Okay here's my $.02.

The man is a social worker. He see's tweaked out people *all day*. He sized up his mugger using his personal experience and decided based on his training that this TEEN was savable. People commit crime for multiple reasons. This teen boy obviously was doing it to feel a part of something. Sometimes that crime image is easier to feel a part of then the clean life.

The social worker then acted true to his nature (which made him become a social worker I'm sure).

There is danger in this story though. The danger is in thinking that every mugger out there just needs a good meal and someone to listen, and hey look this guy did it!!! No. Most muggers are indeed drug addicts. From my experience with people on drugs... you will get killed real quick and in a hurry from someone on meth or pcp (and I'm sure a list of other drugs). This one story (if true), is the story of how someone who is trained to deal with troubled teens used his training. This is NOT the story of how Susan the accountant should handle being mugged by Steve the crazed junkie.

Side note... People who carry guns should be trained to draw them and shoot them EFFECTIVELY. When that happens those rates of "accidents" go down, drastically.