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This is a robbery that happened to me when I first came to the US.I was still young and naive about people and situations in this country.I did not have a car yet and had to use the bus service,which is very poor in Florida-but that is for another article.That day I had $600 in cash on me ,which I was planning to deposit into my bank account.When I was riding the bus I always preferred to sit alone with nobody next to me if possible.That day the bus was pretty empty,so I placed my handbag with my $600 inside next to me on the empty seat.After a while I noticed a young boy about 17 years old looking at me from time to time,but at this point I did not think much of it.All of a sudden I noticed him next to my empty seat waiting to exit the bus.At the moment the door opened he grabbed my bag and ran faster than I was looking.My first reaction was to ran after him without thinking. The only thing that I did think of was to take off my shoeswhile I was running since I had high heels on.I followed him crossing streets without checking even for cars.Than he turned into one street where I finally lost him.When I came back to the bus, the bus driver already called the police which arrived within 3 minutes since the police station was around the corner.The other passengers of the bus were very sympathetic.

One Jamaican lady gave me $5 "you are very brave to ran after that boy like that" she said " here you have some money so you can go home at least".A young girl claimed to know the boy that he was going to the same school as her.I was surprised by the helpfulness of the people.The police officer ask me to sit in the car with him to give a description of the boy.When I told him in what street I lost his sight he said:"oh,we know a boy that lives in that street who did something like that before".
Than he got a radio call stating that they were already at that boys residence talking to the father who said that his son just got back from school about 15 minutes ago. I was amazed with what swiftness the police were working."we are going to drive over there for an identification"the officer said.When we arrived at the house,all I saw were police cars at least 8 of them.In the frontyard I saw a very confused looking man talking to an officer I assumed that this had to be the father.I have to mention here that the house was neat and nice looking in a very high profile neighborhood.

I was told to remain in the car while they were going to bring out the boy for me to identify him.
I only saw him from far,but I already recognized him.He tried to change his outfit,but he could not change his face.
After my confirmation they took me to the police station for a statement.I was told that they had to wait for the permission of the father to search the boys room,but they were confident that I would get my money back.
After about 30 minutes they got the message that they had found my money hidden in the boys closet.You can not imagine how happy I was.It was not unimportant to me if they would find the rest of my things
After his arrest they took him to the station where they questioned him about what he did with my purse.
He just stated that he threw my bag into somebody's backyard,but he could not remember in which backyard.
The police searched for 3 hours in the rain for my purse until they finally found it.

How often does that happen after you get robbed you get all your belongings back.I can not say thank you enough to those police officers who helped me that day for the boy I hope that
he chose a better life-path for him.

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