Have you ever been mugged?

poisonated

Firstly, I would like to apologise if this has been asked already.
I was just wondering if someone could tell me if it is normal to be paranoid after being mugged. I was abroad and a man put a knife to my throat and demanded my wallet. At first I refused (I know this was stupid so please don't dwell on this point). He then got the knife and gently stabbed me. It was only light so I did not need to go to the hospital or anything. I did put a lot of disinfectant on it. So has anyone else been mugged, if you wan't please share your experience. Also, if you have advice on how to get over this paranoia, I would very much appreciate it.

Call me Al

I was mugged at an atm many years ago at knifepoint by two youths. It didn't happen in Ireland. I wasn't stabbed but that was more through good luck than any action in my part. I know they would have done so. I was physically assaulted while backed into a corner when someone came out od a door across the road.

Have I ever recovered from the paranoia?. Well I've adjusted to it and absorbed some of it. And it doesn't control my life. But im hypervigilent as to my personal safety now, and this has gone on for the best part of 20 years. I dont go to Atms alone after dark if i can help it. And i certainly never walk alone after a night out. I'm always aware of who's around me when I'm in an unfamiliar setting. I do all these things subconcsciously now. They arent life limiting habits, and some would say it isnt a bad way to be.

Call me Al

How long ago since this happened to you poisonated? I wasn't the best emotionally afterwards for quite a few weeks. But it righted itself eventually.

poisonated

It happened over a year ago now. Am getting professional help for it and feel suicidal over it sometimes. I lose sleep and generly find it difficult to cope.

Rubberchikken

op i'm sorry. it sounds like a horrible thing to have experienced.
it's good that you're getting professional help and in time, hopefully, this help will have you come out stronger.

the only time anything like this happened to mewas when i was 14 and a man attempted to grab me from behind one evening. i think the only things that saved me were that he had one arm in a sling and at 14 i was very quick and agile and pushed my way out and ran like hell.
still, i've never forgotten it and don't think i ever will, but it hasn't and didn't stop me continuing on with my life. don't let that scum who mugged you control any part of your life. you're worth so much more.

take care and best of luck

fima

I was mugged and attacked at an atm about 2 months ago. No knives involved thankfully. I am still not right over it but I am trying not to let it affect me too much. I don't feel safe walking around the city on my own. I am more paranoid over safety so maybe that's a plus. I'm so sorry you feel so affected by what happened to you. I can't give you much more advice but just want you to know you're not alone. Some people are assholes and my take on it was that she (the woman that attacked me) must have an awful life, even if she doesn't know that. An hour after it happened I was back having dinner with my good friends in a nice restaurant and enjoying my night and life (with a black eye and swollen face) I'm not letting her win. Good luck OP x

ASoberThought

I've been mugged at knife point and have also had guns pointed at me during an armed robbery in a shop I happened to be in.

It only had a very short term impact on my life. You must just see the world for what it is and we can be unlucky at times. People do bad things for many reasons but mostly coming from a position of discomfort themselves.

Extra awareness is fine but try not let it dictate your life too much and I hope it wont

Stephen Gawking

I can relate OP. I've been the victim of 2 muggings in Dublin. 1 successful the other not so. The 1st time was just after having used an ATM in my lunch break in which it happened so fast I didn't have time to react. I was so angry that I wasn't able to even realise what was happening until it was over. Then I was angry at myself for not having seen it coming.
I questioned my self worth as an individual & a man because I've always considered myself 'savvy' & well capable of defending myself. My confidence was severely knocked even though physically I was unhurt. I recovered from it, chalk it down to experience albeit a bad 1.
The 2nd time was when 2 skangers on O'Connell St tried it on after the obligatory 'have ye got a smoke bud?' I just got so angry that when the 1st fella tried I just hit him & had to be pulled off him by passersby who up to that point chose to look the other way. Then I became the bad guy.

Cue Garda involvement, lots of do Gooders who witnessed what happened developed amnesia but to be honest I don't regret it. Having said that I in no way want to go through it again & I like to think that if I were witnessing something unfold I'd intervene even if it was to take out my phone & dial 999 unlike the people who took out their phones & videod/photographed me.

Detached Retina

Stephen Gawking wrote: »

The 2nd time was when 2 skangers on O'Connell St tried it on after the obligatory 'have ye got a smoke bud?' I just got so angry that when the 1st fella tried I just hit him & had to be pulled off him by passersby who up to that point chose to look the other way. Then I became the bad guy.

Cue Garda involvement, lots of do Gooders who witnessed what happened developed amnesia but to be honest I don't regret it. Having said that I in no way want to go through it again & I like to think that if I were witnessing something unfold I'd intervene even if it was to take out my phone & dial 999 unlike the people who took out their phones & videod/photographed me.

Ah,folks got bent out of shape when you slapped the poor junkie eh? :mad: good enough for him.

