Totally Off Topic/Strangest Night Last Night**The newpaper gives the rest of the story** UPDATE
About 1 a.m. Sunday, two 19-year-old men, an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were walking home from watching a movie at a friend's home near Laurent and King streets, said Santa Cruz police Deputy Chief Steve Clark. They were walking to a UCSC bus stop on Bay Street when four or five men approached them, Clark said.
One of the men showed a knife and demanded their money. The robbers took a wallet from one victim and an iPod from another, Clark said.
The robbers fled in a mid-size, gray, 4-door sedan with a loud exhaust, Clark said. Police said they recovered the wallet near a convenience store on Cardiff Place and are investigating potential surveillance footage from the store.
Several police officers canvassed the area to look for robbers, Clark said.
The robbers were described as a Latino man, a black man and two white men all from 17 to 22 years old, Clark said. The Latino man was about 5 feet 8 inches with a medium build, and he had long hair covered with a gray hat with a flat brim, police said. He wore a light-colored T-shirt and dark jeans, Clark said.
The black man was between 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet 2 inches with a backward hat, a muscular build and a thin mustache, police said. The two white men were between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet and weighed 150 to 160 pounds,
So the young man that came to my house was the one who's ipod was stolen, they must have all ran from the robbers in different directions, since the young man that came to my house had been beaten, I'm assuming his friends must have run off and left him behind with the robbers, and that's how he ended up at my house.
So I'm up at 1:00AM last night (guess you would say this morning actually)doing my anthropology homework, when I hear a noise next door. My neighbor next door is in his 80's and he and I share the colon cancer dx and we have the same oncologist. At any rate I keep an eye out on him, so I went out my door and saw a tall(he was about 6'4") slender man running from my neighbor's door. I shout out to him, "What are you doing?!?" He calls back in this scared tiny voice "Please help me, I just got beat up." He seems so scared and so skinny and such a quiet soft spoken voice even in his fear, that I go out and grab him gently by the arm and lead him into my house and set him in my rocking chair. He was on his cell phone to the police and he kept repeating, "No, I don't know where I am, I just don't know." So I gave him my address about three times, and the police show up within a couple of minutes. I usher them into my house (I offered the young man ice for his poor beat head, but he declined) where they ask him if he will get in their patrol car and hopefully help them find the guys that did that to him. So he did. I live in such a quiet neighborhood, and here was this poor young man (maybe 22 or 23)who had as he told the police "Never, ever been in a fight in his life" running around looking for a house with lights on (my elderly neighbor has a fully lit house at night)so he ended up a block and a half from where they had beat and robbed him.
What in the world is society coming to? Are there no longer "safe" neighborhoods?
Winter Marie
Comments
-
Gailtootsie1 said:Whew!
Wow. That was wonderful of you to help him, but I also am so glad you didn't end up getting hurt. You know people pretend injury sometimes to gain entrance. So glad it turned out okay.
*hugs*
Gail
You could tell from his voice that he wasn't any danger to me. Plus, I've never backed down from danger in my life, I was raised in Alaska with 6 brothers, I've had fear in me in different dangerous situations, but I came out unscathed every time. If someone needs help, I've never really stopped to think, I've just helped. I'm just so angry at these thugs coming into my neighborhood and harming some innocent person!!
Winter Marie0 -
Winter Marie....
Re:
"I'm just so angry at these thugs coming into my neighborhood
and harming some innocent person!!"
Probably a coke deal gone sour; you're lucky the guys didn't
come back for add-ins.
Helping is one thing, inviting some unknown party into your home,
is quite another.... especially when their head is bleeding.
Didn't they have Coke and Meth dealers in Alaska?
Good grief gal, dancing naked outside at night.... I told
you that you'd be attracting undesirables!
(By the way, Google Earth's Night Vision works great!)
Best wishes,
John0 -
ROFLMAOJohn23 said:Winter Marie....
Re:
"I'm just so angry at these thugs coming into my neighborhood
and harming some innocent person!!"
Probably a coke deal gone sour; you're lucky the guys didn't
come back for add-ins.
Helping is one thing, inviting some unknown party into your home,
is quite another.... especially when their head is bleeding.
Didn't they have Coke and Meth dealers in Alaska?
