Two days after he was mugged at knifepoint, Don returned to the street of the crime — and saw two boys who resembled his attackers.
He decided to take action. He wasn’t quite sure what to do.
Don (he preferred not to have his last name published) was mugged in daylight, at 6 p.m., last Wednesday in Westville.
He was walking on West Elm Street between Central and West Rock avenues. Two boys who seemed around 15, one wearing a red hoodie, the other a grey sweatshirt, came up from behind him, fast.
Don turned around. One of the boys flashed a knife. “Give me your fucking money,” demanded the boy. When Don didn’t produce the goods fast enough, one of the kids rifled through his pockets and grabbed his wallet. Then the attackers fled.
Don didn’t have his cell phone on him. When he returned home (nearby), he called the cops. Officer Carl Meyers came to his house to take the report while two other cops scoured the neighborhood seeking the suspects, to no avail.
Two days later, also at 6 p.m., Don was back walking on West Elm. He approached Westville Quality Market, at Alden and West Elm, two blocks from where he’d been mugged. He saw two young men standing outside the store. He thought they looked like the boys who mugged him.
They made eye contact. The boys turned away and started walking away east on West Elm, toward Edgewood Park.
Don followed them, but kept his distance. They turned toward Edgewood Avenue. A couple of times they looked back at Don. Eventually, he lost them.
He returned home (again, he didn’t have his cell) and dialed 911. He was transferred to a woman who asked if he could positively identify the boys as his attackers.
Not definitively, Don said.
“Since you can’t identify them, there’s nothing we can do,” she responded.
“I didn’t want them arrested,” Don said. He thought the cops might want the information and perhaps would question them. The woman repeated that she couldn’t help him.
Don then dialed the Westville police substation number. No luck there, either: The voice mailbox was full.
Finally he called the p.d.‘s non-emergency number (946‑6316) and asked for Officer Meyers. Meyers was out. He got the message and returned Don’s call within 15 minutes. He apologized for the 911 interaction, took the information.
The episode left Don wondering what he should have done, both the day of the attack, and then on the second encounter.
Until the mugging, he used to spend the time on his daily strolls revising his poetry. No longer. (“Wallace Stevens didn’t have to watch his back” when he used to compose verse on his daily strolls to work at a Hartford insurance company, Don noted.)
“I have one finger on the Screecher” — a pocket-sized alarm he bought last week — “and one on my cell phone. I am half hoping I’ll see them again — and half scared I will.“I want to know what to do. I want to know what the police can do.”
“Pay Attention”
Officer Joe Avery, the police department’s neighborhood services specialist, offered some answers.
He does recommend carrying a Screecher, he said. But use it in advance, not when someone has a gun or knife pointed at you, lest the noise unnerve the mugger.
“Pay attention to your surroundings,” Avery said. “Know who’s in front you. Know who’s in back of you. If you get an uneasy feeling about somebody walking up on you,” unleash the screech.
And if it turns out you blasted an innocent passerby? “Then they think you’re crazy,” Avery reasoned. “So what?”
It did make sense for Don to call the police department when he thought he saw his attackers two days later, Avery said. But Don should have called the non-emergency number first, he said, and he shouldn’t have called the substation.
Asked if the police are following up on Don’s information, Avery responded, “The robbery unit does the follow-up if there is anything to go on.”
Police have caught at least two groups of perpetrators by Westville Quality Market, where Don spotted his possible attackers hanging out. Read about that here and here.