PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A 68-year-old man said he was mugged while walking home in Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood.
Douglas Spangle said the attack happened near NE 79th and Everett Monday night around 9:30 as he was walking back to his home after visiting the nearby convenience store.
It all happened very fast.
Seemingly out of nowhere, someone ran into Spangle and knocked him to the ground, then stole his bag. It was an “old gas mask bag” Spangle said he’d had for years.
“All of a sudden, I found myself on my back in the street,” said Spangle, who added that everything he had just bought at the market was now strewn across the pavement.
The attack was so quick that Spangle said it took him several moments to figure out what had happened. At first, he thought he’d passed out. When he looked up, he found a man standing over him.
Spangle said he asked the person if he could help him up, but the man backed away.
“I blacked out for a moment, so I was really kinda confused — I wasn’t sure what had happened,” said Spangle, adding that he realized later the thief had punched him, though he didn’t remember it.
He had a cut inside of his mouth and a sore back but, thankfully, no broken bones.
The entire incident left Spangle boggled. He said he didn’t know why someone would want to rob a guy like him with a bag that contained nothing valuable.
All that was inside that bag, Spangle said, was a ruler, some envelopes and tissues.
“The whole thing is kind of random,” he said. “It’s like wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Spangle thought the attacker wasn’t from the neighborhood.
“He had a lack of judgment that I would ascribe to being a meth user,” he said. “Anything I would say to somebody like that is probably like 20 years too late,” he said.
Spangle said he’s lived in Southeast Portland for 40 years and at the house on Northeast 80th since 2015. And in all that time, he said he’s never felt unsafe. His wife, Christine Spangle, said she called police when her husband returned home shaken.
“Wandering down to get cigarettes isn’t the same anymore,” she said. “I’m just glad he’s safe and home.”
Portland police officers searched the area but didn’t find the attacker. Officials said they launched an investigation.