MY COUSIN JUST GOT MUGGED IN NEW YORK

Sad but true, New York has never been a place where you walk in the door once it opens. Someone could blast you out of existence by mistake. I was advised as much by a friend who had observed my trusting approach to friendly exchanges of visiting. It may no longer be David Letterman’s “the city that’s so nice, it was named twice.”

Well, my older male cousin had just got in from the office, used his key to open the street-side main doors, and entered through the door of the lobby of his apartment building. As he made for the elevator to take him to his sixth-floor apartment, he heard a young man on the street calling his attention to shut lobby door.

Thinking the teenager lived in the building, he opened the door for him to come in from the cold outside. At the elevator, a solitary young lady met both guys and all three entered quietly. The young man punched the button for the fourth floor after waiting for my cousin to punch in his fifth floor destination. The girl had also done likewise to indicate her intended floor level.

When the elevator doors opened on the fourth floor, the teenager peeped out in both directions first before using one of his feet to hold back the closing doors. Too tired to think, I guess, my cousin thought somebody else was coming to join them in the elevator. Well, actually, something did join them unexpectedly.

The young man reached back with his right arm and whipped out a gun from his trouser waistline, pointing it at the other two with the infamous words, “Give me your wallet and your cell phone”. He took the wallet and pocketed it, asked the girl to hand over all the money in her purse, told the young lady to empty the contents of her bag on the floor, and ordered both of them to turn out all their pockets. Talk about someone being cleaned out!

Next, he asked my cousin where the staircase was and was duly given the proper direction. Don’t blame him: “in your face” is not fun when it’s done with a handgun. He immediately darted out of the elevator towards the staircase as the elevator doors closed and disappeared from sight.

It’s amazing how he practically disappeared totally within the few minutes it took my cousin to go up two floors and place a call to the Police, who arrived within minutes. Of course, he could neither pick anyone out of the mug shot gallery nor help with a composite picture because the teenage mugger had worn a hood that exposed only his nose and eyes. Clever hood in the neighborhood?