Not a good story

I was robbed last night. It was 8 p.m. and I was sitting outside the neighborhood coffee shop with friend T (who should be renamed the Ms. kick-ass-don’t-mess-with-me-fucker). It was a nice summer evening, the sidewalks were a slow parade of couples getting coffee and walking dogs... and three 17-19 year-old guys ran up and grabbed T’s purse. She took off after them while the other two tried to wrestle mine away... as I screamed one kid poked my hand with something black and plastic-y and the other punched me in the neck and they got it and ran away. A guy from the coffee shop chased after T and the guys, aided by a random guy driving down the street who helped chase them with his car. I called the police (along with about every third house down the streets they ran down) and within a minute police cars were entering the neighborhood and after what felt like forever (maybe fifteen minutes?) T came back and the police came and told us they arrested the guys (two adults, one juvenile). T and I filed a report with a very nice police officer and after another fifteen minutes/half hour, the police and searchers found all of T’s stuff (purse, wallet, cell phone, even cash, all separate and tossed into various bushes) and my purse (minus the wallet and cell phone). Husband, T, and I searched for my stuff by climbing over one of those freeway solid fences and combing in the vast overgrown bushy area that separates the highway from the fence/neighborhood. We recovered the cell phone, but not my wallet.

What I learned:
1. While running after the guys is not necessarily the safest option, I think it’s definitely what allowed us to recover as much of our stuff as we did, so I’m very grateful to T.
2. While being robbed in my own neighborhood isn’t very comforting, the dozens of people who witnessed what happened and came forward with descriptions and stories, the grocery store owner who took a picture of them earlier because they looked suspicious, the people who saw them running and called the police, and the bystanders who gave chase all speak to the goodness and communal concern of my neighborhood.