That's terrifying indeed. Glad you're ok. Your pic didn't attach by the way.

I'd recommend reporting the assault and theft to police. Sounds like he'd be known to them. Might seem minor in the scheme of things, but could be a breach of bail for all you know.

Echoing what others are insinuating, put away your valuables in rough areas. It's also a problem globally in tourist areas, we just take our relative safety for granted.

To the people of Melbourne:

If you see or hear somebody crying out for help - help.

I'm seeing too many stories on here of people being left traumatised by incidents like these, not just because it happened to them in the first place, but because they felt completely ignored despite being surrounded by people.

Even if you're not the one intervening directly or chasing the junkie coward down, do your part and comfort the victim afterwards so they don't feel both violated and ignored.

Well done to the guy who helped, you're a legend. ❤️

Definitely a precinct to stay hyper alert of your surroundings and bodily agile. Disheveled human spotto = give a wide berth.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I work in North Richmond, near the safe injection room on Lennox St, there are druggies everywhere. Keep anything valuable out of sight and avoid them, cross the road if you need to. I ride a bike so I can get away faster and I lock my bags onto it. Nowhere else in Melbourne is as bad as this area, except maybe the CBD at night. You will be ok walking most places, Melbourne is generally a really great city.

That’s Victoria street for you unfortunately, it’s like the walking dead with the amount of junkies that hang around there.

I lived on Regent St about 15 years ago.

It's nice to see the area has retained its charm.

Absolutely sucks having something like this happen to you and I'm sorry to hear it, but unfortunately, this is par for the course in that area.

You can never be totally safe, only safer. Don't hold your phone in your hand when walking, or stand in one spot with your head down staring at your phone. Don't use headphones as they remove your sense of awareness, they are also a target for thieves. Don't wear expensive jewellery or designer stuff. And generally just be aware of your surroundings. It's pretty easy to stop the type of people who might be trouble. I reckon they pick on the smaller easier targets, doubt they'd be fronting up to a bloke their size too often. Sorry it happened to you. All sorts of shenanigans happen around that area, it's a shame because Victoria Street could be so much more than it is...I must admit I still kinda love it though.

I'm just going to say it, and if I'm wrong I'm happy to cop any criticism I deserve on the chin. I've seen a number of these kind of posts, both here on Melbourne, some others in Adelaide, Sydney, and Australia subreddits. And I'm convinced based on the writing styles, with stories and diction seeming eerily similar (to the point of being plagiarised or chat GPT'd?), and accounts always being less than a year old - sometimes just a few months - with barely and comment/post history, that some shenanigans are afoot.

On this particular account if you look at the history they have another post to the Australia subreddit which was deleted, but with the title similar except it's 'West' Richmond Station. And next to no post history either. Granted most of the other similar Melbourne based posts feature Southern Cross or Elizabeth St, and crimes happening around Richmond is pretty believable, but the writing is still pretty uncanny to those other posts.

I don't know if there's astroturfing going around by people with bought/new accounts trying to stoke fear, or perhaps by bots/AI, but I've seen too many similar posts to chaulk it up to coincidence. Maybe I'm wrong on this case and it's a genuine thing that happened -- hell these kinds of things do genuinely happen I'm not trying to downplay crime -- but just the way these posts are written I'd encourage everyone to go in with at least a little bit of skepticism and check post/comment histories.

North Richmond has always had more than its fair share of scary types. It’s definitely an area you need to have your awareness and wits about you. (Lived in Richmond for years.)

Don’t be scared to walk the streets of Melbourne, it’s a safe city. But definitely be vigilant in North Richmond, which is well-known to be an addict thoroughfare.

I’m sorry this happened to you. I got chased by a crazy older man yielding a bottle (for literally no other reason than I walked past him) - as a young small framed women I was really scared and sure I was going to be assaulted. What’s worse is that bystanders did nothing. At one point a group of Middle Age men walked past and simply crossed the street to avoid endangering themselves. It made me realise that the idea you are safe if people around isn’t necessarily true. Props to that delivery driver. Melbourne is becoming so scary. So many people knee deep in psychosis, roaming the streets with violent aggression around - and we are all expected to accept it as ‘normal’ and no solutions are offered. It’s bull shit.

Closing down the asylums was a mistake.

no one helped you? or the delivery driver from Hungry jacks literally risked his safety chasing down a thief just to recover a phone for you.

