Well, I haven't had one of these for a while. Usually you can keep away from them or if they start talking you can walk off and they get bored.
A male and female friend and I were walking back home not too long ago when we encountered two guys at a bridge. They were requesting that we got our phone out so that they could use it to text some friends - apparently they hadn't teamed up and by pure coincidence, the one guy had no text and the other had no battery left on his phone (he showed me and it did indicate a low battery). Now excuse me for being suspicious but it did seem like they wanted to steal a phone here. So we refused, they kept insisting and wouldn't let us leave.
The one guy became increasingly aggressive and kicked my friend in the nuts. Around this time my friend gave £1 to them so that they could use it on a payphone. But they didn't like this idea, they also didn't like the idea of reverse charging. The other guy who actually needed to text was quite polite really in a very intimidating manner. My female friend kept the aggressive guy away as he seemed interested in her - he even attempted to kiss her but she managed to restrain him. It's fortunate she was there as he was threatening various things amongst bottling us (they obviously had been drinking and one had a bottle in his hand). The "polite" guy offered to give me his "draw", house keys and phone so that in the event they did do something dodgy I would have some possession/s of theirs - I politely declined.
Anyway to cut a long story short - in the end their friend gave them a text message which backed up their story. So I offered to send the text as long as they remained at a safe distance, I did so and they got a call back and we were sent on our way.
(Sorry for the block of text!)
You run through options in your mind, like whether to hit out but this could have made the situation worse especially if they had knives (they didn't show any). Could have been much worse I guess, but it's never pleasant. Plus I didn't have my keyboard with me.
Edit: The girl told me later on that the aggressive guy had told her he had apparently only just been let out of jail and was on parole. He was meant to be home by 7pm.
A male and female friend and I were walking back home not too long ago when we encountered two guys at a bridge. They were requesting that we got our phone out so that they could use it to text some friends - apparently they hadn't teamed up and by pure coincidence, the one guy had no text and the other had no battery left on his phone (he showed me and it did indicate a low battery). Now excuse me for being suspicious but it did seem like they wanted to steal a phone here. So we refused, they kept insisting and wouldn't let us leave.
The one guy became increasingly aggressive and kicked my friend in the nuts. Around this time my friend gave £1 to them so that they could use it on a payphone. But they didn't like this idea, they also didn't like the idea of reverse charging. The other guy who actually needed to text was quite polite really in a very intimidating manner. My female friend kept the aggressive guy away as he seemed interested in her - he even attempted to kiss her but she managed to restrain him. It's fortunate she was there as he was threatening various things amongst bottling us (they obviously had been drinking and one had a bottle in his hand). The "polite" guy offered to give me his "draw", house keys and phone so that in the event they did do something dodgy I would have some possession/s of theirs - I politely declined.
Anyway to cut a long story short - in the end their friend gave them a text message which backed up their story. So I offered to send the text as long as they remained at a safe distance, I did so and they got a call back and we were sent on our way.
(Sorry for the block of text!)
You run through options in your mind, like whether to hit out but this could have made the situation worse especially if they had knives (they didn't show any). Could have been much worse I guess, but it's never pleasant. Plus I didn't have my keyboard with me.

Edit: The girl told me later on that the aggressive guy had told her he had apparently only just been let out of jail and was on parole. He was meant to be home by 7pm.
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