Crime Story

Rebecca: So, Gareth, is England a safe place to live?

Gareth: Um, to be honest, no. I don't think so, but I haven't lived in England for quite a few years now, so I don't know what it's like now. But when I left, no. I can remember like walking back at home, having bottles thrown at me from the ops - walking along the road, the opposite road. So, yeah, and being hassled. So there's one time, I was walking back from uni and I was going to my apartment. This guy was yelling at me, and I had my headphones on, and I didn't really hear him. But he came close and he was still yelling at me, so I turned around, and he said, - Oh, I thought you're my mate. And I said, - No, no, no. I mean, you misunderstand. And he said, - Oh, okay, and he said, - Oh, I'll walk with you, I'll walk with you.

Well, so the road that led to my apartment was so secluded, and I was a little bit wary, kind of made me feel a little bit worried. So he said, - No, I'll walk with you. So we started walking and he said, - So, do you have a cellphone? I said, - Yeah, I have a cellphone. He said, - Oh, can I use it? Can I make a phone call on it? And I said, - No. I'm like, - That's all right. I don't want - yeah, I'm just going to go home. And he started getting to this whole conversation about why he needed to use my cellphone, so I said, - Okay, here's my cellphone, and he took my cellphone.

Then, he said, - Oh, so then, he asked me about my money, like he said, - How much money do you have on you? And I was like, - Oh, no, so I started to run. I had my big backpack on with like I had a camera in my backpack, and I was worried about him like stealing all of my stuff, so I started to run. He chased after me, and he pulled me down to the ground. And at that moment, this lady started walking down this secluded road - and yeah, if it hadn't been -

Rebecca: Oh, the timing!

Gareth: Yeah, if it hadn't been for her, like he would have stolen all of my stuff. And it was quite scary at the time. I was kind of shaken a little bit.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Gareth: But as soon as she came, he just dropped everything and walked in the other direction. So, after that, I went to the police. There was a police station very close to the apartment, and they were just sipping coffee, and not really like paperwork, not really minding the streets at all. So, I went there and I reported this. There wasn't much they could do because it was an attempt to mug me, but he didn't actually steal anything. So, they're like, - So what's the point? basically. And I tried to tell them that it was maybe preventative, like if we acted now, we can prevent him from doing it again to some other poor boys -

Rebecca: Actually mugging someone, yeah.

Gareth: And yeah. So they didn't do much. And so, I don't really have much of a good impression of the police in England, and also, just crime in England.