Not so Safe Anymore?

Crime happens everywhere. However, we truly haven't thought of it much while living in the first arrondissement in Paris and now in Munich because in Paris, the streets were heavily protected and in Munich, I suppose "ordung" (order) rules the day. So when I read stories like the one below, that happened in Andersonville in Chicago (our new neighborhood), I'm somewhat bothered.

Janet,

Ann and I ate dinner at Hopleaf (5100 block of N. Clark) last night. We were walking home east on Balmoral on the north sidewalk between Clark and Glenwood about 9:45PM. We were approached by a group of four (possibly five) young men. One of them walked ahead of the others to pass us and in doing so said, "Hello." The second in the group walked straight at us and as we tried to walk around him, he brandished a tire iron and said, "You're not going anywhere" and demanded money. The first man who had passed us then stepped back to block us from behind and the other two men (possibly a third) who had been trailing the second man stepped up to surround us. Ann started to yell "FIRE" and "HELP" loudly and repeatedly and they threw her to the ground from where she continued to yell. I stepped over her and handed them a small sum of cash from my coat pocket (not sure of the amount but probably $20 - $60). The group took off on foot and ran into the alley just west of Glenwood. I chased them and got the license plate number of the car that sped to the north.

Neighbors quickly appeared on their porches, and two pedestrians came to our aide. The police showed up in about 5 minutes. As we were giving our report to the police officers, they got a call that the car had been pulled over on a side street near the Target located on Peterson, the driver was apprehended, but others in the car ran off. The officers drove us over to make identifications. I identified the car but neither of us recognized the driver. We will be assisting the police in identifying the accomplices (through a line-up or pictures) if others are caught. Ann remembers the face of the second man very clearly.

We are fine. This all happened very quickly with many of the events described above during the robbery happening nearly all at once. We feel very lucky and want to remind everyone to please be careful. Yelling seemed to help scare off the robbers and the neighbors were wonderful about calling 911 and stepping onto their porches. We didn't feel alone. (To our surprise, however, the officers did not drive us home from the police station where we had given a more detailed statement and we had to hail a cab.)

Feel free to share this story with the neighborhood.