"He hit me right here, on my head," said Bakary Traore, the robbery victim.
He was smashed in the head for an iPod 4, it seems like a bit much.
"He knocked me out," Traore said.
This 18-year-old African immigrant is hard working, trusting, and became prime target for an opportunistic thief.
"I'm so happy to be alive, do my thing, you know," Traore said.
It was just his second day on the job as an overnight stocker at a furniture store in Co-op City on Saturday, May 25th around 9:30 p.m.
Bakary Traore wasn't sure which way to go when he got off the number 5 train at Dyer Avenue, so he asked a stranger for directions.
"He said he was going work too, he was going to work at night too. So he was going to help me. And that thing happened and they take my life for nothing," Traore said.
Instead, the suspect led Traore into a dark residential area near Palmer Avenue and Boston Road and attacked him from behind.
First, hit in the leg with a baseball bat, then choked around the neck, and lastly cracked in the head with a brick.
"I wake up, I open my eyes. I see him take my stuff. And then I knock him. He said, 'Oh *expletive* he's not dead!'" Traore said.
Traore says when the thief realized he wasn't dead, that's when he ran off with the $250 iPod and his first paycheck of about $150.
"I'm young, you're young. You can go work. Why you do those things? I don't understand why some people why they do those things," Traore said.
Traore has been suffering from headaches. His new job has been understanding and he is planning to go back to work on Friday.
