Jumped

Ryan got jumped as he was walking home from school today.

He was less than half a block from our house when two guys approached him from behind, demanded money, punched him in the face, threw him in the snow, kicked him, took his wallet, and walked away.

As they were wrestling him to the ground, his backpack got flung into the gutter, and they didn't take it with them.  But he was so disoriented and mad when he stood up that he didn't think about his bag and just started kinda following the guys from a distance as he called 9-1-1.  He was trying to see if they would get in a car, so he could get the license plate number.  They disappeared around the corner, and he turned around to go back and get his bag.

But alas, in the one minute that it took him to get his bearings and go back for his bag, someone in a maroon truck had come by and taken the backpack (with his laptop inside).

We aren't totally sure if the two incidents are related or just a bizarre string of bad luck--but a neighbor claims that the same truck circled back around with the two assailants in the back, ran a stop sign, and drove off at top speed.

The neighbors, who all came out onto their porches when they heard the scuffle, were very kind to poor Ryan.  One lady brought him a cold wash cloth to put on his eye; another invited Ryan to sit on his porch while he waited for the police to come.

When the first cop showed up, he asked Ryan where he lived.  "Right there," Ryan said, pointing three houses away.

The cop raised an eyebrow, "Are you a student?"

"Yeah, a dental student."

"You should move," he said matter-of-factly.

Another cop pulled up.  He said to Ryan, "You live on this street?  You should move."

Welp, we are moving in three months, thankfully.  But I feel bad for the residents of Rounds Avenue--I swear our neighbors are super nice, and they can't escape the thugs taking over their neighborhood.  The  lady who brought Ry the wash cloth said, "I hate this neighborhood."

You may remember a blog post with a similar title from a while ago...oh yes, the blog post was entitled "Robbed."

Ryan just said to me, "We lived in this apartment so we could save money.  But with the cost of replacing two laptops and several bikes, do you think we came out ahead?"

Probably not.  But you can't put a price on stories like these.

Oh, Buffalo.  We will miss you.  We really will.