Sunday night around 8 PM, I was walking on 14th street towards the west side highway when a group of five kids approaching me head on down the block (probably between the ages of 12 to 17), cut me off. All I heard was “form a circle!” and the biggest one of the group stepped in front of me. They surrounded me with their arms extended outwards, to block my escape, right next to the stairwell entrance to the highline and asked if I had any money. They were so casual, didn't pull a knife or a gun, and were almost laughing while they asked me, that it took me a second to realize what was going on.
I said no but they asked again, I said no and tried to move past them. The youngest kid looked me dead in the eye and said, “We aren’t asking you.”
I recognize in hindsight this sounds obvious, but it all happened so quickly (10 to 15 seconds maybe) that I only snapped out of it and realized that I had to leave asap as soon as he said those words. I turned and ducked as fast as I could out of the circle and ran down the block towards little island. They chased me for a second but there were so many people towards the end of the block, and it wasn't dark that they just gave up.
I’m mostly posting my story to share it with others as well as get some advice as to how to handle a situation like that next time. People on the R/NYC sub were very helpful - but sadly this post was taken down for being “unverifiable crime”.
I’ve lived in the city for 11 years so this isn’t my first rodeo being alert for people who can cause trouble. Looking back, it felt like it was a momentary lapse of judgement, and considering the fact that it was a fairly nice area that I visited dozens of times over the years, it was fairly early in the day and not dark, and there were plenty of people. It was not something that I was expecting that could ever happen in a place like that.
Thank you
Submitted June 24, 2025 at 07:51PM by blinkeyeyes https://ift.tt/GlgkQaD
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