I always try to get involved in any drama I see on the street.
Today I had business in International District and at 5th and Jackson, a busy place near Uwajimaya grocery store, a girl got mugged. I did not actually see it; I was nearby and I heard a scream. A girl was on the ground and a guy was taking something from her, and then he ran past me. The girl who got mugged was with another girl (later I found out this was her friend), and some guy was standing near them, and no one seemed to be upset so I was wondering what happened. Then the girl friend started screaming about the girl getting mugged. There must have been like forty people watching because there is a transit station near here and a lot of foot traffic.
The mugger quit running fairly quickly; he was old and looked like an out of shape bum. I started following him at a distance and the girl friend and the guy caught up with me. The guy had just seen what happened, but did not know them. The girl told me that the mugger bum was totally unknown to them and he attacked when they were walking out of a corner store presumably because he saw that she had just purchased a carton of cigarettes and still had not put away her wallet. The mugger had the cigarettes and the wallet.
Within a block of us three following the mugger we passed a cop in a car and signaled the trouble. The cop got out and said, “Hey, stop!” but the mugger kept walking at a normal pace, with us following, and immediately the cop started following but he was fat and slow. The guy that was with me was fat too and he had to stop; we were not going very fast but he seemed like someone who does not walk much, even though he was about age 25. We looked back and there was another cop with the first one, but they were both too slow to catch up with this fast-walking bum. The bum started hassling random people on the street to get them to prevent me from following him. He would pass someone and freak them out, then I would ask them what he said, and they would tell me that they could not understand him but that he wanted them to do something to me. But he was dressed like a bum and I was looking snappy so when I told them to call the police they would pull out their cellphone quick. Eventually the girl with me stayed behind to direct the cops when they caught up, and at that point I lost my contact with her and the cops. I told her to signal the cops in that way and it was bad advice; she should have stayed with me.
I followed this guy for like fifteen minutes all over the place. He started stopping traffic in the streets and banging on car doors asking for a ride away from me, but again, I would just wait for him to go on then when the people looked at me I would tell them to call the cops. Eventually he wandered to the stadium parking lot and it was full of cars. I had three people with me – all new followers, and they said they would stay on the street and direct the cops to the stadium while I followed. The bum went in an elevator that was next to some stairs. I was not far behind him, but after I lost sight of him, I never saw him again. My guess now is that he must have doubled back somehow because I found cops quickly in the parking – they were actually already looking for him there, and we could not find the guy. So I got outsmarted by a crazy bum. There was a dog show at the stadium that way so the parking lot was very smelling and loud with barking. There were cars everywhere and I suppose he could have been hiding in or among them. Maybe he was there.
After enough time had passed for him to have gone anywhere, I gave up. I had talked to four cops in the lot who were looking for him so what else could I do. I went back to the general area where we started and found the girl who got mugged, her friend, and that guy all debriefing. The girl who got mugged was retarded, like well physiologically, but she seemed very gentle and confused. I asked them what they wanted to do and they said they were leaving, and I said if I saw the guy I would tell the police. They told me not to bother, because the girl who got mugged had a warrant for her arrest, and she would rather take the mugging and lose the stuff than talk to the police.
I am not sure how that works. It seems really sad that someone can be disempowered to complain to the police because of a warrant. I wonder why the warrant was issued? The girl was retarded like I said; or at least, she had the kind of face and speech that indicates a developmental disorder. What crime can a person like her commit? She may have been homeless or at least living on the edge of society, because she was not wearing the clothes of a person who seemed to have access to all the facilities a person might want. There must have been something unstable about her situation for her to having a warrant that she felt she could not address. Whatever her problem was, she is going to have trouble improving her lot when already she looks vulnerable and attractive as a mark for muggers then also she cannot seek protection from police.