So this question was inspired by a family friends incident. Apparently this is his second time being mugged this year itself in the USA and he has been advised to take therapy for PTSD. I was very very horrified because being mugged seems quite bizzare to me especially when one could just simply beg or something instead. All he lost was 20 dollars đź’µ in both mugging incidents and he literally said if they had just asked without threatening he would have given them the money
Here in Germany I never heard of such a case and was fortunate to not experience it. The only equivalent experience was when a homeless dude kinda jumped in front of me and was aggressively demanding money outside the paid toilets . He wanted 1 € for the toilet. I gave him 2 € actually.
But I guess actual incidents although uncommon must be there
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Nope but a friend of mine has been mugged 3 times – I don’t know what it is about that guy – always when walking home alone from nights out. There was never any weapon, just two or three guys demanding his wallet and phone. Obviously he gave them over as he knew they would be able to beat him up.
No, muggings are unheard of in my hometown of 50,000 people.
I used to get approached a lot when I was a teenager – I lived in a mixed area of North London and potential muggers would see my uniform and assume I was some rich kid with nice stuff to steal. They would try to engage me in a conversation about what kind of phone I had (interspersed with a couple of “Don’t be rude to me bruv or I smash your face in”s), I would show them a decoy brick phone, then they’d try to feel my wrist to see if I wore an expensive watch, saw I didn’t and they’d lose interest and walk away. Once I made the mistake of showing the bird to a gang of about 5 guys asking me to give them my phone, who then proceeded to chase me all the way home screaming “Why you swearin at me blud why are you swearin at me”. Fun times. But yeah, I remember a lot of stories of people in my school getting mugged, it was actually a pretty common topic of conversation usually involving anecdotes about how people trolled or outwitted their muggers in some way. And then there was the time my maths teacher got beaten up and her bag full of our maths homework stolen.
The only time I personally got successfully mugged was a few years ago in Oxford (*of all fucking places!*). A teenager on a bike blocked my path and asked me to give him my wallet. I said no as he seemed incredibly un-threatening and more scared of me than I was of him. But then he pulled out a knife, at which point I decided that fighting a panicked puny little child with a knife would probably have been a bad idea, so I threw it into the grass and let him rummage around for it in the dark.
No. I often take a long walk after work (in winter it is already dark) through our biggest park or a natural area along the river or sometimes just through random streets. I just can’t imagine getting mugged here.
On the other hand I visited South Africa and got mugged at a knifepoint on the second day. That was quite an eye opener.
Nope, though I got my ass kicked twice in Poland as a teenager.
Once because a bunch of guys were curious why I am looking at them, and didnt like my answer, and once because my friends and I made a bet with some older folks that we can beat them in football game. We won, they didnt like it so kicked our asses and took our money.
I’ve never been mugged, and I don’t remember any one I know ever being mugged. I’m sure it happens, but it’s not a common thing in my City.
No, I’ve luckily never been mugged, but I’ve been pickpocketed, I’ve had my purse and phone stolen.
A couple times when I was a teenager, but nothing serious, no knives or anything. I did not have anything so it was not a problem.
i had a few offensive remarks told to me on the street, i guess i attract trouble..
when i was about 13 (20 years ago) i rode my bike to a shop. my path was crossed by 2 boys, about 11 and 9 yo maybe, they asked where i got the bike from. it was weird cuz it was an old bmx i got for free from my uncle. i said “fom my uncle” and they asked if they could take a ride on it lol. i knew what they were gonna do and said “no” . next thing i remmeber is me jumping off the bike and hitting each of the boys once on the head. the younger one was crying loud. i got on my bike and ran like hell, especially that i soon noticed an older guy on a bike ride after me. i didn’t get to the shop in the end… after a few days my brother was asked about me, i’ve no clue how they knew i was related to him. they boys were clearly from some poor disfunctional family.
more recently, about 5 years ago, we were at a bachelor’s party and my brother was so drunk he was asked to leave the building. he strolled nearby and got beaten up by some 5 guys. his eye was red he was lucky he didn’t end up in hospital (he kneeled on the ground and put his head to the ground and covered his ears with his arms). we heard later the guys almost beat to death some other people in the streets.
I’ve lived in Germany, Poland and Lithuania. I’ve also spent a month in Belgium for a university project. I’ve never been mugged and never got myself into any dangerous situation, but as a woman I do get stressed sometimes when it’s dark outside and some random stranger is walking behind me in the same direction. Other than that, all mentioned countries were very safe and I personally don’t know anyone who was mugged.
Once in Helsinki, middle of day in the main metro station. A young guy comes up and asked me for money. I gave him a couple euro coins, he says “you have bills in there, give them to me or I will shoot you” as he puts his hand in his pocket.
I put my wallet back in my pocket, laugh and say “ok bro, you do what you gotta do, go ahead and shoot” and start walking away.
So not a real mugging perhaps, just a sad attempt at one.
I do not really give people anything after that most of the time. Have given food to people begging many times though.
When traveling, I always have a simple throaway wallet with maybe 20 or 50 euros in there, and all the cards and cash is either in inside-pants belt pouch or under my shoes inner sole. So if I get mugged, I would give them that wallet with just a little money. Do not use a smart phone either, just a simple cell phone.
