The home security thread made me think of this. Have you had any brushes with crime? Here are mine:

My husband and I were mugged for our camera and his sun glasses when we were on our honeymoon. Neither of us were hurt - it was a small group of men who just overpowered us and took stuff. Our only consolation was that we had taken the batteries out of the camera because they were running low and we were trying to get every last electron out of them. Batteries in that country ran about $60.00. This was in the late 80s.

When I was in college, walking back from the train station in Philly, a guy came out of a doorway and grabbed my shoulders. I yelled, " Get the F* away from me" and shoved him. Hard. He looked shocked and backed off. I'm only 5'1" and at that time weighed about 110, so in retrospect, it was kinda funny since I wasn't hurt.

When I was six, waiting for the school bus a guy drove up and told me and the other two little girls that the bus was broken down and that he was picking up kids. Stupidly, we started to get in the car. Fortunately, a neighbor saw the whole thing and came out of her house as soon as guy pulled up. She got there just in time and pulled us out of the car. Creepy!

When I was about 13, a friend's mom dropped us off at the mall. We were walking around when a guy came out of a store and told us he needed models for the store's flier and we'd be perfect. He asked if we'd be willing to pose. We were flattered and said, "sure." Then he asked if we would do him a favor and go out to the parking lot and call his store because something seemed to be wrong with the phones and he wanted to make sure they were working. Again, we said "sure."
Fortunately, as we were heading for the parking lot, we looked at each other and realized that a) Neither of us were pretty enough to be models and b) There was no reason for us to go to the phone booth in the parking lot when there were some within the mall. We freaked out, ran into a store that had a phone and called her Mom. Another creepy brush with crime.

I think that's it. How about you?

When I was 5 our next door neighbor (probably 12 or 13) pulled a knife on me. Nothing happened, thank God. We moved 6 months later.

Also when I was 5, my sack of candy was stolen right out of my hand on Halloween.

Five was a tough year for me!

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Cecilia

"We must love them both--those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

When I was about 14..my brother, sister and I were in our neighborhood, a block from the house in suburban Southern MD. A man pulled up beside us and started to act bizarre, talking strangely. I forget now what he was saying. He pulled a knife out on my brother ( who was like 11 at the time ) & was saying he could hurt us with it..It was very bizarre !

Once in jacksonville, I lived in an apt. building. I had groceries in the car trunk..kept going back and forth to get the stuff...I bent down to get my bags when a man ran right beside my car. I heard a woman yelling to stop him, he was a flasher. The apt building was right beside a high school ball field..the man was watching the girls practice while , let's say, pulling his pudd, choking his chicken..you get the idea....

so, the police were called..all I said was the man ran beside my car and I pointed to the direction he ran towards.

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Live, Love, Laugh

oh, here is another creepy thing...also happened in Jax...I went to the public library down by the beaches..I sat in a grouping of chairs..a young, very nice man sat across from me...I was in my mid 20's..so was he I'd say.

He made small talk, I talked about my dh being in the Navy and all..then he began to ask VERY personal questions to me..what positions we used in love-making..what I did to please him, CRAZY! I was so afraid to even get up and move away from him !

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Live, Love, Laugh

My 21 year old son rents a home in the college area of our home town - he and 5 friends rent a wonderful victorian house that has 6 bedrooms - all with fireplaces. However like many areas of old homes - it is close to a bad area of town - in October the boys were robbed in their back yard at gun point the two thieves fired four shots - no one was injured - but it changed their lives. Much to NO NO NO from the parents the boys purchased a gun for protection. On Dec 12 one of the boys was handling the gun - and it went off - the bullet entered his neck and exited the back of his head - the other boys were sitting there when it happened. They did all the could for this young man - He died on the way to the hospital. All of the boys present in the house were arrested and taken by the police to be questioned and then the police took the boys to the hospital but it was too late for them to see their friend- the staff thought it best for them not to see him. They buried their best friend a week before Christmas.

This was my son’s best friend he held him while he was dying- my son is a mess. We have already started him seeing a specialist and he is taking some medication to help.He has lost so much - every time he does something he misses this boy - they were always together.


And to top it all off - the police closed the robbery case and said - robberies happen all the time - we only catch about 1% of the criminals -

In my younger days I worked at convenience stores part-time. I was robbed twice. Once at knife point and once with a hand gun. I was not harmed and neither were ever caught - this was before the days of cameras.

Once I was working Christmas morning (I had no kids so for it me it no big deal) - A homeless man came in and took a 12 pack of beer, walked out the door, smiled and said "Merry Christmas". I was so stunned I just said "Merry Christmas" back.

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Mary

That reminds me of another incident when I was in college. My roommate and I were walking back to the dorms late at night. I was being kind of oblivious to our surroundings, chatting away, when all of a sudden my roommate grabbed my arm and yelled, "Hey - what is that tiny little thing that guy's holding?"

