my first encounter with a thief

It has been almost 5 months since being in Argentina and, despite being repeatedly warned, I have yet to experience any danger. I travelled to Patagonia on my own, walk the streets solo at 3AM, enter the "roughest" neighbourhoods and do not feel frightened.

Danger, here, means something different. When someone tells you to keep an eye, it means that you might be robbed. There is a very small rate of violent crimes, despite Buenos Aires being one of the top-ten largest cities in the world. As I previously stated, since being here I have not need to keep-an-eye. Until Saturday night.

I was waiting for a friend on the corner of the Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo, the barrio we are currently living in. A drunked local approached me and tried chatting me up: asked me if I like Argentine boys, asked me for a kiss. The men are very forward even when sober. I laughed and turned away, telling him I was waiting for a friend. He moved on a little up the street, so I took my phone out and, jokingly, told my friend to hurry up because there were shady characters about the plaza. As I was texting, the drunken local jogged towards me and, in a half-fluid, half-drunken motion, tried to jack my phone. He failed miserably at the task, mumbled mierda and continued to jog away and down the street. I laughed and yelled en serio, seriously? What a joke. He should change his profession. A couple sitting on the wall asked if I was ok, and that they saw everything, and that the guy was an asshole. I just kept chuckling and saying it was fine, the whole time thinking to myself, that was a half-assed robbery.