Adonis Diaries

I was mugged once. It happened in San Francisco 1992.  I was mugged 20 yards from the hotel, at about 9:30 pm, and no one heard anything in the hotel, not my weak shreeking…I never believed that I would be mugged: It is just statistical data of things occurring to others.

In my mind, being mugged is having the wallet stolen.  I never carried much cash to worry about.  I wished the mugger retrieved the $10 and threw me the wallet, containing those stupid ID and driving licence cards, and phone numbers…

In my mind, a mugger threatens you with a knife or a gun.  My mugger approached me as if I was an invisible person, nonchalantly, and passed me, and boxed me on the head from behind.  I fell and started to “fight back”, all sprawled on my back, not feeling any strength in my feet or arms:  I was mostly agitating like an insect turned over…

I think that I purposely kind of screamed like women, imitating high pitches, on the assumption that mugger abhor high pitch…I the barytone…So much for my Kong Fu training…Though I think I used kind of Kong Fu when fighting with 4 robust guys; they let go of me, but I refused but to go back charging, as I recovered a few breath…I was bruised, but the honor saved…Not when I was mugged.

Many people were looking at the obvious crime, but decided to approach as the mugger ambled away…Someone must have called the ambulance: A trademark in San Francisco for crisscrossing the streets all night long, sirens keeping people awake.

I was driven to a hospital for having my jaw X-rayed and checking for concussion.  I was mostly bruised and disgusted.  I wear corrective glasses that went shattering far from me, and couldn’t identify the mugger with any kind of precision, not in a line-up.  The mugger was heavy-set and “colored”.

The irony is that the inspector took me to the nearby bar, though I told him that I was unable to identify “my mugger”:  The inspector had strong suspicion who the mugger is and wanted to confirm his hypothesis and told me that he wore white turtle-neck something…

I returned to the hotel and told the front desk that I was mugged and stayed in my room for 2 weeks. San Francisco was for me a movable feast, until this event.  I needed to get away from San Francisco, what with all these homeless people crowding every street and violently pressing you to hand them something, a cigarette (the box I learned to hide and never smoke while walking…)

What about this story Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo. Julio Diaz (in picture) recorded his story in New York City just days after he was mugged in the subway.

“Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx, one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a empty platform.  He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,'” Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?'”

Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says. Diaz and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi. The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'”

“No, I just eat here a lot.” The teen said: “But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.'”

Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”

“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “The teen just had almost a sad face,” and couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”

The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet.  “I gave the teen $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”

“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

But what if you are on the ground. not seeing anything, and not in a position of talking? What if the mugger is leaving and you tell him “Have my coat” and he takes it and stab you for being ironic? On the assumption that dead people don’t need any kind of coats? I think Julio Diaz was very lucky for stumbling on a nice mugger, this time around.