I can't believe it happened to me

Yesterday I decided to grab some lunch and eat it in my car parked on the street with my window down. It was a beautiful day after all.

I finish my lunch and decide to check out Facebook on my iPhone. All of a sudden I notice someone walking up alongside my car wearing all black. At this point, there is nothing I can do. The window is all the way down and the engine is off.

He comes up and begins to tell me to give him the "stuff". I have the "stuff". I respond, "what are you talking about? I don't understand what you're saying". This goes on for about a minute. (I'm trying to hold off long enough for my phone to lock).

He finally says he wants the iPhone and says that fools get smoked for not giving it up. As he says this, he lifts up his shirt some, like he has a gun. I didn't see anything, but at that point didn't want to risk some stupid kid doing something really stupid so I gave him my phone.

He then proceeded to run the opposite way down the street as a truck that was parked on the other side of the street rolled alongside him. It turned a corner and the kid jumped into the passenger seat in the La Verne Library parking lot.

I quickly made a U-turn and thus began the pursuit. I just wanted to get close enough to get the license plate. By the time I got on the same street as they were on, there were multiple cars in between us. No such luck! They turned down some side street off D St, but I could never locate them again.

While driving around looking for them, I spotted a La Verne Police Motorcycle Unit and flagged him down. Told him the story and he took off looking for them while the crime unit came to meet me and get all the details.

They haven't been able to find them yet, and at this point I don't think there is any hope. There are many levels of frustration that come out of this.
1. The fact that some punk kid has the nerve to come up to my car and steal something from me when I'm not in a good position to do anything.
2. The phone is completely useless to him. It is totally locked down.
3. I just got the phone in early November 08 and AT&T would charge me $500 to replace it, which I can not afford at this point.

It's all lose-lose.

Of course the important thing is no one got hurt, yada yada. I'm still running through the scenario in my mind thinking of what I could have done differently.

Well, that was my Tuesday. Starting off 2009 in an exciting way I guess.

Oh, and if you see a slightly chubby punk hispanic kid about 19 riding around in a bright blue late model Toyota Tacoma extended cab holding a 16gb black iPhone 3G, let me know - and take down the license plate number!

-B