Bottle-throwing kids on Prospect btw Underhill Washing

emily · January 2008

After leaving all our valuables at home before heading out for a bite at Chavella's, we just got a giant glass bottle thrown at our heads by a group of about 6-8 kids on Prospect between Underhill and Washington. It came close enough that I'd guess they intended to hit us and missed, rather than that it was a random hurling. It was just before the house that used to have the broken windows, I don't know the number.

Yep, we called the cops. Oh, and as we waited to cross the street at Underhill, I pulled aside a guy walking with his iPod, told him what happened, and suggested that he put it away.

Update: Some very nice officers came by. However, since the bottle was thrown when our backs were turned (classy!) there's no way we could identify the kid that did the actual throwing. Their rather sad advice was to either get delivery or go to, you know, that other Mexican joint on Flatbush. Sigh.

stacey · January 2008

Wow that really is disturbing - Im glad neither of you got hit. Im not sure if I should be angry or sad over the advice the cops gave you.

pitu · January 2008

That sucks.
And of course Chavela's is a million times more delicious than that other place, so I don't know what that guy was thinking...
:roll:

Glad you guys are okay.

I am so sick of randomly violent teenage boys - nothing new, and not even particular to cities.

sweet tea · January 2008

This story upsets me more than the muggings, to be honest. It's just so nasty and pointless.

The gf and I had a gang of miniature shitheads throw balls at us (after some random verbal nastiness) as we walked down the street last spring. Even that sucked, although a bottle is definitely worse.

emily · January 2008

That's how I felt, too, sweet tea. Wanting an iPod is an asshole motive for mugging someone, but it's at least a motive. As for us, we were just walking down the street. The only "provocation" that I can think of that we could possibly have offered is that we crossed the street while within eyeshot of these kids. You know, to the side of the street on which we live.

I was really pleased with the cops' response, though. They came right over, totally suggested that we drive around with them and look for the kids without pressuring us to do it. Their advice about not heading east was depressing, but just another step in the same direction as the advice I gave to the iPod-wearing guy, in a way.

I guess the thing that bothers me most about it is that in the past I have felt like I could avoid problems by doing very simple things like not talking on the phone, etc. In this case I was feeling really cautious, we left our phones and bags at home, I didn't feel too great about the desertedness of the block on the way over... then we had a nice dinner, and BAM, on the way home, flying glass. I guess it's a lesson in trusting your gut.

sweet tea · January 2008

i have several friends who live on that block, some old-timers (like, 50+ years), some recent arrivals.

i wonder what advice the police would give them?

mr. met · January 2008

when i lived in harlem, i was walking my dog and a group of kids who couldnt have been older than 12 came up to me, called me a motherfucker and my dog a pussy, along with various other obscenities. i walked up to them and told them to go home to their parents. they walk down the street and threw a big rock that came within 2 feet of my dog. they ran away.

a few nights ago a teen and a younger kid walked by me right outside my apartment. the young kid was singing something and jumped up at me and shouted in my face. i kept walking and couldnt really hear what he said because i was wearing headphones. i looked back at them all the way down the street and the bigger one was shouting something at me.

moral: kids are assholes. where the hell are their parents? go the fuck home and do your homework.

caseopele · January 2008

Last spring I was walking my dogs on Franklin Ave when a group of teenage boys approached us. I was waiting at the light to cross when one of them said something nasty about my dogs. As he passed he reached over and shoved my older dog on the hip. This is my 12 year old sheperd mix that was abused before I got him and has arthritis in both hips. I turned around and told the kid (who was jogging across the street) that if he touched my dog again I would f*cking cut him. I was dead serious and I carry a utility knife. The kid (funny, he was bigger than me) ran across the street away from me while one of his friends apologized for him. I thanked his friend, gave the kid one more look and kept walking.

I may look like some harmless white chick but I was a bad teenager. I hung out in areas of Brooklyn that are still pretty nasty. I would have no qualms about protecting myself and if someone messes with my dogs? That's even worse, I'm very protective of my animals, friends, and family, moreso than I am of myself.

What sucks about the bottle throwing incident is that it's so cowardly. Doing it when your back is turned and you have no opportunity to defend yourself is so spineless. Those kids are going to do something like that to the wrong person some day. Sorry that happened to you, emily.

turaho · January 2008

mr. met wrote: called [...] my dog a pussy

I'm sorry, but this made me laugh.

jjb · January 2008

I have to admit that that detail of mr. met's story made me laugh, too—not at mr. met or his dog, of course, but just because it was such a ridiculous thing for someone to say.

mr. met · January 2008

yea, it is kind of funny

i mean, who does that?

alafairnadia · January 2008

jesus christ! emily & mr. emily, I'm just glad you guys are okay. what a batch of assholes!!

frankly, that block (prospect btwn underhill & washington) scares the shit out of me but I usually feel okay when I'm with someone else. I never, though, walk on that block alone.

glad the cops listened to you and took your story seriously - unfortunate, though, that they weren't so in to heading east. bleh.

xo

armchair_warrior · January 2008

sorry that this happen to you

.

I had this done to me during the summer by some kids in south brooklyn. someone threw a soda plastic bottle at me, it came from across the street, these kids were laughing.

I was mad as hell, i ran for the first yard that had a stick. and ran toward the kids. ask politely who done it. they were like you gonna swing it at us. i'm like you bet ya. they walk away.

emily · January 2008

Greeaaat. I just saw a group of kids on the NW corner of Park and Vanderbilt, walking west, that I am 90% sure was the same crowd, only slightly more numerous (8-10 of them). OTOH, I then saw a police car coming down Prospect, patrolling around.

whyfi · January 2008

Really?!?! I think that I just saw the same kids... and I know the parents of one of them. He lives a few doors down from me.

Bottle-throwing kids on Prospect btw Underhill Washing

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