[fingpilot]

Back in the pre-Giuliani midtown NYC days, I was taking my crew to a nice dinner over in Times Square. On the way back from there to our hotel on Lexington, we (2 pilots and 3 Flight Attendants) were approached in the opposite direction by two 'characters'. As they came close to us, one of them pulled a small gun from his hoodie and said 'give us all yo money.....'

I said quickly that we were all broke after paying for dinner, but please just take my Rolex and leave us all alone, we're just working stiffs....

I quickly peeled it off, and offered it, and they snatched it up, and started running the way we had come from. It was all over so quickly, the shock had not hit the girls yet, and the other pilot was a shell-shocked idiot anyway.

I told everyone to run the rest of the way to the hotel, and we all did. We collapsed into the couches in the lobby several blocks later, all of us out of breath. One of the F/A's says.. "Wait a minute... WE are the victims, why are we the ones running???"

I replied that the watch I gave them was a fake that I had bought for $20 that morning...... We all laughed for a week. The next trip to NYC, they all chipped in and bought me a replacement.