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Color Me Skeptical. UPDATE X 2.

On Drudge, there is a report of a young woman who was robbed at knifepoint in front of an ATM, then when the robber noticed she had a McCain bumpersticker on her car, he punched her to the ground, insulted her about the sticker, then carved a “B” in her face.

Here’s the story:

Ashley Todd, 20, of College Station, Texas, was using an ATM at Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street in Bloomfield just before 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man approached her, put a knife to her throat and demanded $60, police said.

Todd handed the man $60 she had in her pocket and stepped away from him, investigators said. The man then noticed the bumper sticker on the woman’s car, which was parked in front of the ATM. The man became very angry, made comments to Todd about John McCain and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her to the ground, police said.

“He continued to kick and punch her repeatedly and said he would teach her a lesson for supporting John McCain,” said police Chief Nate Harper.

Here are my questions:

• The robber demanded $60 dollars, and she just happened to have $60 dollars. What a coincidence. Now this could be a poorly written bit of the story, where she gave him all the money she had. and this detail just got messed up from the time the statement was taken to the time it ended up in print. It happens – ask any reporter.
• Does a guy with a knife to your throat simply let you step away, and then when he has the money, he doesn’t make a break for it?
• I have never been attacked (thank God), but I would imagine it is a very disorienting experience. I would think she she would have stayed where she was, or would go to the first store or gas station she came upon to get help. Here is a map of the area. Assuming  this is the right map, there are store fronts there.
• Does she have a cell phone? Couldn’t she have called her friend or the police right after the incident?
• Is it my imagination, or is the “B” backwards, as if it was done in a mirror?
• My instinct to doubt this deepens, considering she was repeatedly punched and kicked, and forced to the ground, yet declined to go to the hospital to get an examination.

If I’m wrong, I’m gonna look like an ass. But as I said, I am skeptical.

UPDATE: I drew a “B” on my face in the mirror. It comes out looking like a “B”. BUT, if you don’t use a mirror, and you draw a “B” on your face, you are writing with the same movements you are used to when you write a “B”, and it comes out the same way hers does.

UPDATE #2: We now know she had a phone or blackberry with her. From this article:

It also appears she was using Twitter – a social-messaging Internet application for wireless devices – around the time of the reported attack.

In one post, she wrote, “Stubbornly searching for a Bank of America to avoid ATM fees,” she said.

Shortly after, she wrote, “Pretty sure I’m on the wrong side of Pittsburgh.”

So why didn’t she call the police right after the violent attack?