ??
iomatic Apr 15th 2009 8:36PM
You broke the first rule of self-defense: don't end up in a situation where it requires you to use self-defense.
You also didn't attack first, establishing dominance; this is assuming of course you have any martial arts training. But you did the right thing by running away.
Remember: eyes, throat, groin, solar plexus, knee cap, toe, not necessarily in that order.
Darren Apr 15th 2009 8:46PM
Wow, glad you made it out okay. Did you ever get your passport or a copy?
arebelspy Apr 15th 2009 9:17PM
What a solid post; great conclusion. Just tweak the "cocky" to "confident but aware" and you're set.
juv Apr 17th 2009 4:53PM
I think your first mistake was carrying valuables in a dangerous area. I recognized that as soon as you mentioned they started taking your rings.
You should never be traveling in poor areas with "rings" and a "GPS watch". Only the cash you need and a watch maybe.
Final note, Krav Maga may be a little helpful if your life is threatened, but the rule is to just give up your money if it'll make them go away. I would also say if you are 110% confident you can physically dissuade them without any consequences, then maybe you can fight them off. But this is so unlikely, only if you're a 250lb american football player or wrestler or something against some thin folks.
comtek Apr 18th 2009 5:01AM
I have lived in Manila, Philippines for the past 4 years. Working at a call center can be quite dangerous. Sometimes we go to work at midnight, or 2:00 am.
Literally 1 out of 5 on my co-workers have been mugged, or their purse or bag snatched from them.
My brother was held up. I have lost count of how many of my girlfriends have had their cel phones snatched from their hand or purse.
Since crime is so rampant I became obsessed with self-defense as well as how to prevent it.
More than half the time, if one fights back, they usually get shot or stabbed, usually by someone in the background who you thought was a bystander.
It really gives me pain and it hurts me inside when a friend, co-worker, girlfriend or loved one gets mugged or their things snatched.
The only thing I can do is to make sure this never happens to me, or be prepared if it does.
I thought I had rehearsed all the possible scenarios in my mind and prepared for attack in every situation, bus, alley, overpass, jeepney, fx, taxi, street. Then the news shows a bus getting held up and the criminals had grenades! No way you can defend from that.
What helped me from not becoming mugged is pretty simple. Training. With training I was able to go from 135 lbs to 165 lbs ripped. 165 lbs ripped in Manila is huge. Muggers generally avoid someone who looks intimidating. But I found out its still not big enough.
I was in a Quaipo overpass at 3:00 am. Two low-lifes were walking towards me.
As soon as they passed me, they turned around and started to follow me but stopped. They were shocked to see that I was staring them down. No way would they try to mug someone adrenalized and prepared. They went about their business and I went mine.
Tynan, you should gain some weight so this doesn't happen to you again.
boredwell May 8th 2009 11:03PM
Tynan! For an experienced traveler, I'm surprised you ignored the probablility of risk and took that picaresque shortcut. While you've learned your lesson, I can only reiterate what you already know: keep to crowded and lighted highways and byways when in unfamiliar surroundings. Surely, you would have avoided that alleyway had you been in Austin or San Francisco. Develop your instincts, listen to them and trust them!