Grapevine Mills Mall

[stevie_d_64]

While I've willingly been their Huckleberry

I know, why don't you have a spelling contest with them.

"You're a daisy if ya do."

[Sara_XD]

I lived in TX for one year in Lewisville.
MN is completly different. The majority of the cities are very quiet and not crime ridden, there are maybe 1 or 2 places throughout the entire metropolitan area that are "crimeridden" and they are small, I never go there, or if I did have to go there, welll...... i'd never have to go there...
In the area I live, which is indeed in the city, we don't lock our doors, we don't lock our cars, I have never been afraid to walk at night and I cannot fathom being intimitaded at the mall...

I'd move if I were ya'll.......

ps, thats directed at u pbandj!

[HankB]

MN is completly different. The majority of the cities are very quiet and not crime ridden . . .

Things must have changed since (Don't say because!) I left there . . . I lived just east of St. Paul, but I recognized that large parts of Minneapolis were nasty, the Selby-Dale area of St. Paul had a well-deserved reputation for being bad, and the police chief of St. Paul got into hot water for stating that gangs of black youths were causing shoppers to stay away from Town Square, the downtown shopping center. (Nobody said he was factually wrong, they said he was wrong to say what he said.)

Meth labs were popping up in Anoka, and a gangsta shooting at the Mall of America prompted stores at other malls to start selling red-spattered T-shirts reading "I went to Mall of America and all I got was a lousy flesh wound!"

A colleague of mine moved to St. Paul a couple of years ago; she'd never been a crime victim in TX, but within months of moving to MN, her car was stolen out of the company parking lot in supposedly-safe Maplewood. (It - or rather part of it - was found later . . . thoroughly stripped.)

I find it's just as easy to stay out of trouble here in TX (near Austin) as it was in MN.

[pbandjelly]

a gangsta shooting at the Mall of America prompted stores at other malls to start selling red-spattered T-shirts reading "I went to Mall of America and all I got was a lousy flesh wound!"

I'da bought that shirt!!!

I agree, I don't think it's just the MinnyApples, or just Tejas.
sure, FloMo had a MDK, but that's rare.
However, I must say, whilst I was up there last year, I cruised around, on foot, at night, unarmed (other than mah brainses), for a week solid. And, I had no issue whatsoever. Downtown MinnyApples, in SammyVille or little Somalia, and not a problem!

[Sara_XD]

obviously there is some crime here and there thats true for everywhere, but I live in White Bear Lake, just north of Maplewood / st paul, and the neighborhood where I live is great. There are alot of neighborhoods in St Paul on the east / west / or south that I wouldn't live in, but I have never been worried about going there for fear of being shot or mugged or anything of that sort. Kids are idiots mostly and the little "gang bangers" that live in the quaint little suburbs up here are just punks and don't normally hurt anything but your eyes. it's the inner city like downtown st paul where the drug dealers have taken over bus stops to sell there poison and in south minneapolis that the drive bys are taking place. like i said all places I'd never go cuz I have no reason to be there, if I did I'd carry my pepper spray, I don't have my CHL and still am himmin and hawwin over weather or not I really need it.... and if I did have it, if I'd even ever carry my firearm.
The CHL was only put into law here a few years ago, by the all to wonderfully known, Jesse the body Ventura http://www.92kqrs.com/Article.asp?id=70373
yep i voted for him.

ummm yeah, so crime is everywhere, but you CAN Avoid it for the most part, or at least I can.

[Greybeard]

Quote: "I don't have my CHL and still am himmin and hawwin over weather or not I really need it.... and if I did have it, if I'd even ever carry my firearm."

Some of are admittedly biased by what we've experienced - or had relayed to us by "the survivors", females in particular who've said "never again". IMNSHO, get the license and figure out a way to carry on-bod, even if it has to be a mouse gun.!

[tfrazier]

Better to have it and never need it, than to need it just once and not have it!

[sting3r]

trust me if you have a family it should be a responsibility. After almost losing my life where a CHL could have possibly kept me from harm...I definitely saw the need. Like they said it only takes one time of needing it and not having it...bad thing by then its too late. I just got lucky and escaped my ordeal with several broken bones in my face and a severe concussion....all over my wallet.

