I got mugged.

SO, for those of you who follow my tweets (yes i’ve succumbed to twitter too, just so i have ONE more thing to do every day now, yay) you would’ve heard about my little drama story.

I got mugged.

Yep.

The story goes like this. I was walking home from work, at 9 pm. Yes, I have a car now, but I have been doing a lot of driving and very little walking and I kinda missed the moment of solitude I get when I meander round and up the hill to my house. Plus, I’m all about saving petrol and burning some calories.

So I walked. Two guys approached me from the opposite direction, but being in Auckland where everyone smiles and greets you on the street, I smiled and greeted them. And they greeted back. I carried on walking through them (they both stepped aside so I walk through the center). Now, coming from Malaysia where snatch theft is not uncommon, I had always been alert while walking, and especially when dark, I have trained my ears to just listen out to change in steps or whatever. I pretty much have thought of the possibility of passersby turning around and grabbing me. And...Guess. What. Happened.

No more had I stepped forward 3 steps after they passed me by, did I hear a shuffling of footsteps coming towards me from behind. And in a split second there was a big force tugging my hair from behind.

“Gimme the bag” Thief 1 said with a low, hush but intimidating voice. To which I responded with a loud “HEY!”

Let me just hit pause at this moment because as fast as the it took place, maybe 15-20 seconds, a billion emotions were running through my head at this point.

My very first thought was “They’ve got me. YELL!” But I couldn’t. I was SHAKING.
Second thought, “Save your handphone! Throw a punch , grab your bag and RUN!”. But I couldn’t, because I was TERRIFIED.
Third thought, “Shit, I think they’re gonna hurt me!”

Play. Thief 1 was still going “Gimme the bag NOW” a little louder but still rather hush. I actually said “Ok ok!!” and slipped my hands back and allowed them to grab my bag. And then, I RAN. Like the wind. I heard car doors slamming and a car speeding away but I had this sudden panic attack that they may be driving towards me to KNOCK ME DOWN. Afraid to look back, I just sprinted even harder. Almost reaching Aunty Jane’s (which really was just about 20m away) I looked back and realised their car was in the opposite direction. All I saw was that it was silver/white and it was a low sportscar-ish thing.

Trembling, I rang the doorbell at Aunty Jane’s, rattled my fist on their door and tried really hard to maintain my composure.

Uncle CK came to the door and I went “Hi, um...um..sorry...um...i just got mugged and...they just went off...and we need to go chase them...and they got my stuff and...omg...omg...i...um...” and it went on like that with Uncle CK ushering me into his home, but I was reluctant to because I really wanted to jump into another car and HUNT THEM DOWN. Next thing I know I was sobbing profusely in the sofa next to Aunty Jane, still shaking like crazy. I think it was only after a couple of minutes did I realise that there were about 10 other people in the room, Aunty Jane must’ve been having a dinner function in her house. One of them rang the police. Uncle CK and some of the other men, drove out and when they came back they had my bag pack, empty of course, and my pencil case with all my stationery all over the place. They had found it about 300m round the corner.

After this it was exactly like u see on TV, except that the police took an hour to come. I gave them a second to second narration of what happened, described the two guys, and even had my photo taken.

Shaken, and extremely unsettled, I found my fear subsiding but the anger in me rising. A million should have’s started to come up. I should’ve just bolted, they would’ve lost grip of my bag and I would still have my stuff. I should’ve screamed louder and maybe someone would come out and help me. I should’ve THROWN A FEW PUNCHES. But nah...I know that what I did was probably the best thing.

I finally got home to a bunch of very worried flatmates (coz I told them about it) at close to midnight. I showered and jumped into bed. Oh and I talked to mum and dad about it. I had an exam the next morning at 8.30, and I had just lost ALL my notes. This is where lady luck had BETTER work.

I couldn’t sleep obviously.

The next morning, I had a crappy exam. The irony of it was it was Sport Psychology and it was all about physical activity as a stress coping mechanism and how exercise can increase the rapid fight or flight response and how it increases recovery of it too. Bah. I felt like crap. I was exhausted and still extremely upset about losing all my stuff.
I went around the entire day getting new bank cards, a new wallet, a new handphone, new student ID and all that stuff. Before I went back home, I drove along the street to look for more of my stuff and sure enough I found my water bottle, my food container, my car keys…all scattered along the road.

When I got home, my housemates went “WHERE HAVE U BEEN?” Apparently, Aunty Jane had been desperately trying to get me, because my parents were desperately trying to get me, and because some guy named Calvin was desperately trying to get me, because some other guy named Matt was desperately trying to get me too! Whoa!

To cut the long story short. Calvin had found my handphone in his car which was broken into on the same night. He called the last called in number which was my dad, at 8 am NZ time which is 4 am Malaysian time. Matt had found my keys with my thumbdrive on it, and had gotten my number from a file saved on my thumbdrive, and called it. Calvin who still had my handphone picked up the phone, and told Matt that he wasn’t a girl named Karen and that he was trying to get in touch with me too because he had my handphone! At this point I think I had just stirred up quite a bit of action around the Saint Johns, Glen Innes and Meadowbank suburbs in Auckland. Which probably doesn’t happen very often.

So there was a little more involvement of the Police force, but to put it simply, the police were pretty useless, I got my phone and my keys back by myself in the end. Oh and then, the police rang me, after putting me on hold and transferring me here and there for ages, to tell me someone had handed in my driver’s license….I KNOW!

So pretty much those pathetic muggers got nothing out of me. HA! But they caused quite a lot of anxiety. And that is not good. *shakes head*

It’s been a bizarre past 3 days. I’m exhausted from all the drama. And still a little shaken. And extremely paranoid now.