The mugging

The story will sound a bit old for a lot of people who I've been in touch with, but I think it's still worth posting about it. This happened the evening before my trip to São Paulo (Sept 5th), but I haven't had the chance to write about it yet.

Things were pretty hectic since I was just about to leave town for 2 weeks, so I took my cell phone with me to the gym (something I never bother to do). The place where I workout is like 100 meters from the apartment where I was living: down 2 blocks, across a plaza and you're there! I left the gym around 9pm, stopped at Claudia's (just across the street from the gym), and was crossing the plaza on my way home when I decided to return mom's phone call. BIG mistake... two young dudes were walking towards me, one pushing a bike. When they got close, the one with the bike dropped it right in front of me to block the way, went around and grabbed me around my neck from behind (fun, fun, fun!). He said "stay calm, I don't want to hurt you, I only want the cell phone". "Dude, it's all yours".

Later I heard that others have also been mugged at that same plaza, even during daylight. This is one strong reason why I haven't felt adventurous enough to walk around with my camera and take pictures of the city to post here (keep using your imagination, the new tree that the birds are killing looks just like the other one from the website).

I also heard that some people ask the robber to keep the SIM card, so at least you don't loose your address book and stuff. Man! I was so scared, that thought didn't even cross my mind. And then I broke the world speed record running home to call my mom, because I thought she heard the whole thing - but fortunately she had not.