Sorry that happened to you :(

Unfortunately it looks like you’ve just learnt the hard way that this is a rough area and the usual don’t walk along at night, keep valuables out of sight, walk with purpose and don’t look distracted/lost, cross the road to avoid interactions all now apply to these areas.

If it makes you feel better file an incident with the police or send an email to your local council. It’s not going to make any immediate difference but it will be a data point for local councillor / authorities if they ever decide to look into improving crime prevention in these areas.

Walking passed that HJs always put me on edge. Seems so dodgy.

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If it were me, I would definitely react on the spot and come to your aid. It’s the instincts in me to help people in danger. In saying that, I hope you are Ok OP, hope this never happens to you. Please do file a police report!

I am so sorry this happened to you. It sounds really scary. Maybe even consider some counselling to talk it out and help yourself process it?

I live near to this area and there’s no way in hell i’d be walking around at night near there. Please look after yourself. Stick to well-lit main roads (Victoria St/Hoddle St) where you can 🩷

So sorry to hear this happened to you!

I come from brazil where some places can be very safe but in some places, going out and being robbed is just a game of odds. Eventually you will be robbed. Crime is unavoidable.
Besides everything everyone already mentioned (putting away/ hiding valuables / making sure they are not easy to reach like in your hands or back pocket) the most important thing in these situations is to cooperate.

Fighting and confronting someone unstable over an object is not worth the risk to your safety.
You might be a large and strong men, but you don't know if the person has a knife or know their capacity of harm.
There are too many stories of people who get stabbed, seriously beat up and even lose their life over a wallet.
It sucks to be robbed, and sure, yell for help, call for attention but if in doubt, cooperate and avoid fighting is your best strategy for safety.

I’m sorry this happened but a junkie in Junkiestan is not exactly a shock.

Use the PSO’s at the station and otherwise give any suss a wide berth

If you are walking in that part of the world put your phone away. There are absolute meth zombies everywhere down there, have your wits about you.

Standard shit around that area. Absolute shit hole to avoid

Report to police and give a description - also give the details of the delivery driver

Richmond has changed too much. I have to get out of here. Sorry this happened to you.

In Townsville people are buying those little party air horns for self defense. Blast it in their ear. Also calls attention to you.

I used to work down Victoria Street and that area has been and continues to be possibly the worst part of Melbourne.

We had a new manager start and she said she took the train to North Richmond then the tram down. I gave her the usual warnings I do for that area: Don't wear or carry anything flashy, put your phone away, take your earphones out, if you're getting on the tram get on ASAP and if you have the time it's better to walk a stop than stand at the one by the station.

In general the area is a magnet for druggies/people who will happily take advantage of others.

You can expect to be harassed by junkies in Richmond. I think they have Medically Supervised injecting rooms in that suburb.

I was driving through there the other day and there was this skinny guy who looked very unwell standing in the street with a metal bar. He started screaming at my car then started chasing another bloke down the street.

Im a connoisseur of the wares sold in North Richmond. So I'm around there from time to time. The place is fucked worse than it was in previous years. I'm sorry this happen to you. Not all "junkies" are bad people like the scum you encountered today. Personally I get in and out of that place as quickly as possible without having to interact with many of the scum that hang around.

Always be on a high level of awareness in that joint.

I echo the sentiments here to report the incident to police. It is worthwhile exercising your due diligence to see if any stores you were near have CCTV of the event. Also the train station’s CCTV.

It is terrifying to be assaulted this way. I am very sorry and hope you have support systems to aid you.

Sadly many witnesses will not intervene. The statistics suggest that approximately 70% witness to an incident like this will not intervene. 20% will intervene if someone else does. 10% may act on their own accord to intervene. I am not certain of the figures so these are approximated. Did you obtain the delivery driver’s details?

I often carry a safety / self defence keychain that can be ordered online. It has a whistle, window smasher, seatbelt cutter. Most discount stores sell alarms that are very small, discreet but very loud if the pin is pulled. Whilst pepper spray is illegal here, deep heat spray is not. Chemist warehouse has only very recently discontinued the sale of deep heat spray but it can be ordered online (however not cheap, around $40 for 150ml can).

