At about 7pm tonight, I was on my way to Circuit City. For work I need to be in reliable contact so, against the desires of every bone in my body, I have to go buy a wireless phone. A block away from the store, my hate for phones, and the wireless variety in particular, became my last concern.

After I crossed a busy intersection in the full daylight of this summer evening, someone in a white car yelled something out at me, which I was surprised to hear as my headphones block a lot. The car whipped around the corner, stopped with a screech, and three men got out. One demanded “Five bones” from me. He rambled profanely, and his demeanor made his violent intent clear.

I didn’t play along. I started looking around for help. As they approached (the car stopped 10-15 feet away from me), I started yelling at the top of my lungs for help. The lead attacker took a swing at me, glancing off the back of my head. Another attacker grabbed at my brand new headphones; fortunately only cosmetic damage was done to them. They then fled as cars started to stop to assist me.

In my yelling I called out the license plate of the car, but in the heat of the moment, and after talking to the people who stopped to let them know I was fine, I forgot all but the first digit and one in the middle. But I remembered those two digits correctly, so hopefully it helps.

I continued on to Circuit City, concerned that they may have been after me again, or even targetting me for some reason. I wanted to get into someplace with people around, buy my phone, then call for a ride home. Well, I didn’t get the phone, because they wanted a truly exorbitant amount of money as a deposit. So I left, and started looking for a pay phone.

As I did that, I saw a police officer talking to three people, two men and a woman with a towel on her eye. I came up and asked the officer if this was about three guys in a white car hitting people, he said yes. By now this was almost an hour after the attack, roughly. He continued taking the other information, then took mine.

Just about a half hour I got back from positively identifying the attackers. It was great, the first guy of three was the one I didn’t see, so I said “I don’t recognize him.”

The second guy looked kinda like the lead guy who punched me, but I wasn’t sure. So I sat quietly in the squad car and looked as well as I could. Then he starts shouting profanities, and I was at that moment absolutely sure it was the man. I had no doubt. So I simply said “That’s the guy who punched me.” The fool jawed toward his own ruin.

The third guy I had no doubt on from the start. He had the same posture, same build, recognized the chubby face well enough because he got the closest to me actually that I could see (the lead man punched me in the back of the head), so I said “That’s the guy who tried to take my headphones and my iPod.”

Hopefully two clear and absolute statements will be the straw that puts them away. They are looking at “a number of felonies” according to the deputy who originally took my statement, then drove me over to identify them. Attacked a bunch of people, drove drunk, fled the police.

Not the best night I ever had, but justice will be done I hope.

Update: I nearly forgot an important detail, as I’m still hopped up on adrenaline. These guys were on a rampage, attacking numerous people. They punched that woman in the eye and made her bleed. They attacked a family with kids in the car. They threw a glass bottle at a car. They were drunk and vicious, and I’m very glad to help get them put away.