Wow.

The craziest thing just happened. I’m at a loss for words, but, well, it was the craziest thing ever, and there’s no other way to describe it.

As I was pulling out of my parking spot this afternoon to head home to walk Charles, I heard two guys yelling and chasing each other near what is probably one of the busiest corners in Hyde Park. One of them was clearly verbally threatening the other and physically advancing toward him, and the second guy ended up running across the street, with the first guy chasing him, screaming for help and for someone to call the police. He was walking his bulldog, which really slowed him down. I had my windows open and could hear most of it, so I popped my hazards on, got out of the car, and reached for my phone. By the time I got around the back of my car, the first guy had tackled the second into the bushes and was pummeling him pretty well; the second guy was still yelling for help.

Being an area with heavy foot traffic, there were easily 30 people watching this happen from varying distances—some were half a block away, some only 15 feet. It was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen, all these people sitting there watching this happen. I tried to dial 911 just after I’d gotten out of the car, but when I saw that they were already going at it, I sprinted over to them, grabbed the first guy, now completely on top of the second, and tried to pull him off. Following a brief wrestling match and a return to our feet, he realized there was an audience—everyone was still just standing there doing absolutely nothing—and ran across the street to get on a bus. I finally was able to call 911 and tell them where he was going and on what bus and what he was wearing. Although the university police station is literally a block away from where this all went down, it took easily three minutes for anyone to show up. When it was all said and done, six or seven cop cars showed up, all asking where the guy went.

I stayed for a while, made sure the second guy was alright (his face was pretty torn up…he’ll have a pair of shiners in no time), gave the police some info, and headed back to my car in the middle of the street.

That’s when I realized that one of the bystanders thought it might be nice to help himself to my iPod in the front seat.

Seriously, who does that? Hyde Park can be a crazy place sometimes. That’s the first time I’ve heard anything like this happen here, and the second in Chicago, but still…totally, completely crazy.

It could have been worse though. The car was running the whole time, and my computer and pretty much all my data along with it were sitting just as vulnerably in the back seat. Whew. Honestly, the way things are going in Chicago these days, I consider myself pretty lucky not to have had a gun or a knife pulled on me. Don’t think the possibility didn’t cross my mind.