It was a night that brought new hopes and enjoyment to life. On the 31th of December 2002, I went out with my friends to celebrate the New Year. It was a cold night and we all decided to go near Big Bin in central London to see the year 2003 unfold. As the night approached I was enjoying till 3:00 am. Although I was out till late, I had to go to work early in the morning at around 8: am. 

I slept just for four hours then went to work. It seemed like a normal day.  I was not prepared for what was to become one of the worst days of my New Year so far. Until lunch time the business was quite good and I was working alone. Something strange has left a mark on me on that particular day at around 4: o’clock. Three boys aged between 16 and 19 entered the shop along with a dog. They looked around and made sure that I was alone working in the shop.

One of the boys who was taller then me asked me to show him the watch, which was inside the glass showcase. As I turned around, the teenage boy quickly grabbed a lighter and put it into his pocket. He was unaware that I had seen him. As soon as I noticed that he put the lighter in his pocket. I turned around and asked him in a very polite and the nicest way possible, to give me the lighter back, but  he refused.

Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of the teenage boys who were there to steal and were looking for trouble. When I asked the boys to return the lighter, one of them replied in a very aggressive and defence way that he hasn’t got a lighter. And he said that I was accusing him of stealing. I told him that I saw him when he put the lighter in his right hand pocket. Then I tired to reach his right hand pocket to prove my point but I was unaware that I was crossing the line. The teenage boy told me not to touch him “otherwise I will f**k you up,” he said.

I realised that they were not ready to give the lighter back, so I told them to leave the shop.  But they didn’t leave the shop and I was scared that they were looking for trouble.  My worst fear soon became apparent.  I told them if they don’t leave the shop I will call the police, suddenly one of the boys grabbed a second lighter in front of eyes. At that point I couldn’t let him to get away with a lighter, so I tried to stop him from running away, while unexpected I was hit in the head from the back. So I had to defend myself and it turned into a fight. I was fighting with three people and a dog which I am scared the most. It was the worst case scenario. As the fighting got intensive I was hit so badly that it almost left me unconscious. Luckily for me there were other shop assistants who came to rescue me. The teenage boys left me injured and stole the two lighters.

It was remarkable when suddenly the boys returned after a few minutes for the second fight.  Soon I realised that my best option was to call the police to deal with them. I called the police who were there within few minutes.  The thieves claimed that I attacked them and one of them even accused me of stealing his mother’s mobile phone, which was totally a lie. And the police didn’t believe them anyway.

During this particular time I was feeling the pain, and the police called the ambulance that took me to the near by hospital. It was an awful experience for me. After a couple of days later two police officers came to the shop to see me regarding the teenage boys. They told me that I could take the boys to court for attacking me or they can be banned for entering the shop. I decided to ask the police officers to ban them so that we would not have any trouble in the future. Since then I have never came across those teenage boys and I hope they have stop stealing and attacking shop assistant.