<p>this happened a block from the Duane Reade store on 14th street (I think) near the NYU camput
He was talking to my parents on the phone (he hadn’t called them since school started) when he was approached by someone who grabbed his arm. He was startled and abruptly ended the call to my parents. This person told him that he had stepped on a bag of cocaine a block back. He was ‘escorted’ back to the ‘scene’ and shown a broken bag with a white powder on the pavement. There was now a second person at this spot. They wanted my son to reimburse them for their ‘loss’. He offered them the $45 he had in his wallet. They wanted more. My son went into the store and while the two thieves stood behind him (by about 20 ft) he took an additional $20 out and gave it to them and they left. They didn’t take his wallet or phone. </p>
<p>He immediately called my mother back and told her what happened. He then called my brother (who lives in Manhattan). My brother told him to call the cops. My son wasn’t going to bother with reporting it, but my brother insisted. </p>
<p>So my son goes to the campus police who call the cops. The cops went back to the scene with my son. They didn’t believe him. They said he was probably just stiffed on a drug deal. If he was robbed why didn’t they take his phone (or the clothes in the bag he was carrying) They didn’t understand why my son called my mother and brother before going to the police. My son told them that the men stood ‘right behind me’ at the atm. They looked at the video store surviellance tape and said “they are not right behind you, they are 20 ft away”. Excuse me! This 18 yo was just robbed/hustled and he isn’t an expert crime victim. I’m sure that those 20 ft seemed like ‘right behind’ to my son. The cops saw the residue on the street and on my son’s shoe (and a sample was taken). Then they made him call my mother. My son had told the cops that he had hung up on her and that was why he called her back. The cops talked to her. The cops threatened to arrest my son for filing a false report. He told them to give him a polygraph because he wasn’t lying</p>
<p>The police eventually let him go. He seems okay now. But I think this bad experience with the police will affect him more than the robbery.</p>
<p>I’m just glad he’s okay. Money is replaceable.</p>
<p>Oh, Sue–I’m so sorry-- and so glad he’s ok, though I’m sure VERY shaken. My son says adolescent boys–of any color–are often assumed to be up to no good.</p>
<p>This sounds like a scene in a movie, but in this case it actually happened. I’m glad that your S is ok. That must have been a frightening situation. 14th street is usually one of the busiest streets in the city, and it’s always bustling with people. Was he on a cell phone walking and talking or standing still and talking? My kids always talk and walk at the same time and at a very brisk pace (fast walk), so much so that I can barely keep up with them sometimes. They know to run into a store, building, subway station, etc. if something like this should ever happen. It sounds like your S was caught off guard, but wouldn’t it have been possible for him to get away from these people at some point or throw them off guard somehow. It sounds like he was right in the middle of the city, where there isusually quite a bit of activity this time of night.</p>
<p>Oh, how awful! He must be so shaken by this! He is so lucky to have gotten away without being injured! You should be very proud of him, and I am sure you are counting your blessings! Believe me, your family is blessed.</p>
<p>Oh Sue. I’m so sorry! Having a child in NYC myself, I know this is our nightmare. Yes, the police were worse and abusive. Perhaps they should be reported. What would your son have to gain from such a story if it were true? So sad that intimidation is the modus operendi.</p>
<p>Why did he consent to return to the scene in the first place? Was he completely alone on the street or something? At the store with the ATM, he could’ve just told someone he was being robbed instead of giving them money. </p>
<p>Not that your son is a bad person, but it’s an odd story and it makes sense that the cops were suspicious.</p>
<p>I am so sorry. I am relieved that they just swindled him out of the money and did no more harm. I know just where you mean as my daughter lived right there all last year and also in that same vicinity this past summer. In fact, I talk to her a LOT about how much she walks alone very late at night, including tonight, and is always on a cell (she even tends to call us when she is walking) and I do worry (she doesn’t live in NYU dorms or in Union Square any more but in a private apartment and so walks alone even more after late night rehearsals). </p>
<p>I feel angry about the police not believing your son. Why would he make it up? I mean why would he even go to the police if he was involved in a drug deal??? That makes no sense. He can even verify that his call to his grandparents was interrupted. And don’t they get that a freshman new to the city might not have known what to do and so was intimidated and maybe they thought he could have easily walked away but he didn’t. I’m annoyed by their behavior making it as if your son was involved in wrongdoing. </p>
<p>I guess this is a teachable moment. If he is in a crowded area (which that area is), he should get away, go in a store, alert others, etc. My concern is that these young kids are understandably naive and what seems like something that shouldn’t lead to trouble, CAN lead to trouble. Luckily he is OK and use this as a chance to talk through “what if” scenarios. Trust me, I worry about this almost daily with my daughter. I’m anxious about the what ifs WAY more than she is, which is exactly what worries me…a certain level of naiveity.</p>
<p>They threatened to arrest him for filing a false report?!
