I always ride fast and try to look crazy when I ride through a slightly scary park on my way home from work.
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Good thing the guy wasnât cycling through the U.S. It would have been a real gun, but heâd probably never get to that point because he would have been run over by a motorist long before.
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Seriously? I figured he honestly didnât understand what the guy was saying, and given how terrified he was, also missed the fairly obvious body language.
Thatâs, um, probably not what I would have done. I mean, I donât know, who knows what my adrenal gland might have come up with, but I think Iâd have given the man my backpack.
I know, right? If you know itâs a rough area, leave your wedding ring and fancy camera in your room, and carry a cheap nylon wallet with little enough money that youâll have no hesitation handing it over.
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And the eternal fight between cyclists and motorists is renewedâŚ
Herâes a crazy thought - how about speaking the local language?
For 195 countries? Thatâs a lot of work.
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So the waving the gun about and threatening to rob him was the welcoming part, and the not actually robbing him was the gracious part?
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when youâre basically seeking out trouble
Riding a bike down the street while wearing a nice backpack?
Victim blaming.
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When I got mugged my train of thought was âHold onto my wallet for now and consider giving it up if they produce a weapon or if the level of force escalates.â The guys ended up giving up when my friends turned around and they realized I was not by myself. Not wanting to let some asshole help himself to what you worked hard to earn for is valid, too. I wanted to find a two by four and smash the guysâ heads afterward. I wonder if this guy felt similar rage.
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Iâm hoping the muggerâs buddies will find this video and taunt him with cries of âLa mochilla! La mochilla!â whenever they see him.
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Iâm thinking a lot of countries in South America speak Spanish or Portugese. In fact, all of themâŚ
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My very first night outside of Canada as a 20 year old was in Amsterdam, lost. An individual approached me and tried to mug me in about 4 languages. At first I had no idea what he was saying, but by the time he worked his way around to French I had clued in. I didnât feel a lot of danger (he had his hand in his coat pocket with a finger pointing at me - I think). I could see a police officer a half block away, and the mugger was trying to be quiet and low key in his robbery. Eventually, while I played the dumb and incomprehending tourist, he just shrugged and walked away.
If he had pulled out a gun I would have handed him whatever he wanted, or possibly just screamed and ran away as fast as I could. Life is not an action movie.
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I am certainly in favor of learning foreign languages. However never going anywhere without speaking the language seems horribly limiting, even if you arenât on a gimmicky tour around the world.
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In no way is what Iâm about to be saying sane or safe â but Iâve been mugged before, and instinctively (while watching) I thought that if someone came that close to me with the gun still stuck in their pocket in a straight-arm pose, Iâd bear hug them and try to bit their nose off.
Like I said, not sane or safe, but thatâs what my lizard brain was telling me to do.
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I carry my $4,000 DSLR everywhere, but itâs a messenger-style bag that doesnât scream âcamera bag.â In this video you can hear him at the end saying âOK, Iâll put my camera away,â which suggests he was carrying his camera outside his bag.
You donât even have to appear particularly poor or imposing to be safe: you just have to appear to be the second-most appealing target in the area.
âAmigo! Amigo!â
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Yes, yelling âfriendâ repeatedly doesnât qualify as speaking the language. If it did I would speak at least 7 languages fluently.
Sure, in general. But if I was on a bicycle tour of South America where I was supposed to be interacting with people enough to prove that weâre all awesome together (which I do believe), I think I would want to take the effort to at least speak Spanish enough to get by.
Is that really controversial?
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I was agreeing with you.
For someone who grew up in Texas and was on a trip to every country in South America, I would expect a bit more Spanish. I donât know if I would be able to say anything if I had a gun pulled on me, but I probably wouldnât keep saying âamigo!â
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Despite having never been in imminent danger, I wish I had a dollar for every time my brain screamed, âGet me somewhere else!â in exactly that voice.
