Just got mugged by two dudes with a 'knife'

Though I would share this here since people might be interested in hearing an example of self-defence put into action, and also so that I can get some advice on things I could have done better.

Was on my way back from a party at near midnight with two girls, one of which was very drunk. Two dudes pulled up on a motorcycle and said something to us, I foolishly thought they were asking for directions so stepped closer to talk to them (big mistake, I'm pretty annoyed with myself that I forgot all aspects of basic situational awareness), which is when they hopped off their bike, pulled a 'knife' and demanded our phones. I say knife in quotation marks because it was pretty dark and I wasn't sure, if I had to bet I'd say it wasn't real but I wasn't particularly keen on betting my safety, or my friends, on it.

Mistake #2, I suppose, was that I refused to give them anything and tried to talk them down from in. Mistake 2.5, I had my guard down the whole time and as such got sucker punched in the face. I thank martial arts training that I took it fairly well, it just knocked my glasses off But I can see well enough without them. I still didn't give them anything and told my friends to start walking away while I dealt with them. Dude started asking for my bag after that (had about £40 worth of belongings in), I still refused. The other guy started hassling the girls at this point and I got punched in the face again (again with leaving my guard down...). I told the guy if I gave him the bag would he masked profanity off and leave the girls be, he said yeah, we shook on it (even muggers can be polite I guess) and I gave him the bag. The other dude was still hassling the girls - 'Give me your phones I don't want to hit a girl' - so I went over to him but his mate told him to get going and leave them alone. Sirens were heard in the distance so they took off pretty quickly.

I wasn't particularly bothered by the whole thing really other than losing my ipod (it had a bunch of songs I don't have in my library any more ) and one of my friends was quite shaken by it. I also admit the biggest damage to be personally was my ego, I didn't fancy fighting two guys wearing helmets and potentially with a knife, but still, getting mugged in front of two girls isn't the best feeling. But I guess it could've been worse as no-one got hurt and my friends didn't lose any of their stuff

All in all I think what I learn most from this experience is that I need to work on the 'self defence' side of things as well as just the fighting. Although I remained perfectly calm during the whole thing I definitely slipped up on a lot of important stuff. Now I just want to keep training so that I can keep my friends and myself safe in the event of something like this happening again. Might also take a few self-defence classes that focus on the de-escalation and awareness side of things. I thought I was clued up on this stuff but evidently there's a difference between knowing about it and remembering to practice it.

 

Anwolf, I'm sorry to hear about your experience. But please remember MAP's policy on masked profanity.

 

No truer words have been spoken.

But I really can't see what more'n you coulda done about it other than not walked up to them to begin with - and I'm near criminally negligent when it comes to that as I'm completely deaf in one ear and have stopped and/or walked up to people or vehicles, innocent-like, only to find it warn't directions they were looking for and no, those weren't compliments on my choice of evening attire they were paying.

One learns, however.

You seem to've handled it very well. Something like that'd eaten at me for a long time.

 

Okay is this real or a joke?

 

I'm really sorry to hear about that Anwolf.

Having been mugged myself once, many years ago, I know what a horrible feeling it is and how easy it is to keep replaying it over and over again in your mind.

You are clearly well aware of what you could have done differently, so the lessons are learned already. But like you said, it's very easy to forget all the right stuff to do when you are in an 'adrenaline dump' type of situation. And if you've had a few drinks then your reactions are severely impaired anyway.

I'm glad that there was no serious harm done. But next time you're escorting two young ladies home after a party, call a cab!

 

Did you get the description of the bike and the license plate and were the police called?

 

Thanks for sharing, and good self critique.

We had a student once who asked me for knife defences as he had had his bike stolen twice. I told him if it happened again to hand his bike over, as his parents could replace his bike but they couldn't replace him, and even if he did learn knife defence it could still go wrong and did he really want to die for the sake of a push bike? He never came back after that, I am not sure if that's becasue he thought I had given him good advice or bad ;-)

 

It happens. You can't really de-escalate a mugging (they're already pretty well escalated), but you did pretty good managing to get them to leave the girls alone - +3 hero points I believe is the standard allocation.

Really hope you got the license plate.

 

Like others said - you're a Survivor. Not a Victim.

 

Sorry about that, won't happen again.

I had one or two drinks but had stayed sober because I knew I'd have to look after some drunk people. I'm quite glad about that because I'm normally a lot more confrontational when I'm drunk so that could've escalated things. I was amused because this is one of the first nights out in a while where I've actually returned home sober; I've been out much later and in a much worse state before and never been bothered at all.

I'm not sure why you'd think this is a joke?

I didn't annoyingly, but yes the police were contacted and I did all the necessary paperwork.

 

No worries Anwolf. No harm done. And after the night you've had, perfectly understandable.

 

I'm proud of you, bro. It takes a lot of courage to be willing to admit to mistakes you feel you have made, and also to relate a story that might not portray yourself as you would want others to perceive you. I say bravo, sir.

In honor of your courage I will make my own confession: When I saw Interstellar in theaters, I sobbed like a five year old.

 

Just thought that this point was so important it should be repeated.

 

From your description it sounds like the reason that you "made mistakes" is that you do not regularly practice self defense skills in simulated self defense situations. Self defense skills are like any other skill. It is not about knowing, it is about practice. If you don't practice self defense skills regularly in lifelike situations you will not be able to apply them in real life.

 

Glad you're ok.

Do not do this.

 

thats why it sounds fake...u shook hands with a mugger....who masked profanity removed does that?

 

Better a bruise ego than some bloody stab wounds that could have been fatal

 

Is it really hard to believe? Like I said myself and others have pointed out, I made a lot of mistakes that seem like common sense but at the time I didn't think about it.