The Mystery of the Mesmeric Muggers
Holy hypnotists, Batman, are we in the middle of a crime wave?
We know there are criminals afoot in our clammy city—pickpockets, bag-slashers, muggers, carjackers, the “small-time” (although they are said to belong to crime syndicates) criminals as opposed to the large-scale operators who need to get elected into office first. The problem is not unique to Metro Manila—it’s supposed to be worse in other big cities—but we live here.
So we take precautions. In restaurants we never hang our bag on the back of a chair so a thief can casually walk out with it. It sits next to us where we can keep a constant eye on it, or hangs from a hook under the table. When walking outside we make sure our bags are zipped, not left open for a thief to pluck out our wallets. In certain areas we wear our knapsacks in front. When going home late at night, we ask our friends to take down the license numbers of the taxi. We adapt.
But what if the problem evolves?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 13th, 2011 at 08:36
“What we want to know is why the mugger bothered to bring DB all the way to a sparsely-populated area, which required taking a bus then a jeep, when he could’ve just taken DB’s bag in Cubao and run off.”
maybe his instincts were right & that they were planning to kill him in a sparsely populated area. Thankfully he is unhurt. no one deserves to go through that.
“When we hear about crime in this city we react with horror, then we shrug and forget about it. Everyday perils, right? Until it happens to someone we know. What is going on?”
maybe we have been desensitized to crimes reported everyday in the city until – God forbid – someone we know or us ourselves are “suddenly snapped back to life…as if we’d been jolted out of a deep sleep.”
July 13th, 2011 at 15:57
I salute DB, crime’s only fun if you’re plotting it; not when it’s really happening. It must have taken balls of steel to do that. He was so lucky he managed to snap out of it. Something similar happened to my friend in Philcoa. She managed to break out of it too (the trance) and started screaming her lungs out. The budol-budol gangs reportedly works the same way.
July 13th, 2011 at 21:33
I remember an incident when I was a highschool freshman.
It was noon and I was walking towards a bookshop to return the Archie comics I borrowed. Suddenly, someone shouted at me from a distance “Do not run or you’ll die!”
I stopped on my tracks. A young man was coming towards me. “Do not run or you’ll die”. I looked around and saw some kids running. Why aren’t they dead, I wondered. Maybe he’s a cop and there’s some sort of emergency, I thought.
He was already in front of me and he said “Do not run or you’ll die. Do you understand?”
I was puzzled. “What?” I asked. He rolled his eyes and said “Follow me”. I followed him to a spot behind a large armoured van and a concrete wall. He sat me down and sat beside me.
“I am going to take something from you and you should not tell anybody about this” he explained. It was then I realized that I was being mugged. Ito pala ang hold-up! What is he going to take from me?, I thought. My allowance for the whole week which I had in my pocket? Then I remembered I was wearing a humongous and heavy watch.
“Give me your watch!” he said.
“No!” I replied.
“Don’t resist!” he said while acting as if he was going to get something out of his pocket.
“Wait! Let me think!” He waited for a few seconds. What would my mother say if I lost this watch? She would never entrust me with anything ever again. What would my family say? They would probably stop giving me good gifts because they would think I’m careless.(Yes, I had the time to reflect).
“1, 2, 3…” the man counted.
“Wait! Hold on! Let me think” I said with a little defiance.
He waited a few seconds more.
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8” he counted rapidly.
“Here!” I said as I took off my humongous and heavy watch. He held out his hand. I gripped the watch at the end of its strap, swung my arm, channeled Jackie Chan, and screamed “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!”. My watch hit his forehead with a resounding TOK!
I ran away with my watch while the man was totally stunned.
Lesson of the Story: Sometimes in situations like these, it’s good to be nagtatanga-tangahan because the full impact of what is happening to you will not overwhelm you. Your brain will just catch on and it will kickstart at a fury and whip up a plan to make up for the first few minutes it was stupid. Plus, being inadvertently stupid will make the mugger let down his guard.
Or maybe it was just my luck.
July 14th, 2011 at 23:17
oh my. i’m glad your friend is safe.
how do you defend yourself from a hypnotic suggestion while you’re out and about?
July 15th, 2011 at 08:50
The Best in Talent Award goes to… # 3 the chronicler of boredom
Applauded!
July 16th, 2011 at 09:57
Maybe we should start with the basic stuff our parents taught us.
1. Don’t talk to strangers.
2. If anyone asks for directions, point them out to the nearest security guard or police officer.
3. Don’t be a walking target, save the fancy, flashy jewelry for special occasions. Not for daily wear in densely populated areas.
4. As for hypnosis asked Dr. Jj, my friendly neighborhood therapist for tips. The MO is when someone is asking you something, someone will be mumbling words in your ear, so when this happens; break eye contact and run.