When I was about 16, I had a part-time job working at a little pay booth at a gas station. I’d just bought myself my very first brand-new purse at Mervyn’s department store for $16, and it was my pride and joy. One early morning, two grubby-looking guys on a motorcycle drove up. They were watching me, harassing me, and making no moves to leave. When I reached for the phone, one of them stuck his hand in the pay window and GRABBED my purse.
I’d just finished a self-defense course that taught me to prioritize my safety and let the “stuff” go. All those lessons ran through my head for a split second before I decided: SCREW IT. No one was going to take my purse! I whipped open the door and sprinted after them. The motorcycle was moving, and the thief was hopping on the back like some movie star villain. I grabbed his collar and YANKED him off the back of the motorcycle. We started playing a game of tug of war with the purse until one of the straps snapped.
The thief was so enraged he started BANGING my head into the gutter between the road and the curb. I was starting to worry I’d gotten myself into a pickle, so I decided to yell for the homeless man named BILL—the most genius escape plan ever conceived. The thief got scared, his accomplice circled back, and they sped off. I was definitely a little worse for the wear, but I still had my purse. I went back to work, but a few days later, a police officer taking another report told me the story of the young girl who yanked a guy off a motorcycle was already a local legend in the police department locker room.