Alert along Paseo de la Presa at night

A year and a half ago a friend and I were robbed by two young men with pistols near the foot of the privada (dead end street, but in this case there is a stairway that goes up a rock slope to the Panoramica) where I live. I thought at the time we had been careless to be out after midnight.

Then two weeks ago, on December 17 of this year, I was assaulted on the stairway between the poorly-lighted privada and my house, again after dark but much earlier at 8:30pm. This was an ugly event, with the man violating me with his hand as well as robbing me. Not only that, when he disappeared, he came back a minute later to throw me to the ground again and repeat his behavior. After the second attack, while I was considering what to do without my keys, I saw him walk calmly down to the main street .

A couple of minutes later, I went down to the abarrotes (little grocery store) where someone phoned the police and the person who had a copy of my key. At my request, the police called an ambulance to check my shoulder, which was hurting. Turned out I will have what's called a painful shoulder for a long time, but nothing was broken. I will also have to have some expensive dental work because of damage to the bone beneath a tooth.

Needless to say, this time I have already started packing up to move to a better lighted neighborhood near a bus stop.