Stop me if this sounds familiar.

Saturday night (10/18/08) I borrowed a friend’s scooter to go out downtown since the Rays game had all of the parking tied up. I went out to the Independent bar for a drink and had burritos at the Burrito Boarder afterward. Everything was going fine, I left on the scooter and as I was getting near my street when a silver-ish four door sedan cut me off and slammed on it’s brakes. I didn’t really think anything of it other than, “what a bunch of assholes”. And I turned into my neighborhood a few blocks early.

Just up the road I noticed headlights coming up on me very quickly. I thought they were just going to mess with me for a few minutes and tire quickly with their game so I zipped up and down the neighborhood, as fast as you can zip on a 50cc scooter. It became apparent quickly that this was going to go very badly for me.

They kept chasing me for what seemed like five minutes. I decided to head out to a more major road and try to brake hard and make a fast U turn to evade them… Bad choice. They cut me off and blocked me in so that I’d have to back the scooter up. As I was trying to back the scooter up, the passenger (a black male) jumped out of the car with a shotgun and started charging at me. I dropped the scooter and ran as fast as I could into a nearby alleyway. I hid behind a garage and called 911 while I watched them drive off on the scooter.

I feel so badly for my friend who’s out of a scooter until the insurance company gets around to replacing it.

I feel so very angry. I cannot believe that this happened to me barely two months after I was mugged and beaten. Seriously, what are the odds that both my brother and I get beaten up and mugged in the same city and now this?

St Pete, I love you… but you’re bringing me down.

I’m not necessarily a reactive person but I’m so fed up with being the recipient of the increase in violent crime here in St Petersburg, FL. I’m getting my concealed weapons permit.

Update: the scooter was just recovered during a traffic stop in Gulfport, FL.

Update 2: I met with the SPPD Detective handling the case. We discussed the perpetrators and the weapon they used. He said the kid (16 yeas old) that they picked up on the scoote, while he did just get done serving 22 months for multiple counts of grand theft, he did not match my description. But my description did match that of two people who have been robbing local convience stores and restraunts, including St Pete Diner (while it was full of customers).