Well, today was one of those days where you think everything will go down pretty easy. Think again. I’m on the N Judah heading toward Caltrain and at the Ballpark these girls who were together in a group got on and one other girl also go on. The lone girl pulled out her iPod that one of the three other girls immediately snatched. The lone girl in her 20’s was pleading for them to give it back. Now here’s the odd part. The three girls who took the iPod were no more than 15 and maybe combined they all weighed what I do. So I stand up and walk up behind the lone girl and ask her, “Are these girls bothering you?”.
The response from the three girls was “Shut up motherf*cker or I’m going to mace you” and she pull out a can of “something”. I begin thinking of the line, “So are you feeling lucky punk?”. The lone girl says to me, “no it was my fault, don’t worry about it.” Her fault? she’s pulls out and iPod and it gets taken from her that doesn’t sound like it’s here fault.
So now my next response from the three girls is, “What are you gonna do now?”
My response? “I’m going to come over there and beat the three of you down if I have to unless you return her iPod.”
OK, what am I thinking here? That could be mace, it could be pepper spray, hell it could have just been WD-40 for all I knew, but even that would sting if it go shot in your eyes. So I’m standing there thinking what the hell am I going to do and the two of the three girls give back the iPod and headphones with a, “We was just playing with you.” I sit down and unfortunately the girl with the “Mace” walks up to me making me stand up and shoves the can up to my face with the line, “I should just mace you motherf*cker!” She puts the can down quickly and I can’t tell what the hell I’m dealing with until she starts to bring her hand up again. At that point I grabbed and twisted her wrist so that if she sprayed whatever this was she’d get it not me and kicked her leg out from under her grab the can with my free hand.
I took a step back and noticed that the streetcar driver had stopped the train at Caltrain and wanted to know what was going on. At this point the girl gets up and runs at me to attack me. I don’t want to punch a girl that might only be 15 so what did I do? Yep, I maced her. Then her two friends freak out and come at me after watching their friend get maced and what happens? I maced them as well.
So now we have three girls writhing around in pain on the ground while the train operator comes over to give me a hand. I called 911 and told them we had an attempted robbery by three girls with a can of mace and that we’ll need you and paramedics immediately because they got maced. The two others who were on the train and saw the whole thing said they were glad I did it, but what if I had gotten maced. We all waited for the police and paramedics to come. It turns out it really was mace and not pepper spray and the police took the can and depositions from everyone there. The train operator said he had noticed something was going on, but wasn’t sure what even before I got involved and was starting to call it in when it all went down and the best part was, this all happened within two city blocks.
Was this a smart thing for me to do? Probably not. I mean if I had gotten maced my eyes are bad enough already and add to that the fact that I would have been beaten down by three 15 [maybe] year olds. I guess I’m just a good guy at heart, but don’t expect me to be going out and buying a Batman outfit anytime in the near future. I’ve done my good deed for the day and I’m done.
Everyone has to make their own choice as to what to do. I applaud you taking action.
I really doubt it was Mace. Mace is hard to get but you never know. Regardless, there would have been no long term effects. I have been sprayed with both Mace and pepper spray during training and there has never been any warnings about long term effects, regardless of the condition of your eyes.
If you had been Maced, I bet the girls would have run. Because they are juveniles, I won’t be able to track the in the system and they will most likely only get a slap on the hand. However, today we had someone in court that used pepper spray during a robbery. Perhaps this is the new way to rob/threaten people.
BTW, if someone comes at you and you are in fear for your safety, all bets are off, regardless of their age or sex. Three 15 year olds against someone of your advanced age is not a fair fight.