The Day the Mugger Came to Call

One lovely, chilly morning, standing outside of a store I was currently managing, I was enjoying a friendly telephone call and an even more enjoyable smoke. It was about eight in the morning and delivery trucks were outside the "Big Chain Store" next door, as early-bird customers were going into shop. I was propped up against a shopping cart that a considerate customer had forgotten to put back (just in case I needed something to lean on the next morning). Comfortable in my surroundings, listening to the traffic and the chatter of my friend on the phone, I lay my purse into the top of the cart. Gazing into the parking lot I noticed a car drive in front of me with a girl and a guy inside. I saw them look at me but I didn't pay attention to that because they kept driving until they were out of my line of sight. A few minutes later the guy comes walking past me like he is going to see what time the store next to me opened. I just kept chatting. He turned around and looked at me and then I knew. I believe that bad guys have a look. Not a bad look not a good look just a look. Something in their eyes that lets you know you're about to be in trouble. It's almost a serious look. He started walking towards me and I had the good (or bad) sense to wrap my purse around my arm. I still chatted away with my friend as though nothing was going to happen even though I could sense it. "Give me your purse", he says. My wonderful reply is No! and start screaming at the top of my lungs to try to attract some attention. So he starts to fight with me because my great sense of self preservation has kicked in and I have decided that this man does not deserve my purse. And I am not willing going give it to him. All the while I kept my phone glued to my ear and I didn't have the good sense to hang up and call 911. My friend on the phone heard my screams for the mugger to get off of me and promptly does have the good sense to hang up and ring the police. Needless to say my cheap Chain Store purse eventually broke and all my stuff goes flying to the ground where the nice man so desperate to secure my maxed out credit cards and my drivers license and about four dollars in change swipes it up off the ground and bolted for his car ( which is parked just around the corner). People FINALLY come running out of the Big Chain Store next door to see what is going on. Thinking that my identity is about to be stolen I broke into a case of the shakes and the nice loss prevention lady from the Chain Store shoved one of her cigarettes in my mouth and lit it. Meanwhile one of my regular customers comes up and tells me that her husband is an off duty police officer and was in the parking lot and is now pursuing the car in his personal vehicle. A police officer shows up and we listened to the chase on his radio. Perp has gotten onto the interstate and is trying to make a run for it. He is now being chased by 4 cops and a helicopter. I gave my store keys to nice loss prevention lady and hop in the front seat with the cop and we turned on the lights and join in the chase. The other police officers who were already in the chase had cornered him on a bridge on the interstate and we rushed to catch up. The police officer and I were going so fast to catch up that we sped by the pulled over criminals. The cop threw it into reverse and we speed down the interstate backwards while i held on to his paperwork and his laptop to keep it from flying into the floor.My heart was racing a mile a minute more from the fear of crashing into another car than actually facing the mugger. They put the girl ( the driver) and the guy (the mugger) into separate cop cars and i had the fun job of digging through her car to find my stuff. ( They had rubber banded all my cards and I.D.'s together and hid them under the drivers seat). The police shut down the road and I stood outside the car looking over the side of the bridge talking with the driver of the tow truck that had been called in to take the bad guys car away. Standing on top of the bridge feeling it sway in the wind I began to feel exhausted and nauseated. My former adrenaline rush was giving way to a desire to go home and go to bed. Needless to say Mr. Mugger had just got out of prison for assault and robbery and had only been out for a week. So big boy received another seven years in prison for his stint as the sidewalk mugger. If only i could have gotten him on assault charges too. I didn't have any bruises but my arm was a little sore from putting up a fight. All of this sounds a little like something out of a book or maybe an episode on T.V. but this is not the first time that something like this has happened to me ( and I'm sure it won't be the last). The actual affect that these kinds of things has on me varies each time. Mostly anger. A little paranoia mixed with nightmares and an unreasonable fear of the sound of rushing trains. (To be discussed in greater detail in another adventure)