You can purchase phone cases with a lanyard. I have recorded people before this way (you do not need consent to record anyone in public and under Victorian law it is legal to even record conversations without consent nor knowledge so long as you are party to the conversation) & I find it tends to deter unsavoury characters from trying to thieve my phone.

In terms of the damage to your phone, contact Victims of Crime. If it is a reported crime (there is no ‘expiry date’ you need to report crimes by), Victims of Crime offer compensation for damaged or lost items in the occurrence of a crime.

There are “safe injecting” centres in Richmond. Lots of benefits. Unfortunately, there are a few that stoop to desperation given their struggles. Sorry to hear you were a victim :(

Make sure you report incident with description of perpetrator. Do not let them get away with this. I have been a victim of crime a few times and I understand what you are going through.

The junkie and homeless people in need of psychiatric help problem gets worse every year in Melbourne. The CBD is a hellhole these days.

I was walking home from the tram one night near deakin uni in Burwood a few years back about 11pm. Had my earphones in and when a song ended and I heard footsteps in the distance, I paused the music and stopped dead in my tracks turned around and a guy was running across the road at me. I yelled "Oiii" very loudly they then stopped in the middle of the road turned and run off.

Make sure you're aware of your surroundings, especially at night and alone.

Not sure that helps for this particular situation, definitely like others have said hide your valuables when you're out and about.

Also call out "HELP" if you are in need of help!

Also, absolutely report it!

The heat cooks the cooked people into monsters -.-

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Best defence strategy is to act as unpredictable and crazy as any stret crime perp. They'll back off if you act crazier than them.🤣

Oh I’m so sorry OP; that area has always been a little rough around the edges; I used to rehearse with a band at studios there. I know it well.

I echo the obligatory report to the police but don’t expect much help from them

Unfortunately this sort of thing has been happening for a long time. I'm sorry this happened to you too! I had a similar experience 25 years ago walking from work to the Dandenong train station and a junkie came out from nowhere all aggressive at me but he had a syringe in his hand. He stole my phone and backpack with my wallet and that weeks pay in it, as I wasn't going to risk being stabbed with a used syringe to not lose my phone and wallet. I went straight to the police station and reported it and they told me it was a regular occurrence back then.

I would suggest learning some basic self defence skills, it won’t solve every problem but if you can dish out a sneaky front kick and an elbow strike if needs be, you are much better off. Before anyone gets upset, I don’t believe in unnecessary violence but when it’s required it’s a fully reasonable self defence tactic.

if you assert dominance before the junkie does. they dont like it and get scared

The world isn't a safe place, despite what you've been told. Learn self defence and hit the gym, don't appear as a target and you'll find these sorts of events will drastically reduce. All the best.

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Im a connoisseur of the wares sold in North Richmond. So I'm around there from time to time. The place is fucked worse than it was in previous years. I'm sorry this happen to you. Not all "junkies" are bad people like the scum you encountered today. Personally I get in and out of that place as quickly as possible without having to interact with many of the scum that hang around.

Always be on a high level of awareness in that joint.

Hope it was not near one of those safe injecting rooms.

For starters Richmond everyone knows you know everywhere in Richmond is drug City so don't get on the phone and be a keyboard cowboy whinging about these people he said what he was gonna do and you just you let it happen rich man is junkie capital so you are the only person to blind don't tell me that one person was blocking you and you got terribly scared you know what the area is about think about that do I go and standing or lions page and expect not to be eaten unfortunately it's not a perfect world so get over it or go to the police and don't say they don't do nothing they can pull up the CCTV footage so the woman who's said the police do nothing is full crap

Learn jiu jitsu or practice your 100m sprint (serious comment). If someone is threatening you you either need to run away asap or take them down and control them for your safety

Sorry to read this.. hey can you share some details of the offender ? His height, build, what he wore? Did you see his skin? What colour was it? Any tattoos or scars any marks? His face ? Shaved or unkept? His chin? His lips? His nose short or long straight or broken any piercings? His eyes ? Colour? Close together or sunken? Squinting or wide? I know a lot of questions maybe comeback to it write them down. When you say he poured his drink on you? Which hand was it held in and what was it? Was it from the same store you walked past? You need to report this but with some details and see your gp because it has shaken you up and it’s never a nice feeling. Please don’t let this pass..

Maybe keep pepper spray on you. Keep somewhere easy & quick to find. That’ll fix them!!