"Chav" encounter

[Lydzor]

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.

 

[Lydzor]

Problem is we are short - 5'7" myself, the one guy was about 6'. Plus we didn't know what they were capable off.

 

[Lydzor]

I dunno about everyone else but I wouldn't have even given them the pound, let alone the time of day. By giving them the pound you give the impression you've got more and once they'll know this they'll apply further pressure in order to get what they want.

I was a bit suprised that my friend gave a pound also, I certainly wouldn't but unfortunately I could tell he was getting quite nervous and was pacing around.

Walk on by. Don't stop. Ignore. If they follow / harrass, just keep going. They then either have to get aggresive or they get bored and leave you alone.

If they get aggressive, run if you don't feel you can anticipate what they are capable of. There's no shame in it.

As a mate of mine from school used to say: "Run away, live to run away another day"

Could be an option but then other things come to mind like:
- Can I and more importantly we run faster than these guys?
-Which way do we run?
-If I run, would the others run with me? If not then they are stuck with them

I'm pretty certain the girl would not be able to out run these guys.

why has no one mentioned the fact that the OP was on a bridge.

should have powerslammed them over the bridge imo. That would have shown em whos boss ......

Seriously though your mate got kicked in the nuts no less and you still offered them advice/money. Strength in Numbers !! you had the upper hand.

Unfortunately the bridge was a strange one. It was caged all around, enclosed really almost like a tunnel. Didn't think of that though, but still wouldn't have been an option. Could have been entertaining though!

My friend offered the pound but I can't remember if this was directly before or after he was kicked. We had 3 people versus 2 true, but one of our members was a girl plus they were drunk and possibly drugged up. Again one guy was taller, the other guy was about the same height.

You should have called police and said that somebody was nicking your bin..

Haha that may have worked!

Wouldn't it have been far simpler to say you didn't have a mobile phone.

My friend tried this at first but they still insisted.

I'm 6'3" and I'm not small.. yet I know my g/f would be able to restrain almost anybody who wanted to start a fight. She's had years of control and restraint training against violent clients, I've had years of quake3 training.

The OP has no reason to feel ashamed, and we weren't there to see how anything could have been done better.

People need to stop bashing the OP or recommending violence.

Indeed, when the aggressive guy was around her he was calm, but when he was around me and my friend he was always on the verge of kicking off. We would have been screwed without her.


Sorry to hear about other people's experiences too.

Remembered another interesting detail so added it to the original post.