LOL! Like your guy, he was jerking off or whatever. Hey scurried away when she said that. She's very quick-witted. If I'd thought of saying that it wouldn't have been until we got back to the dormsl

When I was young, single and thought I was bulletproof I was living in San Bernardino CA. I stopped after dark at the library that is in a city park. The park isn't all that well lit and known to be a hang out for street people and stoners and whatnot.
Minutes after I got there a man came in the door of the library and asked "Anyone driving a brown Ford pickup?" as he was looking right at me. I acknowledged thinking I may have left my lights on. He said the truck was leaking gas and that I should probably take a look at it.
Of course I started right out to the truck and he was keeping pace beside me saying how he had smelled it and didn't want a pretty lady like me to burn up and he put his hand on my shoulder.
At the time I had almost waist length hair and I swear it all stood straight out from my head. My brain started screaming "Are you crazy, going into a dark parking lot with strange guy? Whoop whoop stranger danger!!!" (ok, sometimes my brain is very Walter Mitty-like) I stopped dead mumbled something like I'll just call my husband to come look at it and ran back into the library. I waited until several people were leaving the library and walked out with them.
I really believe he had evil plans in mind and that I dodged a close call that night.
Never did go back to that branch after dark again.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

One time at work one of the female security officers was detaining a flasher in the parking lot and calling for backup on the radio. One of her male coworkers was ribbing her and asked "What did you see?" Her reply was "It looked like a penis only smaller".
The guys didn't rib her as much after that.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Well, here are mine.

When I was 13 or so and walking home from a friends house (we lived way out in the country on a road with 5 houses spaced far apart) a guy started following me and talking to me through his car window. He kept offering me a ride home and was getting pushy. I high-tailed it to a neighbor's house and ran inside without even knocking. Luckily the guy drove away.

When I was working my first job, someone stole my purse, on payday just after I'd cashed my check.

When I lived in my first apartment, it wasn't in a bad area, but was near one, so we got overflow. Many times people pounded on my door in the middle of the night. Once a guy came and sat by me at the pool and started talking. Then it turned to how he had AIDS and how he was going to rape me and give it to me so we could be together forever - scary!

Then my neighbor across the landing came home late one night with her boyfriend and a friend and when her boyfriend and friend left after walking her to the door some guys jumped them in the parking lot and made them go back to her apartment. When she let them in they all were robbed, then the the guys were beaten to death and she was raped. I moved back home the next day.

When I lived in Winston-Salem, NC, I was at the main post office and had a gun pulled on me. I had picked up the mail for our law firm and I guess the guy thought I had money. I was right at my car, so my 'run' instinct hit and I jumped in my car. When I got to work, my attorney called the police and the guy was arrested.

Also while living in Winston-Salem, I had my purse stolen while walking down the street. It was later discovered in one of those big blue mailboxes. My wallet and CC were gone. The police brought it to me that night.

Our home was broken into during Christmas about 15 years ago. What a horrible ordeal. You feel so violated. They stole all my jewelry, my husband's guns, including antique ones from his father, my kids' money they had saved for Christmas presents and other things. DH came in and surprised them and they ran out the back door, leaving pillowcases stuffed with items on our bed. I still think about it, especially when I come in at night by myself. They were later caught breaking into our neighbor's house about 2 miles up the road from us.

Some punks having a beef with my son because he was dating one of the punks' ex-girlfriends -- they came onto our property with baseball bats and knocked out the windshields and bashed in hoods, etc. of my son and his friends' cars one night. We knew who they were but couldn't prosecute because in our state, the police said unless we have a 'No Trespassing' sign on our property, well, we couldn't prosecute because we hadn't told them they weren't allowed on our property. WTF does that mean? One of the guys in on it, his dad was a deputy sheriff. I'm sure to this day that had something to do with it being swept under the table. Needless to say, we have those signs up now, but a little too late. I always wondered why people had those signs up in our area. I just thought they were grumpy people! Now I know better!

When I was a court reporter, I was always being escorted to my car by a deputy after some of the criminal hearings, etc. That was always a scary feeling.

There's probably more things, I just can't think of them right now. When we lived in North Carolina, there seemed to be a lot more crime everywhere.

Well there was that one time I did a robbery and jumped out of the plane with my money over Oregon but darn it my chute did not operate correctly and I ended up losing a lot of the money. Darn it! Oh well it was fun. Oh yeah I dressed like a man and it worked!

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

When I was about 7 or 8 I got a phone call from a girl who said she was going to kill me. She said she would sneak in my bedroom window and kill me that night. I said, sorry I won't be home, we're (my family and i) are going to Bingo tonight! She said she would kill me when I got home from Bingo. I didn't take this call seriously, but my Dad did. He called the cops and they came out and took a statement.. my family figured it was the girl down the road doing it and when she saw the cops at my house after her call, she would get scared. I never was killed HAHA!

