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Was walking on Lafayette with a friend, a few random paintings on sidewalk, I thought they were really nice, looked around everywhere to see if they belonged to anybody or if it was being sold, saw nobody. Took a couple and all of a sudden a 6’5 UK guy in a sheisty appears out of no where, tells me to take a walk with him and accuses me of stealing, and we have to go to the atm to grab cash. Now all of a sudden I know this is not right I just put it back and was like I’m good because I thought they were free. He gets crazy on me, tells me let’s go to the cops, I said fine let’s go, when I tell him that he flips out more and threatens to push me down the stairs and says I’m getting smart, I redirect towards a food cart to get away from stairs. No way I’m fighting this guy so I keep trying to deescalte, he grabs my neck and threatens to kill me in front of everyone and says he will take me for all I have and for my life. He goes on grabbing my neck until he finally cools it and walks off. No there was no shot of me fighting this man, it was a fight I knew I would lose. My question is, is this a common scam, was it on my end, or was he just trying to come up on someone?