When I was 11 family were victims of an armed robbery-I was pulled out of bed, we were tied up and seen my Mam get a gun put to her head (case of mistaken identity apparently). I got car jacked outside my apartment a year ago, by junkie with an axe. Pulled me out of the car, my kids were going on 1 & 3, in the car. I went for him, kicking and punching as he was so off it was afraid he'd take it with kids still strapped in, and genuinely thought I'd buy time or he'd run off. I then screamed at him there's kids in the car,need to get them out. He crashed it in the estate and then wrote it off a mile or so up the road. (kind passers by in holywell deliberately pointed the guards in the wrong direction when he escaped the crashed car after driving on the wrong side of the road the whole way through boriomhe and airside-cheers lads, very honourable!)
I am nervous now anyone approaching, walking beside or near my car now - or in general. But like that, I have to put my kids in a (****ier) car every day, go to work etc. so you can't live in fear.
(before anyone asks, oh always lock your car etc.(I do now!) Central locking was bust, I always park in the underground, it was the one morning I didn't. Window was frozen over so didn't see him hopping (and face planting, thanks cctv) the 6 ft railing in front of me,and had literally only closed my door)

Op it's so invasive when they touch you, or the threat, but you can't live in fear. I know too it's hard not to be paranoid

zcorpian88

Someone attempted to mug me back in May, was walking home from a friends house after a drinking/video game session.

Was about a quarter of an hour walk from my house, I was about half way home when this very gaunt looking guy wearing a fred perry hoodie and baseball cap asked me for a light, had a northern Irish accent which is unusual as I live nowhere near the North and never meet anyone from there here.

Anyway he asked me for a light, I had no light to give him, he immediately turned on me and demanded my phone, I told him "No way, jog on" was already in a pretty bad mood that night as I was feeling a bit messed up over ending my 2 year long relationship and spent a fair bit of this year feeling crap about it, told him to just "walk away" because I have a wicked temper and when I'm crossed I'd probably do the guy a bit of damage. He was in no position to be mugging anyone, very gaunt looking guy, little taller than me but there wasn't a pick on him.

After I told him to jog on he punched me in the face and that was it, lost the rag and smashed him in the mouth 3 times and he got a second punch at me before I broke his nose and he fell in a heap on the tarmack before getting up and running off towards a housing estate nearby. I'm not the fighting type but it was just the wrong night for that BS like.

Had a fairly bad cut to the back of my right hand as I kind of uppercutted him in the teeth a few times, and some bruising to my face, got home and doused my hand in disinfectant and my Dad was just in the door behind me coming in from work and called the Gardai, they ran me up in a paddy wagon to check out where it happened, no cameras up there, they wouldn't take a statement off me till the next day as I had alcohol that night. The lady Garda told me to get a tetanus shot as the cut was pretty bad. Got that then the day after.

The cut healed up but now there is an M shaped mark on the back of the hand. Later had to do a vevofit I think it's called, it's like a computer aided drawing of the guy, got it as accurate as I could, hasn't been caught. The Guard said "Fair f**ks for fending for yourself" I said to the Guard was "No way he was getting that phone, it was a 500 euro phone when new, I'd take a beating before handing it over, it's 3 years old now and he wouldn't have got a hell of a lot for it but I wasn't ready to part with it, hadn't my monies worth got out of it yet" The guard got a laugh out of that all the same.

Diamond Doll

I'm sorry but I had to smile a little at the idea of being "gently stabbed".

However I'm genuinely very sorry to hear of what you've gone through.

I've been mugged twice. First time, walking home from a work night out around 11pm, in Maynooth, not a bad area or anything. A guy ran up behind me, punched me in the back of my head so I fell flat on my face, and took my bag. I actually think I may have been knocked out for a while as I seem to have a memory gap between when I was hit and then two girls walking me to my house, which was only a minutes walk away. I don't remember how or when I met them. Then I remember my uncle, who's a Garda and lived only a few minutes away, being there. I guess my housemate must have rang my mum, and she must have rang him. And my tights were all torn and my knees were all bloody, I just remember sitting on the couch and noticing that. That was my uncle's main concern, why were my tights so ripped up. At the time I assured him that nothing "sexual" had happened. But I guess if I was knocked out, who knows. I was just concerned about all my makeup etc that had been in the bag being gone, plus of course the hassle of replacing cards etc, and also that my college graduation was the next day and my knees were all messed up for it, and I'd bought such a nice dress!

Second time, broad daylight, walking home after having been away for work for a week. I had a wheely suitcase, with a large handbag sitting on top of it with the straps wrapped around the handle of the suitcase. Thing is, my actual handbag was inside the suitcase - the large one on top only had my dirty laundry from the week! Two junkies in a car pulled up beside me, the guy in the passenger seat leaned out the window and tried to get the handbag, I fought back and wouldn't give it to him and told him to go f*ck himself. After a bit of a struggle they drove off, but even as it was happening, some women further back the road had witnessed the whole thing and were ringing the Gardai with the numberplate. They were caught half an hour later trying the same thing with a couple walking along. One is dead now, the other's still in prison for that and other offences. At the time, they'd only both just recently been released early from prison for "good behaviour". :rolleyes: In hindsight it was pure stupidity not to hand over my bag of laundry out of stubbornness, like they were in a car and I was on a very narrow footpath on a bridge, they could very easily have crushed me against the wall if they were so inclined! It was just my instinctive reaction though.

And yeah I'm definitely affected by those experiences, I'm definitely more paranoid. I can't tell you how many times I've heard footsteps running behind me and whipped around in terror, only to see an innocent jogger looking at me all surprised at my reaction. I'm always very vigilant in crowded areas, constantly checking my phone and wallet etc are still there. If someone's walking behind me, and I have the slightest notion that they're in any way dodgy, I'll stop where I am (ideally when someone else is nearby) and let them go on ahead so that they can't get me from behind.

I guess I've no real advice. I don't know how messed up I am from my experiences, but I certainly empathise with you.

Asmooh

Does this count as mugged?


http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057462308/1/#post96253832

If yes, then yes otherwise no.
Anyway I don't need help or have it