Please, please, please, don't say it was a mugging. The man wasn't hurt, for goodness sake, so it was just a theft when the mayor of Indianapolis had his cell phone plucked from his pocket by some con artists on his way back to the hotel from the arena where the NCAA finals were played in Detroit. (One man pretended to be having a seizure, then others surrounded the mayor when he stopped to help.)
Daniel Cherrin, spokesman for Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr., said the incident doesn't help Detroit's image, but it was the only pick-pocketing reported downtown on Saturday.
"One scalper, one urinator and one pick-pocketing reported," Cherrin said. "We are not unaccustomed to hosting large events and keeping our guests and residents safe."
One scalper, one urinator and one pick-pocketing. And a partridge in a pear tree. I shouldn't make fun. That's a pretty good showing for any big-crowd event anywhere, let alone an NCAA final in Detroit in which the Michigan team lost. And what was the mayor of Indianapolis doing walking around by himself, anyway? I know he wants to have a "just one of the people" image, but come on.
It sad that such things happen. Now, the next time a big-city mayor sees a stranger seeming to have a seizure, he'll just ignore it, and what if it's real that time?
Indianapolis will host the Final Four next year, by the way. Anybody who walks from that event to his or her her hotel room alone at night is just being stupid, OK?