Good grief gal, dancing naked outside at night.... I told
you that you'd be attracting undesirables!
(By the way, Google Earth's Night Vision works great!)
Best wishes,
John
Ahh, John, they do now, not when I was raised there. And I've got my bat and my 1964 seal gun (yes, from my childhood in Alaska, and it's in great working condition) and I know how to use both quite proficiently, as well, as I'm great at knife throwing, can hit my target with a bull whip, (my poor brother John will attest to that) etc..
I'm the same woman that stood on my block in front of the crack dealer's home with a sign, that read "crack dealer lives here", (they don't anymore), and sure everyone asked if I was crazy, that I could be shot, but hey, you have to stand up sometimes, crazy or not, I didn't want a crack dealer in my neighborhood. And yep, I was scared I could be shot, but sometimes you just have to stand up and be counted.
Winter Marie0 -
Exactlytanstaafl said:ugh
Wow, 6'4" and attacked. Have to live in neighborhoods with private security now, like the "third world".
Heck I live in the Upper Westside, "the place" to live. Not any more apparently. Just saw in paper this morning some woman wrote about a lot of thefts in our neighborhood (surrounding blocks)that I was completely unaware of until she wrote about it. Apparently the police told her when she reported the theft at her home, and then she went and talked to neighbors and yes, many of them had missing bicycles, skateboards, etc., I know one of my car jacks came up missing. You work hard for everything you own, and then someone comes along and just feels like taking it, I'm sure without a guilty conscience.
Winter Marie0 -
WinterKathiM said:PLEASE take care, darling!
I find I must say that please be careful! Some nefarious people DO pose as victims...
But, you have such a good heart...I'm glad it worked out!
Hugs to you, dear one!
Hugs, Kathi
In response to "Are there no longer any safe neighborhoods?". I think there probably are in the smaller rural areas. I live in a huge metropolitan area in a neighborhood that has become old and run down compared to the more modern ones. It was a nice neighborhood when I moved here 40 years ago. The house next door has been foreclosed and abandoned. It has been vandalized several times in the last 6 months. Vandals have stolen the remaining furnitue, appliances, fixtures and even the doorknobs. I have reported it each time, but it happens during the night so no one is ever seen.
My husband is afraid for me to empty the garbage after dark. Although it has been years since anyone attempted to break in here(some poor drug addict out of his head), I still keep my two friends Smith & Wesson nearby to greet any uninvited guests.
When I visited Johnnybegood, I was so surprised to see people leaving their cars unlocked while they went into WalMart. Strangers actually said "hello" and were friendly. Where I live, you don't dare run into a convenience store for 2 minutes without locking your car door and we probably have at least 1 murder a day here. I HATE IT HERE!!! But, sometimes life deals you a crappy hand so you have to play it.
You are a good person and I'm so thankful that evidently this was not a bad man.
Luv,
Wolfen0 -
HW and caliber?herdizziness said:ROFLMAO
Ahh, John, they do now, not when I was raised there. And I've got my bat and my 1964 seal gun (yes, from my childhood in Alaska, and it's in great working condition) and I know how to use both quite proficiently, as well, as I'm great at knife throwing, can hit my target with a bull whip, (my poor brother John will attest to that) etc..
I'm the same woman that stood on my block in front of the crack dealer's home with a sign, that read "crack dealer lives here", (they don't anymore), and sure everyone asked if I was crazy, that I could be shot, but hey, you have to stand up sometimes, crazy or not, I didn't want a crack dealer in my neighborhood. And yep, I was scared I could be shot, but sometimes you just have to stand up and be counted.
Winter Marie
What caliber is a "seal gun"? I thought 375 H&H was the safe minimum in Alaska when the seals' natural predator showed up.
"...was doing my anthropology homework" and suddenly it jumped off the pages from the abstract into up close and personal.0 -
Please be careful
An injured bloody stranger showed up at my mother's house a few months ago (somewhat remote.) Fortunately, her aides called the police and didn't let him in. He was on the run from committing a crime, and had come through the woods at night.
I'm glad that you are all right - that your instincts were correct. I tend to be very trusting, and have had to learn that not everyone who sounds legit is.
