How to Survive a Mugging

If you do it my way, you probably need to be lucky (considering you had been unlucky in the first place), and just give what the young African American male from the projects wants so you can both be on your merry way. It's pretty hard to imagine, even for myself, that just a couple of hours ago, I had a knife pointed at my neck in front of my very own apartment building.

It's almost silly that when a lot of you have been clamoring for "more of Rickey" and "enough of this TV drivel" (it is indeed a blog that bears my name, and not American-Idol-Lost blog), I greet you with this rather dark chapter in my non-online life.

I have since complained to the super that he should replace the illegal front door of our building since it is not see-through and doesn't lock. New York apartment buildings commonly have a door, then a small area for the mailboxes, and then another door. So basically, I was trapped in that area between the two doors where no one can hear or see me when the guy forced his way.

I remember a few months ago writing about a worse case scenario where a mugger would take everything I have, except my wallet, because the value of everything else is so much more than the money I normally carry around. In this case, he was really after the iPod, though he still demanded "everything else you have" which I kinda resisted because DSLRs are not cheap. Since it took too long to negotiate the contents of the big bag, he thankfully stopped with just the iPod, my wallet, and all the $5 left in it. I followed him out, and then he hit me on the side of the head, to which I stared him down with a "what the fuck was that?" expression on my face -- I hardly felt a thing. Anyway, he ran, and I followed him to the corner of 114th and First Ave, where I stopped and called the NYPD.

I love the NYPD. They sent 10 police officers to help me -- although at this point, I thought, where were you when I really needed you. Anyway, the thought of filing a police report and hunting down this guy all through the night, didn't sit well with me, so I just gave them a description and thanked the guys in blue. The pros of having a police report was kinda outweighed by my immediate need to sit down, eat, relax and unstress.

On conversation with my roommate, everyone in the block does look familiar to us, so we would know if there is a stranger about. It just so happened that this guy was there at the perfect time where nobody was hanging out, and I guess I was just not completely aware of my surroundings. He looked like any other kid here in the projects, and of course, he was smart enough to trap me in my own building. I probably won't sue, but I will make sure that the door gets replaced, so that others won't suffer my same fate. It might need a lawsuit to do it, but I'm quite close to the super so I know that he will do it because I said so. I've already cancelled the credit card and will replace all the IDs in the next few days. I even cancelled the iPod extended warranty out of spite.

I know a lot of you will be worried for me, and I thank you, as always. I was a little apprehensive, if it made sense to write this here, but recently, I really wanted to share a bit more of myself in the blog as I said earlier. I admit it is good therapy, and also, who else to share this with than to those of you who have welcomed me with open arms to your homes via the intimacy of your computer almost every night.

As it goes, I didn't lose anything. Because I am still alive, unhurt, and still thankful for the many blessings that I've had in my life, which is how I felt yesterday, the day before that, and hopefully in the days to come.

Unlike countless others in the world who have not been so fortunate, I survived another day. And there is no greater feeling than to be alive.