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Safety tips
"Give me my phone! Give me my wallet!"
By Anissa Mathews
Spring, 2004
So, I was being shoved onto the Metro at Lyubyanka when I turned and saw 3 gypsies behind me. Right before the doors closed, they jumped off and I thought, "That's funny. Why'd they get off?" Then it occurred to me. My purse! Sure enough, my wallet and my phone were gone. I was furious. Rage is not a familiar emotion for me, but I think that's what you'd call it.
I got to Oxotny Ryad, stomped across the platform and got on the train back to Lyubyanka, then got off the train and stomped around the platform until I saw a band of 12 or 15 gypsies. I went up to them and started screaming in English, "Give me my phone! Give me my wallet!" I could see they were getting nervous, perhaps from the possibility of attracting the Militia, but I hadn't dared to expect any results.
However, after a few more seconds of yelling, the phone was pulled from someone's garment. Then, from someone else's, the wallet appeared. Everything was miraculously intact. So I walked away to the droning of their begging (of all the nerve). The moral of the story is: English = magic, and if you're angry, you should scream. Or something like that.
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