That being said, I appreciate your caring heart!0 -
Wow! I don't know if I
Wow! I don't know if I would have let him in, but I'm very glad that you're ok. My neighborhood is considered safe too, and people often leave their doors unlocked, however there has been an uptick with break-ins since the economy worsened. A few months ago a house that's a few streets away from me was broken into at night, but the thief didn't realize that a police officer lived there - with a gun. It wasn't a very good choice for the thief. ;-) Take care, Cyn0 -
Tanstaafltanstaafl said:HW and caliber?
What caliber is a "seal gun"? I thought 375 H&H was the safe minimum in Alaska when the seals' natural predator showed up.
"...was doing my anthropology homework" and suddenly it jumped off the pages from the abstract into up close and personal.
it's a .22 rifle this was back in 60's and we called them seal guns because when a seal got wrapped in your net, it was bye bye seal. Yes, illegal to kill the seal and probably frowned on by every animal lover, but something that was done back then (and NO I wasn't the one doing it, since the "girls" did not go commercial fishing)just something all the commercial fishermen kept on board, my dad was no exception to the rule. Personally, me? Wouldn't shoot a seal. But it has always been called a seal gun in my family, and so I still call it that.0 -
Wolfen,wolfen said:Winter
In response to "Are there no longer any safe neighborhoods?". I think there probably are in the smaller rural areas. I live in a huge metropolitan area in a neighborhood that has become old and run down compared to the more modern ones. It was a nice neighborhood when I moved here 40 years ago. The house next door has been foreclosed and abandoned. It has been vandalized several times in the last 6 months. Vandals have stolen the remaining furnitue, appliances, fixtures and even the doorknobs. I have reported it each time, but it happens during the night so no one is ever seen.
My husband is afraid for me to empty the garbage after dark. Although it has been years since anyone attempted to break in here(some poor drug addict out of his head), I still keep my two friends Smith & Wesson nearby to greet any uninvited guests.
When I visited Johnnybegood, I was so surprised to see people leaving their cars unlocked while they went into WalMart. Strangers actually said "hello" and were friendly. Where I live, you don't dare run into a convenience store for 2 minutes without locking your car door and we probably have at least 1 murder a day here. I HATE IT HERE!!! But, sometimes life deals you a crappy hand so you have to play it.
You are a good person and I'm so thankful that evidently this was not a bad man.
Luv,
Wolfen
Where is here?0 -
SafeAnneCan said:Winter Marie
That is quite a story! You are one brave woman, + I am so glad all turned out well. I don't think there are any "safe" neighbourhoods anymore - some are safer than others but none is immune to violence unfortunately.
Is subjective. Mental illness strikes the rich as often as it strikes the poor.
I live in a trailer park, and feel safe enough to leave the doors unlocked and the top down on the car, though we did have a 77 year old fire a gun at the pool last week (nice enough guy, but suffers from paranoid delusions. He was chasing imaginary robbers)
Growing up I lived in a city zoned for horses, with one of the top three per capita incomes in the state. I knew many children of privilege who stole just for the thrill, and one who graduated to B&E then to armed robbery. He shot himself in a standoff with the sheriffs. That was almost 40 years ago.
In Laguna Niguel one of my neighbors beat his wife and teenage daughter to death with a bat. That was 20 years ago.
Then there was the gated community made famous by Real Housewives, Coto de Caza. The kids there were real terrors, on at least one occasion beating a man within an inch of his life, seemingly just for the fun of it. I witnessed a daylight bicycle theft (big kids vs little ones), and helped those delinquents get arrested. That was ten years ago.
My stepdaughter lives in Harlem, per capita probably a safer neighborhood today than Coto.0 -
WOW
Dear Winter Marie
Wish you were my neighbor. I read about that in the paper. Very impressed with your take on the story and what a "hero" you are. I am beginning to think there isn't a neighborhood around that is "safe" anymore. Am in west San Jose and we had bank robbers running through yards near here about 6 months ago. Police helicopters, police dogs and police on the ground never got the guys.
Haven't been on in a while. Just checking in to see how everyone is. My husband passed away 1-13-11. Lived 3 good years after his Satge 4 diagnosis. Love that Dr George Fisher. So sad they still haven't taken a huge step getting rid of this horrible disease.
Best to you and safe travels!
Kathy0 -
you are an angel
that poor young man. he waslucky to find you.
hugs,
pete0
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