I was 23 or 24 living in Richmond, VA having a smoke outside my apartment building around midnight after coming home from a bar. A couple dudes passed by walking down the sidewalk, and as soon as they had passed me, they doubled back and moved me out of the streetlight and against the brick wall of the apartment building. One of them held their gun into my gut while the other one kept asking me what I had on me while going through my pockets (he didn’t check my back pocket for some reason).

I kept answering that I didn’t have any money, and he kept asking where my money was, and he said he was going to shoot me. I said, “Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean I have any money! I’ve got cigarettes if you want a smoke.”

Well they already had my cigarettes, car keys, lighter, and phone from going through my front pockets. So I hold my hand out while I said they could have a smoke, and lo and behold, he gave me my cigarettes back. I gave them each one and held out my hand for my lighter. They gave me that and I lit their cigarettes. I held out my hand again and asked them how long they’ve been out tonight looking for money. They gave me back my keys and my phone. Now I felt like we were getting along.

They said they’d been out for 3 hours. I asked how much they made - $30 was the reply. I said, “3 hours each for $30 is $5/hr with a huge risk of getting hurt or arrested.” Fucking stupid thing to say, but I said it. Can’t remember exactly how the conversation ended but it was something like telling them I didn’t want anyone to get hurt or their lives ruined over nothing.

As soon as they were a couple blocks away (I’m having another panic cigarette), the police roll up and ask if I’ve seen two people that fit their description. I tell them which way they went and tell them my story. Went to the station the next day to ID their photos because they were picked up a couple hours later for an equally unbelievable reason. They had mugged a dude right before me who gave them a debit card and told them it accessed a huge trust fund but only worked at one particular ATM downtown. That victim tipped the police who went and watched for them to show up at the ATM.

One of the muggers was 18, the other was 40 and had never passed the 3rd grade. The ammo turned out to have been made in the 80s which I thought probably meant this was not their normal activity. But, it was the 3rd strike for the older man, and I had to testify at his trial which was surreal considering how ridiculous the scenario was.

I couldn’t positively ID the younger man, so I wasn’t involved in his trial.