Matua Ramstine, 37, a native of New Zealand who is riding a motor scooter across the United States and Canada to promote volunteerism, was mugged early Thursday morning at a Santa Fe intersection, The New Mexican reported.

"I was sitting at a stop light (at Manhattan Avenue and St. Francis Drive) when two guys just blindsided me, cracked me with something," Ramstine told The New Mexican. "They knocked me cold, got my wallet ... They didn't look much older than 16."

Ramstine said he suffered scratches on his cheek and a "bump on the noggin" and was left with only $13 in his pocket, The New Mexican reported.

After getting his credit card replaced, Ramstine planned to go on with his 4 1/2-month, 30,000-mile trek through 49 states and eight Canadian provinces, where he has worked with soup kitchens, art organizations and social-welfare groups in his quest to promote volunteerism, the paper reported.

In the 3,000 miles he has logged since leaving Thousand Oaks, Calif., on April 1, on a yellow Vespa given to him by a dealership there, he has had his laptop stolen after dozing off in an Arizona train station, wrecked twice because of snow in Utah and wind in Wyoming and was struck on the helmet by a falling rock in a Utah canyon, he told The New Mexican.

"Other than that," Ramstine said of his Santa Fe experience on his blog (vespadition.com), "Santa Fe was wonderful, and in the end I'm alright, the wounds will heal."

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