A woman walking on Merriam Street reports she was held up at knifepoint around 4:40 p.m. on Dec. 29. In e-mail, she writes:

A man rushed me from behind, put his arm around my neck, showed a tactical/hunting knife with his other hand and demanded my stuff, mostly my phone. I screamed the whole time and took off after him when he got my purse. Somehow my phone ended up still in my pocket. A witness was nice enough to come out but we lost the guy through the yards towards Boylston St. E13 police did show up to do a quick drive by and take my information but all in all I found them to be rude, insensitive, and lackadaisical. I'm still dealing with back pain from the attack. It's so disheartening that this type of dangerous assault happened to close to a hub of JP and it's shocking to me that there hasn't been a shred of publicity warning the community. I estimated the attacker to be about 6 ft tall, light skinned Hispanic male, in early-mid 20s, with a slight accent. in a black hoodie. That's the best I could do since he came at me from behind. The knife was about 5 inches long, sloped down at the point, serrated at the handle and dark matte gray.