MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Mud Island is often viewed as paradise in Memphis. It's not. Ask the guy who was pistol-whipped and robbed by two armed thugs last night, beaten so severely he's still in the hospital.
The two suspects were caught. Cops found them by using a tracking app on the victim's stolen iPhone.
If there is something to remember, it's that this is Memphis, a city that no matter what its crime stats show, has a reputation as being a place where murders and robberies and crimes happen. And they happen everywhere, including the zip code 38103.
Cross the bridge, and escape Memphis. It seems as though all those bad things happen somewhere else, not on Mud Island.
The Mississippi River churns its way south and as always it acts as a constantly churning magnet, drawing people to its banks. This is the Mud Island that people pay for.
"I think it's beautiful down here," one resident told abc24.com.
Beauty doesn't stop crime. There have been several break-ins, and the most recent crime happened on island park drive.
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"It's always been a really quiet neighborhood over here. I've never had any problem," said Marielle Slothouver, who works on Mud Island.
You wouldn't expect to find thugs on Island Park Drive, but they showed up.
They got a guy who was taking out his trash, pulled a gun on him, then forced their way into his home where they beat this guy to the floor with a gun, told his roommate to hit the dirt, and then they started taking things.
One of the things they stole was an iPhone, which did them in because cops found the two suspects by using the iPhone's tracking device.
All of this happened on Mud Island.
"We do live on the island," said Joanne Hopkins. "Of course I came from a rural area in Maine. Sure there's crime in Maine as well. So we just need to be vigilant, and smart and I'm fine."
You can only get on Mud Island two ways, but that's the point. It's not an isolated little pocket of pretty, it's a neighborhood. Mud Island is in Memphis. Memphis has a crime problem. People here know it now.
The only paradise that remains around here is by the dashboard light.
Elmore Holmes said it best, "I think crime is a matter of concern to you when it happens in your neighborhood, no matter what neighborhood you live in."
