Gail, I know you've been the victim of a crime.
Unfortunately, yes. Once, I was mugged by some young kids.
What happened?
I was going home late at night, and I couldn't see a single person on the street, and it was winter. Oh, it was so cold, so I had my scarf wrapped around my face. And then suddenly, I walked straight into these three guys. They looked about fourteen or fifteen. And they said something threatening like, "Give us all your money or we're going to kill you!" And I'm looking at them because they look so young, and I'm thinking, "What on earth are you doing?" They said, "Blah blah blah blah." And I said, "Listen, it's very cold. Give me a second. I have to take off my gloves."
You must have been really scared.
Well, I opened my purse and all I've got is a few dollars. I was so nervous. And I say, "Here it is." And they say, "Four dollars?"
"Yeah, it's four dollars."
And they say, "That's all you have?" So then what happened? Well, I gave them the money and I just went home. But I felt so bad. You know, I really had mixed feelings about it. I wanted to say, "Guys, what are you doing? You know, go home. You're ruining your lives." And I think, why are those kids on the street doing things they're not supposed to? Something stupid, really stupid, that could lead to something worse. Why do you think kids get involved in stealing?
I don't know. I mean, it was only four dollars. You look at kids getting involved in this kind of small crime and you think, who's responsible. I don't know what they were doing out on the street at that time of night.
Did you report the crime?
No, I didn't. Kids like that don't need prosecuting; they need parenting. They need someone to put them on the right path. These kids really need, you know, help.
In what way?
Well, kids are so vulnerable. They have to get a lot of supervision. There are these kids hanging out on the street doing things they are not supposed to. It's almost a macho type of thing. But I think if these kids had more self-esteem, they wouldn't behave in that way. We have to find ways to help these kinds of kids have good futures. Then they wouldn't commit crimes.