When I was dating my EX he and I were friends with a black guy, a very nice sweet black guy. Now you have to remember I live in the deep south.... One night EX was driving me home, and was also driving our friend home, we didn't live too far from each other. At that time neither of us 3 smoked, or drank or did drugs.. we were good young adults (over 20 years ago). The police pulled us over claiming they saw us throw a can of beer out the window, which meant drinking and driving + littering. We insisted that none of us drank!! They asked to see my EX's license. His wallet was missing.. it had fallen out at home when he was playing video games. They put EX in the back of the patrol car and told me to go get his wallet. They didn't ask to see my license or ask if I could drive or anything. So me and our friend went back to EX's apartment and got his wallet and his Mom We came back to where they were and the police were saying they were going to arrest us all for drinking and driving. We all asked to take breatherlizers (sp?) we volunteered to be arrested just to prove them wrong. They let us go. I never trusted the police since. For that short time, I knew how it felt to be singled out. It's not a nice feeling.

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Support bacteria -- it's the only culture some people have!

If Vegetarians eat Vegetables. Do Humanitarians eat Humans?

'Vegetarian' is an old Native American word for bad hunter.

well....when I was 17 or so, my best friend and I thought it would be grand idea to steal a couple of balloons off the cars at a local car dealership. So, we did--only to find out the next day that two of our friends had done the same thing and been arrested (and probably about 15 min. before we had the bright idea).

Then there was the time that I was 20, and let this guy drive my car. I was drinking he was not, but he was speeding. We got pulled over for speeding. And the guy actually had warrants for his arrest. I was by no means drunk but the State Trooper would not release my car to me and I had to go back to the jail with him and the guy (although the Trooper was nice enough to allow the guy to drive my car to the jail!). Needless to say, as soon as the Trooper let me, I was so out of there! (yes, I did leave the guy in jail!)

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Well you little stinker, there's folks been looking for you!

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Wow - good disguise, Cooper!

DH & several other friends went out for DHs bacholor party (19 years ago). DH best friend does not drink. But this group was going to "girly" bars and drinking, so DH best friend was driving since he was not drinking. They were down in a not-so-nice part of town. They got pulled over for having the wrong county's car tags in the wrong part of town late at night. The cops said usually white guys in that part of town were looking for drugs. However, the guy driving was DHs best friends since childhood who was black! Anyway, it turned out that the cops who pulled them over were high school friends of these guys, so they took some great pictures of DH being "thrown" up against the cop car and it looks like the cop is getting ready to hit him with his baton.

When DH & I were married a little over a year our apartment was broken into. We didn't have alot, but they took everything worth anything and anything shiny - brass, etc. Also a handgun and all my nightys & socks. The police said they were probably hoping to find valuables stuck in the socks. I agree, it's a very violated feeling. It takes a long time to feel safe again. We bought a house and moved about 3 months later. They never caught the guys.

I used to work downtown in a tall office building with an underground parking lot. There had been a rash of car breakins. I was leaving work one day and this really scruffy looking guy was on the elevator to the parking garage. I immediately felt uncomfortable, but instead of thinking of myself, I was thinking that I shouldn't let appearance scare me, so I got on the elevator to prove some point. It was just he & I and I realized as the door closed to go down (it only went down to the parking lot) that he had just come up, was already on the elevator and no button was pushed, so he had no intention of getting off to go in the building. I held my breath, rode to my floor & got off. He didn't do anything to me. I don't know what he was up to, but afterwards I was pretty scared and swore I'd think of my own safety before worrying about hurting someone's feelings again.

2 years ago we went to St. Louis for a vacation. Our 1st night in town we went on a Mississippi River Boat cruise. Afterwards, there were fireworks because a new casino was opening. We were on our way to the car when the fireworks started so we stopped & watched them. Near us a stream of retired people were walking to their buses. Right next to us we heard a scream (I thought one of the old ladies had fallen) but a guy had snatched her purse and she was knocked to the ground. She was probably 75 or so. DH was able to grab the purse and another guy tackled the purse snatcher. DH was able to get her purse back and several guys held the snatcher down while 911 was called. But then he started screaming to the woman in the car "get the gun" and we didn't know if there was a gun or not, so the people let him go. There were also 2 small kids in the car. The cops got him and put him in jail. DH got a good citizenship award for it. The lady had several broken ribs. It was sad. DH had fallen down and cut his hand pretty good, but was fine.

I think that's it.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

So thats were you went.

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When you don`t know what to do-Walk fast and look worried.

About 6 years ago my daughter was robbed at gunpoint and her purse was taken as well as the money at her job. As the guy was leaving the store an elderly man was trying to enter the store and was severly pistol whipped. This perpetrator had just murdered a 7 year old child by slitting her throat and was using the money from the robbery for his get away.
He was caught and the state gave him a fitting "get away", he will be in jail the rest of his life. My daughter has never gotten over this experience.