What do they assume his reason for doing that would be? Jeez. Poor kid, he has my sympathy. Thank goodness he wasn’t hurt.</p>
<p>These criminals pick on likely suspects…kids who don’t look “street smart”, who look like they have money. My own S was threatened on the upper east side of NYC near his high school. A big guy in his 20s told S (who was then 14 or 15) to give him “the iPod in your pocket”. Would you believe S was naive enough to pull out his cellphone to show the guy it wasn’t an iPod? Sheesh. This happened right outside a video game store with four of S’s friends watching from inside the store.</p>
<p>More than anything, I’m sorry for the reaction of the police. I find that appalling, and I think your S should file a citizen complaint at the precinct. These are taken quite seriously…I think they are even investigated by Internal Affairs or whatever. He’s a resident of this city and is entitled to “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect”…the motto on all those police cars our taxes buy. Please encourage him to file a report…for all of us who live in this city. I join the rest of the CC community in expressing relief that he’s okay…physically, anyway.</p>
<p>Also, please, when he’s less shaken up, reiterate that he should NEVER have gone with them even for a minute. He should have started screaming and run away to a populated area. I know nice kids don’t like to make a scene, but it would have made them back off. They pick kids (like my babe in the woods who imagines himself so street smart) they think won’t give them trouble…and they do it well.</p>
<p>NYU parents, with all the cool things they do at freshman orientation, do they give a little workshop on “Streetsmarts for Iowans”? Not to pick on Iowa, but you get the idea. They have a national draw of students. I wish they’d do a dramatic improv on it (Tischies could handle it well) for all the freshmen.</p>
<p>Ugh, what a horrible experience for your son, Sue. I’m sure he is going to be shaken for a long time. It probably won’t really hit him until tomorrow . . . or the next time he has to go to Duane Reade. I’ve been right there – tons of people, it feels safe. But these guys sound like they were pretty clever in how to manipulate a big kid from Philly.</p>
<p>And the police – that’s really scandalous. They aren’t about to do anything anyway with a $60 robbery/coercion. You’d think they would recognize pretty quickly that your son had nothing to gain by trying to scam them.</p>
<p>To me, the police were bullying him for his newness to the ways of the city, just as much as the scum who hijacked your S. I’m so sorry this happened to him.</p>
<p>Actually, NYU does have freshmen orientation workshops such as the one that paying3tuitions is referring to, but unfortunately, it’s not a requirement for the students to attend, and probably some of them don’t think that they need it.</p>
<p>they should have a thing at the atm, where you can somehow alert the machine if you are being forced to use it…some kind of code…like if you add an astrix or an extra # or 999 at the end of the password…something that can be done quickly</p>
<p>or just if you put the card in and do 9999 or such…and then say, oh I was nervouse, let me do it again, but it would send an alarm and only allow so much $ to be released and maybe eat the card</p>
<p>For starters, they have many seminars and workshops on safety issues during orientation though those are not required. However, since you bring up Tischies putting on dramatic improv…I want to mention that every freshman in ALL of NYU is required to attend during orientation a show put on by Tischies (very hard to get cast in this show in fact) who have completely written all the script and all the songs, under the supervision of the well known playwright/composer, Liz Swados and it is called The Reality Show. This is sponsored by NYU’s Wellness Exchange and this highly entertaining show depicts MANY of the situations that students will encounter in college…be it drinking, sex, street smarts, depression, the whole gamut. My D said the show is amazing and it is really a hit with the students. </p>
<p>And yes, I get the idea about “Iowa”. My kiddo is from rural Vermont. She went from a town of 1700 people, living on a dirt road, where you cannot walk to anything, where there is not a single street light in the town, and where all the stores close at 6 PM, to the heart of Manhattan where 1100 students lived in her freshman dorm, where she takes subways and walks all over the city each day, and did so at 16, after truly never being alone hardly ever in her life up until then as you can’t go anywhere alone where I live until you can drive yourself. She had only had had her license for 2 months, then had a very serious car crash, was out of commission and drove again for a month before going to college and so she went from that to living the epitome of city life. She has lived on her own ever since.</p>
<p>Thanks, SoozieVt for describing and linking. It sounds as though NYU does all this in a very creative and engaging way so kids want want to attend the show, even if not required. It’s a teachable skill for rural and suburban students to change over to big city life, plus a lot of tips I’m sure they pick up in the first weeks and months. </p>
<p>I’m sorry for SueInPhilly’s son tonight. His situation sounded so intimidating and nasty.</p>
<p>I did learn something from a friend of my D’s who was roughed up but in a small rural town. He was extremely embarrassed. I think it hurt his male pride that it happened. I’m wondering if Sue’s S’s peers might chorus in tomorrow about all the mistakes he made, but maybe that’s not helpful for to him to get over it emotionally. I just hope they’ll be more sympathetic than critical of him. Maybe mom can troubleshoot that.</p>
<p>I’m sure he didn’t even think of just walking away. I’m sure he didn’t want to cause a scene or do anything to instigate the robbers into being violent. </p>
<p>Yes, he was walking and talking to my parents (the same as bazillions of people on the street are doing) at the moment he was approached. fwiw, he’s 6’2 and white. I never asked him for a description of the thugs, it doesn’t matter</p>
<p>He comes from a Philly where people are robbed at gunpoint on a regular basis. He didn’t have a gun pointed at him but I think he said they told him they had a weapon. I’ve always told him to not put up a fight. </p>
<p>I’m sure he won’t want to file a complaint, he didn’t want to go to the cops in the first place and only did so at the insistence of my brother. The cops talked to my mother. She told me that they sounded nasty.</p>
<p>This was his first ever encounter with police for any reason. I hope it’s the last.</p>
