‹ chat statusI left work early last evening because I was feeling ill- I had (and still have) a headache, and feel a bit sick, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, because I didn’t drive and didn’t wait for a lift home, I had to take the city bus.
Just as you get to the city bus stop there’s an underpass. Normally, I’d be one to avoid underpasses at night - but I reasoned that it was only half past nine, the underpass was well lit, and I shouldn’t be scared in the part of the city that I practically live in these days.
So I walk under the underpass, and standing on the ramp on the other side are four gangsta wannabe types, who are probably about my age. They weren’t using the underpass for its intended purpose: travelling from one side of the road to the other, they were just standing around in there. And how cool they thought they looked because of it.
What scared me was that I thought I saw one of them holding a knife. I certainly saw something glistening in one of their hands, and thought that if I continued walking towards them I might be the victim of street crime: it was at the point in the evening when the city is deserted… the shops were closed and it wasn’t exactly “public” time, meaning that if I were to cry for help, no one would hear me scream.
It was here I made a fatal mistake. I changed the way I was walking as a reaction to the perceived threat. Rather than continue on up the ramp, I decided in haste to walk up the steps to my left and try and get to the bus stop that way. I’d just broken the first rule of avoiding being attacked: “don’t make it look like you’re scared of them in a really obvious way“.
One of them spots me doing this and I believe he shouted something like “get him!”- its hard to tell because I had my headphones in at the time. When I saw him running towards me I decided to run. And I’ve never run so fast in my life.
The architecture of the pavement was against me slightly - I ended up running along a raised path parallel to the slope up from the underpass. Chasing behind me was the guy who ran after me and up the steps… and as I ran along as fast as I could, weighed down by a heavy bag, he shouted to his friends “corner him!”. Seriously. So the three others who were on the underpass slope ran up it - this would have cut me off. I’d draw a diagram, but I think that might be a bit excessive.
After what felt like a lifetime, I got to the bus station and they didn’t seem to follow me. I’m guessing this is either because it was crowded and people would see me being stabbed up, or they were only chasing me because they were asses and wanted to scare me. They saw I was scared so they thought they’d have some ‘fun’.
The worst thing was, well, not the worst thing, as being chased by some thugs was pretty freaking awful, but it was a bit depressing that when my life flashed before my eyes when I was being pursued, all I could think about was how pissed off my Dad was going to be with me. He wouldn't like that I didn't call for a ride home.
I’ve never been so scared in my life.
posted on July 4, 2008 10:21 AM ()
Wow! I am so glad to hear that you are safe! That must have been so scary, Matt!
What is our world coming to? 
I don't know what the world is coming too. It's pretty scary when you hear about all the violence taking place -- really sad. It's too bad people can't work things...learn to TALK instead of resort to violence.
Still get paranoid sometimes when I am riding on subway that the ones who were after me may show up again. It really sticks with you afterwards. Hope you're doing okay
I made some bad choices that night.
A similar thing happened to me with four or five (can not recall Matt because I think I went into shock!) young, masked black dudes who chased after me out of a chinese take out place near a subway/bus station near Dorchester, which is a very racially mixed part of Boston. They were wearing half masks and asked for my wallet. Brian being Brian (lol..) said "No way," I tossed my chinese food up in the air at them to create a diversion, and ran up the stairs to security,. An older black policeman, who basically LAUGHED at my story with a breath reeking of alcohol, tried looking for the thugs but they were long gone as were people sitting on benches just watching the whole thing and not doing anything to help me out
The scary part was I had to take that bus and train and stand at that subway station in order to get to work everyday after for months. Luckily, they never showed up again. People at work said "I was nuts" not to give them my wallet. Had a sense they were faking and had fingers in their pockets instead of real guns but I did take a chance and had post-traumatic stress for months after. I empathize with you and hope you can stay away from that area somehow. B
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