Ari,  I'm so glad that you're OK!

I've always had the rule that a closed door was a locked door.  I live
in an urban area while my mother lives in a rural one.  Once while
visiting my mother while my kids were little, my kids found the door
open and unlocked.  They promptly locked the door and my mother out.
She was livid.  And I took a little while before I realized that my
kids did not know that an open door could be unlocked!

Take care,

VickieB.

Oh Ari, this is a great message for you getting the word out there of how
dangerous it can be if  you are not careful.

I am so glad  you and your wife practice safe ways of getting around and
such. I am glad you made it out of there safely.

You are a good example to all of us. Thank you.

Ari wrote:

I had the hardest time teaching Mary to back into a
parking space, so she could zooooooom out if such
an incident occurred.   She had a habit of pulling in
right up to a wall or similar barricade, which would
allow a carjacker/attacker to block her exit or slow
her escape if she had to back out.

... I'm not asleep.  I'm just waiting for windoze to load.

1- I'm really glad you're okay.
2- Since Bob and I have spent so many years in the "security" field, we're
always watching.
3- Even here in Ohio, where things seem a little slower, we always lock
first, trust later.

DeeTee

So glad that your smarts have been ingrained, and you lock everything
by habit.  And very glad you and your wife are safe!

I've found out ~almost~ the hard way to lock all my house doors, put
pins in the sliding doors and windows, and have a locksmith come
in and make each new home break-in-proof.

The car is the same story -- I always lock my car doors, whether I'm
in or out of the car.  When I'm on the freeway at fairly high speeds,
I believe that a locked car door is going to help keep me IN my car,
just as a fastened seat belt will.

And, sad to say, but just driving around running errands, I keep the
car doors locked, and never open the sunroof.  Carjackers can get
at you through an open sunroof, as easily as through a door.

Ginnie    >^..^<
______________________________

The locks on my car doors are programmed to lock automatically when the
car is in gear.

Henry

i'm glad you were proven right, ari. but geesh, there have to be less
frightening ways of proving you're right!  glad you and your wife escaped
safely, guy.

"always remember your car can be a weapon, if necessary".  thank goodness i
remembered what my uncle taught me, when i was 15 1/2 and had just gotten my
driver's license.  i once had to threaten to use my sherman tank of a car
('57 pontiac super chief) as a battering ram, on my way home to san jose,
calif. from denver, colorado.   a strange man, in a restaurant parking lot
on the wrong side of the salt lake flats, insistantly kept pounding on my
locked car door window.  obviously drunk, he kept trying to coax me out of
my car and into his car (that had my car blocked into my parking spot),
filled with a few of his friends, to go to a "party" at some motel down the
road.  told him if his friends didn't move his car, i was going to go
through it.  when i put my car in reverse, stepped on the break and burned
some rubber in reverse, they peeled out of there, their passenger door
hanging open for the drunk to hop in.  i really would have used my car to go
through his car, if they hadn't left me alone.  but then, i was just crazy
enough for a 19 year old back then.<smile>

kate

Hi all,

Many of us use walking aids and this makes us potential targets of
crime. For years I've been reinforcing safety habits for my wife to use,
such as looking behind her every so often when walking, being aware,
ALWAYS locking the car and house doors (even when gardenning outside),
keeping an eye on people who approach her and always have an escape
plan. Tonight something very strange happened and many of these points
were called into action and we escaped safely.
After walking our old (and arthritic) dog tonight at a park/wildlife
wetland/dog-off-leash zone we had just pulled away from the curb and
were flagged down by a man coming out of this pitch black area of the
park with a rolled up newspaper (what was he reading where you can't
even see your feet in that area? No lights for the nocturnal native
animals). This is across from a residential area in a nice suburb and he
/looked/ normal (like he lived in that area) so we pulled over, but I
only rolled my window down part of the way to ask what was wrong. I said
'hey' but he said nothing, had no expression, made no sound, just tried
to pull up on our door handle (it pulls out, not up). Never any
expression, not even breathing heavilly enough to notice, no sound at
all. I told my wife to 'drive! get out of here!'. After ten years of
arguing about how she needs to lock the doors EVERY TIME she gets in the
car I was proven right (yet again :P).
Maybe this was just a guy who /did/ live there, maybe it was just a guy
who was a little out of it (although he stepped over the low fence
without any sign of being intoxicated or anything like that), maybe
this, maybe that, who knows. I would hope this has all been a
misunderstanding. However, the fact is that we are safe and he couldn't
get into the car because the doors were locked.
I am pretty distinctive with my crutches and other things. We're there
a lot (we take good care of our old pup). Maybe he expected me to be a
little slower than I was getting into the car and as he didn't have time
to get to me before I got in the vehicle he figured we probably wouldn't
have locked the doors and that flagging us down was his next best bet.
What's a cripple like me (I don't wear a shirt that says 'bench press:
300lbs') going to do if he gets into the car with a knife in that folded
over newspaper?
Always lock, always have an exit plan, NEVER let anyone into your home
or car. A popular new method of carjacking/home-invasion is for one or
more men to use a woman to pretend to need help and ask to be let in.
Then, instead of locking the door behind her, she holds it open.
Sometimes she even has a bloody nose, and she's always frantic. It
works. I guess the old 'can I use your phone' (which was used to
devastating effect by a woman in the US news recently) or 'can I have
directions' isn't getting enough victims anymore. Do NOT open your
doors. Maybe it's genuine, maybe it isn't, but if you're not there to
call police and ambulance than who will be? Who will call them for you?
Phone emergency right away. Yell at a potential attacker to try and
scare them off or distract them. But ALWAYS keep yourself safe. Always,
no matter how much your gut tells you to help. You can't help if your dead.

Regards,

Ari

Perhaps undesirable for many and impossible for some but I got a permit
and carry a concealed handgun at all times. I have a KelTec 3AT which is
very small and light and I pray never to need to use it but...! The
police in many areas provide training for those who are strangers to
firearms, are 'afraid of guns' or don't know the process of getting
permits. Of course in some states with anti-gun laws it's almost
impossible to obtain such. IMHO.

Bud