[longtooth]

We are all thankful you are doing well now.
This is an excellent encouragement for those who are trying to decide.
Thank you for sharing a bad time.
LT

[sting3r]

my pleasure....
When you go through the ordeal like I went through its theraputic to talk about it...the more you talk about it and play it over in your mind the less traumatic it is once you can work through it. A bit more info:

It happened in front of a ruth chris steak house in the harbor area of baltimore. I was attending a security conference sponsored by the NSA. Myself and a good friend of mine had decided to go downtown and grab a steak and a quiet dinner and did just that. I stopped at an atm by the aquarium which is unfortunately outdoors and near the street. Seems someone saw me do this and waited for me outside ruth chris. When my friend and I walked out they grabbed him and drug him into an alley way while 4 others continued to beat me into oblivion. The first hit was with something metal which knocked me out. Then they repeatedly beat and kicked my head. The only thing I remember is my head laying in my friends lap in the cab and him pleading for the cabbie to take me to the hospital. I remember saying to myself "you have to wake up..if you dont it could be bad and you may never see your kids again". Just a side note I had found out the day before my wife was pregnant with our 3rd child.

Well when I woke up in the hospital my friend of course was there and a few policemen and the doc of course. The doc looked at me and said "I have good news and bad news...the good news is your brain is not bleeding and seems to be just a severe concussion...bad news is your face is a mess and you need surgery." I had broken my cheekbone in 2 places and it was depressed into my face. My orbital was fractured several times. My jaw was broken, and even my sinus cavity in my cheek was fractured. I was in the naval reserves at the time this happened so I had to report to a navy hospital after this. I refused treatment based on it was more of a practice surgery for them. I got outside consultation and never got surgery...you can only really tell anything is wrong when im really tired and my left eye gets a bit lazy...and if I turn so you see my right profile you can tell my left cheek bone is sunk in a bit.

It took months for me to go outside of my house after dark...was always afraid something else would happen to take me from my family. The doc said the only thing that saved me was my years boxing...most people wouldnt have survived with no brain damage....and 2 weeks later someone died from being beaten to death in the same exact spot during a robbery.....this is 1 block from a police station.

So this is my story...this was the driving force behind my getting a license...so when you debate if you "need" a license...just do me a favor and think about who would ultimately pay the price if you were taken from your kids and wife....all over a wallet which I would have given if they had asked.

[Venus Pax]

One person in my CHL class lost his dad a few years ago to crime. His dad was killed for the $10 in his wallet.

[hi-power]

sting3r,

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. It never ceases to amaze and sicken me what people are willing to do to other people for a few bucks.

I know that area! My wife and I went there a few years ago with her elderly parents. I remember thinking there were so many places for BG's to ambush from. Blind corners and alleys all over the place. Only a short walk from Camden Yards. I had a bad feeling the entire time we were there.

[sting3r]

yeah its amazing how a city decides to take a crime ridden neighborhood and revamp it for tourists...they basically are using them as bait for the bg's. 1 block either way of that nice harbor area is the worst part of town. The police statement to me was "we know we have a problem but there isnt a lot we can do...we normally have someone on foot down there." I hold nothing against them..just the city for making such a dumb decision and myself for putting myself in that area.

[dihappy]

I lived in TX for one year in Lewisville.
MN is completly different. The majority of the cities are very quiet and not crime ridden, there are maybe 1 or 2 places throughout the entire metropolitan area that are "crimeridden" and they are small, I never go there, or if I did have to go there, welll...... i'd never have to go there...
In the area I live, which is indeed in the city, we don't lock our doors, we don't lock our cars, I have never been afraid to walk at night and I cannot fathom being intimitaded at the mall...

I'd move if I were ya'll.......

ps, thats directed at u pbandj!

That has TV show written all over it.

You hear of towns like that where some serial killer, happens to wander through town and one of those townsfolk who leave her doors unlocked, no curtains on the windows, etc gets murdered.

I dont care where i live, Im not leaving my keys in my car or my door unlocked. Thats an accident/crime waiting to happen.

[austin]

Las Vegas has a Honeypot program that has helped a lot with this type of crime.

A detective will act drunk or weak to attract criminals and get mugged while its all getting on tape. Then the stakeout team moves in and takes down the BGs. The tapes are pretty disturbing to watch. Most start out with the "interview" then descend from there.