Dear PoPville – Be Aware, Everywhere.

Photo by PoPville flickr user JosephLeonardo

Dear PoPville,

Tonight [Sunday] I was sitting on the steps of my boyfriend’s apartment on Fairmont St between 13th and 14th just checking my email on my phone. A young black man who looked to be between 16 to 20 walked by and tried to rip my phone out of my hand. I fell backwards and managed to hold onto my phone. He ran off I guess when he saw it won’t be easy to get the phone away from me. Needless to say it was a very scary experience.

I know you probably get a lot of these emails but I wanted to let you and your readers know that the phone grabbing isn’t just happening on the metro. It’s happening on the street too. I don’t know really of any way to deal with this problem but I guess everyone should just be hyper aware of their surrounding and keep their electronics tightly held.

Another reader writes:

Apparently there have been a string of robberies tonight in the Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Hts area. Everyone should be alert to their surroundings – I thought I was, but clearly I wasn’t alert enough. The police turned up within 10 minutes of when I called after a guy tried to take my purse in the alley between 18th and Mt. Pleasant. They said that they were getting a number of calls within the area. A youngish, slight male tried to take my purse. He said “give me your purse” as he tried to snatch it. He was wearing a black ski mask so I don’t have a good description of him. I could see his eyes, but not his hair. I said “No” and held on and then started calling for help. My neighbors yelled out the window and the guy left. I know I’m not supposed to fight, but I didn’t see a weapon and I got a few good kicks into his kneecap before he let go of my purse. Anyway – everyone be careful out there and I can’t thank my neighbors (who I didn’t know before 10:20pm) enough for getting involved and helping me out. There are amazing, helpful people in this city and as long as we all look out for each other it will continue to get better.