My 18 year old ds got mugged last night.

[longlashes]

Ds and 3 of his friends were attacked at about 9 0 clock last night. 2 thugs jumped out on them, threatened them with a knife. They took his mates £200 wages he had just got. They hit ds with a numchuck ( a chain with wooden handles I think) and he had to go to hospital, have stitches, could have lost an eye. They broke his mates finger when they hit him with it, he tried to defend himself and it got broken by the chain. He had to give a statement at hospital and is supposed to go to station today, but he says whats the point, he reckons they will never catch them.
You can never stop worrying do you? When he was 17 he used to moan at me for texting him when he was out said no one elses mum did. Since he turned 18, can legally go to a bar and so on,I have stepped back. At that age I lived with dh, I try to remember that.
Dh is offshore until mid December so he doesn't even know. They are 4 lovely boys, his mates stay here a lot at weekends, they are all ok and we have got to know them well. You think four of them walking home at that time would be safe, we live in a village next to a seaside resort which is where it happened. Am angry and shattered was up late talking to him and am off to work soon. Just had to vent !!

I'm sorry longlashes that is awful. You tend to think people out on their own get mugged not in groups.

My 12 year old DS wants to go into town on the train tomorrow to the cinema with his mates and I am beside myself.

Sending hugs, and hope he's feeling better this morning.

I couldn't just read and run, I just wanted to say I'm so sorry that this happened to your son and his friends, how awful for them. I hope he's ok this morning, keep talking to him, it's likely he'll be in shock today. I hope they catch these thugs and your son can see some justice for this nasty attack.

Big hugs to you both.

It's horrible ,I hope hes ok ,my 18 year old Ds got mugged last year

you never stop worrying about them ,sending you hugs

Ah thanks, Sparklingbrook, he is not too bad, bit swollen. He reckons he is going to college as he is not letting them get the better of him. I know how you feel about your ds, you do have to start letting them go sometime and its so hard to decide when. They are with you all the time and suddenly they want to fgo out alone. Its such a big step x

Thanks so much everyone. He has told me he is supposed to go to station to have injuries photographed today but doesn't know if he will. I am trying to persuade him to, he doesn't want to miss college. Told him to speak to his college adviser, they are really supportive.

Bloody hell, that's awful.
He must, IMO, go and have his injuries documented. I am certain the college would excuse this.
Best wishes to your DS and his mates.

Make sure he goes to the station.
DS 16 got mugged when he was 14 and they stole his phone, but thankfully they didn't hurt him.
Police were brilliant and didn't give up. They caught all three boys involved and two of them were prosecuted. They did have ctv footage of boys, put photos in local paper but nothing identifying ds, infact I was reading the article for a few minutes before I realised it was about DS.
The whole thing to a year but I couldn't be more grateful to the police for the work they did catching these boys. One was in prison when he was arrested for another crime.
I hope your DS feels better soon and it doesn't affect him too much.

That's awful, so sorry. Your poor DS and friends. And you for that matter.

That's terrible longlashes. Thinking of you and your DS. Did he go to the police station?

Yes he did go to the police station after college. Am glad of that. Apparently there is cctv nearby as its near a school, but I don't hold out much hope. At least he has done all he can though. Thanks everyone for your support. It does help, especially with dh being away for weeks. I don't even know when dh will be able to call, still am used to it dh has worked away for 26 years, well before my 2 ds were born! So, thanks everyone xx

As there is ctv footage of them in the vicinity around the time it will help the police put a case together. For DS's case they had footage of them riding the trains together before they got off and mugged him.

Thats good to hear bruffin, and sorry to hear about your ds too. Would love them to be caught. At least hes done the right thing. I text him when I read your post earlier and told him to go and said that people do get caught, so thanks

THat's awful :(

No I don't think you ever stop worrying. But I agree with your son - don't let them stop him doing what he wants to.

Might be worth talking to your DS about how to deal with similar situations in future and TBH I always say hand over the things- they are only things.... (or throw phone as far as you can in one direction and run fast in the other!).

My DD (18 at uni now) has a cheap P+G phone for clubbing etc and takes enough money and only 1 card when she goes out at night.

I think the most important thing though is to stay resilient. AS you may have read my DS (15) was grabbed by the neck in an unprovoked assault on a bus (at 6pm!) and actually, it didn't bother him too much (bothered me a lot!). Very very annoying that the police can't do anything as he was on a bus with no CCTV (took them 4 weeks to tell us there simply was no CCTV though- that is annoying). THe bruises went and DS is just getting on with life as normal.

It's clearly not right that our kids have to modify what they do because of these thieving scum though...

sparklingbrook - much ((())). I hope you let your son go our with his mates. You have to learn to do these things and not letting him at 12, do something that is within his capability and is as low risk as it could be, risks raising a 16yr or 18yr who suddenly wants to or has to get out and about on his own and has no skills to do so safely.

I taught a bunch of students once, who, at 18, were so mollycoddled that getting from uni to my venue (4 stops, 10 mins and a 5 min walk- my kids do that at 11yrs old- regularly) was clearly so stressful they couldn't do any useful work that morning- their parents hadn't done them any favours at all.

Yes good idea to talk about what to do in the future Theas18. Sorry too to hear about your ds. My ds seems ok, has gone to college and has now spoken to dh who is offshore by phone. He is out again at the moment but I try not to worry to much. I know what my mum meant though when she told me that once you have kids you worry about them for the rest of your life, no matter how old they are!

Well in the end DS didn't go to the cinema on the train. 12 year old boys are rubbish at arranging stuff IMO. Frantic texts all morning then they decide to go to the park instead.

But I would have let him go. There were apparently a couple of Mums that weren't too happy with it though.

I will keep encouraging him to spread his wings.

Similar thing happened to by 18 yo but him and his friends were just mindlessly attacked. My son wasnot too nadlt hurt, just a cut to his side where he was hit with a chair. Police did take it seriously and the court case comes up in Feb. Fortunately they all seemed to take it in theor stride and it didnt bother them afterwards - did me though

I think the boys seem far less worried about this than their parents!

It worried me how ds was no really upset by being mugged. I think it's sad they seem to see it as "normal"

Thanks so much cat64. He is ok, will have a scar though. The incident was reported in the local paper but I don't think there is a lot of hope of catching the muggers.
My dh will be home next Friday , he has been away for nearly 3 weeks offshore. He hated it that he wasn't here but he has been working away for years so we just cope with it all.
Thanks for all your support everyone xx