
I have posted this before, but it leaked my personal information, so I'm reposting it. 

I am  a tourist and I am here to see Radiohead’s concert. After seeing Radiohead, I went to a bar with a few friends until 3 AM. They all took taxis home afterward one by one, leaving me the only one there. Since calling an Uber was a bit expensive for me, I planned to take the bus back to my hostel (which is of course a proven bad idea).

On the way to the bus stop, I was stopped by two people who demanded money. One was a man, probably in his 30s, about 180cm tall, with a normal build. The other was a younger 
 woman, I think under 20. They initially asked for 20 Euros. The man seemed to be a drug user.He showed me a knife scar on his neck (I think he wanted to look tough and try to intimidate me) and tried to sell me weed.

I have met similar people in the Netherlands and the UK. My judgment at the time was that they just wanted to push me into giving them a small amount of money and did not want to escalate the situation into a violent conflict that would bring in the police. I believed they thought that if they just asked for money without weapons, the police would not investigate seriously afterward, but using a weapon or physical violence would be completely different. Also, they were quite gentle at first, like regular homeless people asking for money.

So, I initially thought about giving them 20 Euros to end it, but I had no cash left. They then asked me to go to a nearby ATM to withdraw money. I refused, saying I didn't have my card. At this point, their actions escalated, and they tried to search me by force. I started to panic. Instead of screaming for help or running away, I told them I did have a card and would withdraw the money, but only if the girl could stay close to me and the man had to back off. They actually agreed, which made me even more certain they did not have weapons and did not want to cause a big scene, which is one of the reasons why I was being so active afterwards.

I was careful at the ATM and deliberately entered the wrong PIN. It turned out to be a good thing I did that. Right after I entered the PIN, the woman rushed up and pushed me away. However, she wasn't very strong, and I pushed her back. My card was still in the machine. Seeing this, the man rushed over to try and take the money (which failed, of course). I was in great stress at that moment and just wanted my card back, so I didn’t use my brain and ended up fighting with the man.

Maybe he was weak from drug use. My strength is actually below average for an adult man, but after getting punched a few times, I only got hurt near my eye. He, on the other hand, seemed unable to fight back, and backed up a few steps. I quickly ran into the driving lane and shouted for help, warning them loudly not to escalate the situation and to throw my card back and leave. They might have gotten scared, so they threw my card at me and ran away.

In the end, I was very lucky. I lost no money or my bank card, only my glasses were broken, and my eye had a minor injury. I escaped 99% unharmed. I reported it to the police afterward. The event was classified as assault (physical injury) and not robbery (even though it was apparently an attempted robbery). The police told me that the area (P2 was the location) is a "drug area" with poor security. When I look back, I realize walking alone to the bus stop at night, as well as pulling out my card and fighting for it, was too risky. If they had carried a weapon, if they had gotten more emotional and violent, or if the man was simply stronger and knocked me out, the result could have been much worse than what actually happened.

Got attacked (robbed) in Berlin