Of all the places I lived:
– My hometown (just outside Milan): no, never. I did get my bike stolen once, but I wasn’t riding it, it was locked.
– London: a guy was trying to open my then gf’s backpack as we were walking, we noticed, shouted at him and he backed off
– Munich: lol, no. Worst thing to ever happen here is probably a guy littering or something.
I personally haven’t. But I know a couple of people who were in my hometown of Zagreb. The M.O. is a group of younger guys (2-4), who jump a person, the victim is a teen, and ask the person to give them the phone, wallet. Never heard a weapon was involved in this cases.
Nah, luckily not. I’ve had a few aggressive encounters with drunk/presumably high people, but nothing serious.
A gang once attempted to pull my brother from his motorbike while he was riding it. But that was literally the shadiest part of one of the shadiest towns in Germany past midnight. And they only took notice of him because he brought someone home from a club with him who was also a gang member of some rival gang — which he did not know.
No but I did get into a fight with someone not wearing their covid mask, back when it was still mandatory. At first I told them I sought no conflict, and said sorry. Then they spat on me. Basically shoved them off and they lost some teeth plus their pride. I hate people not adhering to *basic* health measures.
No. My shed was raided one night, but that’s it. They got the chainsaw, lawnmower and tiller, they never got caught, but insurance paid up, so not much value was lost.
That’s about the extent of criminality in this village.
Pickpocketed, yes, twice in Paris. Mugged never.
Once, I was getting out a bar around midnight, i was about to bike back home. A guy approached me, chatted me up, thought I was completely drunk, asked me if he could try out my bike. No way dude, I wasn’t *that* drunk.
I once saw a homeless man with serrated knife late at night. He walked past piecefully, the knife was for cutting cardboard probably…
I never have, even though I live in the city always namedropped by right wingers obsessed with crime statistics who swear they totally have a cop brother in law who told them the entire area is a war zone between drug cartels
No. But I’ve been pickpocketed in Rome central station…
In the Naples metro some kid threatened to pull a knife on me if I didn’t give him my phone, managed to tell him to fuck off but it was really stressful.
I wouldn’t call it PTSD but for the following 6 months I tried to be more aware of my surroundings than normal in public transport or scketchy places
I’ve never been mugged, but a close friend was maybe 18 years ago. Not sure if it involved a knife or gun though. He wasn’t stabbed or shot at least.
No, never. I live in Bucharest, a city of 2-3 million people. I only know of a single person who had her purse stolen while she left it unattended in a shopping cart.
Violent crime is almost unheard of here, i don’t know anyone who was subject to it. And when it does happen, it’s either domestic violence or two drunk people getting in a fight
Not really. Its much more common that people try to scam you into giving them money. I had someone that got reeeaaally close to me when I threw something in the trashcan telling me in broken german that this is illegal and he is from the Ordnungsamt. I now have to pay him 90 Euro.
I laughed at him and when he realized that I wasnt a tourist and actually spoke german he ran away.
Was mugged twice in the park near my high school. It was a nice shortcut in between my school and the bus station, but one afternoon my friend and I left school later than we usually did, and so there was no one else in the park besides us, until we see a group of hooded guys head towards us. We ignored them but then they pulled out switchblades and forced us to give them our phones. They did at least let us keep our SIM cards though.
A week later I was mugged again in the same park, but when the guy told me to give him my phone I said he was too late and that I’d been mugged already, to which he let me go. It’s kind of funny in retrospect.
Since then I’ve never been mugged, and it’s been more than 10 years. The park actually got a glow-up, now featuring a skatepark, a cafĂ©, and other fun activities, so at least it’s not a prime spot to mug people anymore.
Not in my hometown (København), it’s very safe anyway if you know which streets to avoid. But I once got mugged in Hamburg – around the backstreets of the redlight district, the _Kiez_ / Reeperbahn. In hindsight we could’ve been smarter by not walking back to our hostel in the dark, or just standing up to those 16yo punks. But alas… you win some, you lose some. And we’ve drank away most of our money anyway, the muggers made a profit of ca. 12€ 🙂
I was walking with a friend in Madrid at about 23:00 to our hotel from a shop when a young guy approached us speaking Spanish. We said that we didn’t speak Spanish so he switched to English. He said that some guys were coming after us to get money off us so I said “no, thanks” and my friend and I briskly walked off, making sure our phones and wallets were still in our pockets. That’s the closest I’ve got to being mugged but it was quite hairy.
>Did you ever get mugged in your city
Yes, in late 1990s, was 15 then. I lost money in wallet (not much) and shoes (new Pumas). It was rather common then – high unemployment, crazy economic transformation etc. Such muggings pretty much disappeared ~15 years ago.
>Did it involve guns or knives?
No, only fear of being beaten up.
Yeah, once but that was a long time ago when there were places in the city where you shouldn’t wander around at night, especially if you’re a teenage boy.
But for the main question: a common criminal won’t have a gun, they won’t have a knife either and usually will try to not issue directs threats or use any real violence (so 4 big guys will block your path and then they will ask to borrow your phone).
Kid – I live in France …. there is no mugging here