Mugged in Melbourne

Sorry about not having any pictures in these past posts. I don't have a camera anymore. Let me explain.

This may be a long post, so bear with me. I'm going to cover two days in one post.

On Saturday at about 10:30am I arrived back in Melbourne after a nearly sleepless 4 hour trip back from Mulwala. After I was told off by the bus driver for putting my bear feet on the seat next to me while I was trying to take a nap (from 6am to 9am), I realized that I didn't have my good-luck travel necklace! Thankfully my aunt will be sending it to me! I think that's where some of the travel trouble began.

I was able to make it from the main train station in Melbourne, Southern Cross Station, to my friend Sully's house just fine. While there we spend quite awhile just catching up. I hadn't seen him in nearly 6 years. We had a full day planned after lunch however. We started with a picnic for a friend of his; he was having his 30th birthday. It was a beautiful day most of the day with blue skies and puffy white clouds, but turned gray, cloudy and rainy later on. We ended up taking shelter underneath a beautiful green umbrella tree. There were about 30 of us that fit under the tree. It was nice to end the party with cheese cake under this wonderful tree. One thing that really stuck out about this party was the Polish tradition of taking vodka shots and followed by eating fish (my shot included a little bit of herring). I'm not sure I know how to describe the feeling, but I'm not sure I'm willing to do it again. Some places have the oddest traditions.

Following the picnic, we head back to Sully's to get changed for a birthday dinner. It was a very lovely place that serves Vietnamese food, called Red Rice. The food was delicious and the company was wonderful! I think everyone at the table had very like minds. It was quite fun hearing interesting "coming out" stories. One lady had told her mother, "I love women." The response she received was, "You love all women!?"... "Not all at once; one at time, mom." Oh, did I forget to mention that all the people at the table were gay? :)

The party didn't stop there though. After spending close to 3 hours at the restaurant, we moved on to a pub called Southpaw. It had good atmosphere, but I was so dead tired, that I just wanted to find a bed, lay down, and sleep. After mentioning this to Sully, he suggested we grab a taxi for me and I head back to his place. While standing in the small rain showers and trying to hail a taxi, we talked about the distance to his place; approximately 10 minute walk away. I didn't really want to stand in the rain waiting, and I figured 10 minutes was nothing. I'd be there in no time. Although never at night, I had walked streets by myself before. I knew to look confident, walk quickly, walk in the middle of the sidewalk versus closer to the street where someone could stop a car or closer to the dark areas where you can't be seen, and keep our bag close to you.

At about 12:15am, only a few houses and seconds away from Sully's place I heard a bike approaching from behind me. I figured that the person on the bike would just want to pass, so I got over, father away from the road. Suddenly the bike stopped just behind me. Without the chance to turn around to see who it was, they placed their hand over my eyes, as you would if you were trying to surprise someone with, "Guess who it is?" Thinking at first that it was Sully who had borrowed his friend's bike to catch-up with me and check on me, I didn't put up too much of a struggle. Before I knew it though, the guy was reaching around me and grabbed my purse. That's when I knew this wasn't a friend. Although I tried to grab the bag harder, it was too late. Left with a small scratch on my wrist, he had my bag, got on his bike and rode away. I tried to notice as much about him as I could, but I was so shaken that all I really got was that he was medium build, somewhere between 5' 6" and 5' 8", wearing a light blue jacket or hoody, and riding a bike that seemed just a little too small for him. I couldn't wait to get inside Sully's place and feel safe... or as safe as I could feel. Within 30 seconds I was in the house. Thankfully moments before I was mugged, I had pulled the house key and my phone out of the purse. Unfortunately though, the antenna had been pulled out of the phone during the struggle, so I couldn't call anyone. Once inside I called Sully using Skype to let him know what was going on. It was really scary and needlessly to say, I didn't sleep well that night.

In the morning I tried to relax and organize my stuff before Sully came home. He had spent the night at his boyfriend's place. In the afternoon we went to the police station where I filled a report. Missing; about $35, Burt Bees lip gloss, my Cannon Powershot camera, my really awesome handmade purse hanger, and my Queensland 18+ ID card. I'm sure the guy who mugged me was a bit disappointed. I spent an hour and 20 minutes at the police station. Although the officer had said it was only going to take about 20 minutes to do a report, he was the slowest typist in the universe! In the time it took for him to type my name, I could have written a paragraph! When he had too google things.. well, lets just say I could have gone to lunch and come back. Okay... so it wasn't that bad, but I did almost offer to type up the report. I don't think it helped that he was getting overtime pay for taking my statement. Oh well. He was very friendly and got all the details I could give him. I hope they find the guy so that this doesn't happen anymore.

Later that day I found out that a friend of a friend knew of someone that was robbed by a guy on a bicycle as well the previous week. Very bad.

I really like Sully, and I'm glad we were able to hang-out, but I needed to get away from that place. On the train ride from Sully's to Lucy's I was really nervous because I spotted a guy that matched everything I knew about the guy who mugged me. I couldn't believe how tense I was. I was so happy to get to Lucy's!

That night we watched Footloose, had a nice dinner with wine, and ate ice cream and brownies for dessert. It was so nice to feel welcomed and relaxed. I was so happy to finally feel like I was coming to terms with the incident. I was so lucky it wasn't worse. What a wake-up call.

Tips for future reference... don't make decisions when you're tired... don't walk alone at night... and be ready for anything...    (Those sound like pretty good tips, no?)

Today I'm writing to insurance. Hopefully I'll get some money back so that I can buy a new camera at least.

Thank you to everyone who gave me support following the mugging!!