Robbed in Killadelphia

I was robbed a few years ago in Philly one night while walking home after hanging out with a friend. I later cursed said friend and her boyfriend for not offering to walk me the few blocks from her apartment to my house, especially because it was after ten at night and we're talking about PHILLY. If you've never been, let me tell you we're known for our violence just as much as we're known for our cheesesteaks. And I should have known better, but hey this is my city and I'm not afraid of anyone, so I thought.



I was at 11th and Pine, the middle of the Gayborhood, and I was talking on my phone to another friend about an art project we were working on together. From my peripherals I noticed a man moving closer to me and, thinking that he wanted to pass me on the sidewalk, I stepped to the side to let him by. Instead of him going on his merry way he moved closer to me and ripped the bag I was clutching to from my shoulder and started dashing down an alleyway.

I was still on the phone while this was happening and I immediately reacted by chasing this motherf*cker down the alley, screaming at him every swear word in the book and demanding that he give my purse back. My commotion awakened some people inside their homes and I even saw one guy look out the window, but no one came out to help me. Maybe they thought I was just messing around or maybe they thought they were witnessing a drug deal gone bad, but no one bothered to find out what was really going on.

I eventually lost the thief at the end of the alley-- he turned somewhere and I lost trace of him-- and I could do nothing else but collapse in a heap on the sidewalk. All he got was a pack of gum and seven dollars, but it bothered me because the bag was leather and handmade by a friend. I was spent after all that, but I was surprised at how my instincts kicked in and how ready I was to fight this dude. I was thinking about this incident the other day and how it would have went differently had I been armed with a taser or something else.

Is it weird that I fantasize about getting revenge on the loser who took my bag? I've never been in a fight, but I studied Muay Thai and I know how to fight if I ever have to. I wonder what would have happened had I caught up with the thief and pulled out a knife or a gun. It wouldn't have been self-defense, really, if I ended up hurting the dude because I was pursuing the criminal. I think about this a lot, and I can blame my Law & Order addiction for adding fuel to my hypothetical fire, and I have to say that I'm really lucky that it turned out the way it did. I wasn't harmed, I wasn't held-up, I experienced a simple purse-snatching, a crime of opportunity.