Heading to work today I turned the corner to where I enter the Brown line track of the Chicago Train network. As usual, a train going in my direction was coming and the tracks were down, so I was going to miss it. I sometimes think the train sits and waits for my near arrival and then speeds up and cuts me off. I waited for the tracks to go up and when they did I entered and gave the train that was just leaving the bird. That will show them.
Up ahead were two black dudes hanging out. Subconsciously I wondered why they did not get on the train since they were there in plenty of time. I was not thinking that seriously about this as I had my head phones on and was rocking out to the Counting Crows first album. When I got up to one of the dudes he started to talk to me and this annoyed me because I would prefer to hear the song “Omaha” than to make conversation with this guy.
He asked if he could use my phone because I was late for work. My suspicion was definitely aroused. However, being the nice person that I am I did not want to seem racist and not allow this request just because he was black, so I lent him my phone. He made a quick call and the said “who is that guy and pointed to the far end of the track. I paid that no mind, but he put my phone back and took off.
I galloped in hot pursuit. I was right behind him as we both crashed out of the train gates. We soon were running through the nice single family homes of Ravenswood manor. There were a couple of people walking their dogs and others heading for the train that were watching my predicament with obvious concern. I yelled to them to call the police. At one point we were running around and around and around a parked car. It was kind of a comical chase when I look back on it.
One nice lady wearing a pink Sox hat did just that and yelled for me to drop my backpack, so I could catch him. I hesitated at this point mulling over this wisdom, but I decided to keep it on and continue the pursuit. This hesitation cost me as I was late in catching him as he hurdled the fence. By this time I was too tired to follow and I noticed that I dropped my Itouch Ipod. My phone was insured and a basic no thrills device. However, my Itouch was the next best thing to an Iphone, so I broke pursuit and started looking for my Itouch.
By this time the nice lady in the Sox hat arrived and said the police were on their way. I tried walking around to the other end of the place where the thief had hurdled to see if I could see him. The police arrived and jumped the fence and took out their guns and tried to find the dude in the back yard where he jumped, but he probably was long gone.
I told the cop the story and when I told him I let the dude use my phone he shook his head in disbelief. He said “don’t be nice, especially in the city.” He told me that people on the south side are killed and car jacked for being nice.
It is an unfortunate lesson to learn being new to the city. With each event that happens like that you become colder and less friendly to strangers. I now have a lost phone and a lost Itouch to reinforce this lesson. I should have not even pursued. The phone was easily replaceable, but the Itouch is not. Also, the duded could have had a gun, and I could have ended up on the losing end if I would have caught up to him. On the other hand, I wish I would have caught him and taught the little prick a lesson.
“City Streets don’t have much Pity.” – The Eagles
