Keep Your Car Keys By Your Bed At Night
Many of us can't afford a burglar alarm system, but if you have an alarm on your car you have an alarm system in place whenever you're in your house.
Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear someone breaking into your house hit the car remote's panic button; it will set off the car alarm. (Some remotes require you to hold down two buttons to enter the panic mode.)
Test it before you depend on it. Your remote will probably cause your car alarm to go off from almost everywhere in your house. If there's a dead spot, remember it.
Just like if someone were breaking into your car, once the car alarm enters panic mode it will keep honking your horn (or wailing the siren) until you reset it with the button on the key fob chain or your battery runs down.
Obviously this tactic works better if your vehicle is parked in the driveway, but even if the car is in the garage the noise should cause housebreakers to take flight.
In any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can't get to the phone the car alarm trick will draw attention.
Take Shopping Carts Back To The Store
[Edit] This one has been nagging me ever since I posted it. I was so busy mixing up fancy words that I failed to communicate, prompting a question that indicated a lack of understanding of what I meant. In short, I wasn't clear enough.
To be clear, the sole purpose of taking a shopping cart with you from the parking lot to the store or mall is to provide a mobile barrier. Period. Likewise on your way back out to your vehicle you should take a mobile barrier (shopping cart) with you to your car for the same reason. You are under no obligation to put the shopping cart into the cart corral when you get back to your vehicle. Doing so would expose you to the very danger you've been avoiding. [End edit]
I encourage my wife, niece and any other female to take a shopping cart from the parking lot into the store when they go shopping. I also do it myself. Because I'm a good citizen? No. Because you can't run from every scruffy looking person that comes near you in the parking lot. But you can play hard to get.
Taking an empty shopping cart into the store as you enter may earn you Browne points with store management, but more importantly it provides a mobile barrier you put between you and an attacker on your way in.
When my wife's niece visited us on her way to college I challenged her to a game of tag around a shopping cart. As my wife looked on in disapproval, she came to realize that as long as I kept the shopping cart between us she couldn't catch even an old codger like me.
Of course you'll want to take a shopping cart out with you as you return to your car too; even if you didn't buy anything. This is a safety issue; it's not about helping the store with its carts. Leaving your shopping cart in the Cart Corral as you are leaving is optional.
Now, add to that yelling and screaming as you're being chased around the shopping cart and you've got your mobile personal defense barrier for going into and coming out of the store day or night. A rapist/robber doesn't want attention from all the people in the parking lot and those coming out of the store. He'll run off.
Pedestrian U-Turn on sidewalk
Another trick I showed her was the U-Turn when some creep is driving alongside her trying to pick her up while she is walking on the sidewalk. Walking faster won't work 'cause the creep in the car can go a lot faster then a human can run.
But just by turning around and walking back the other way women & girls can derail a lecher's plans. He can't back up into traffic and if he tries he's likely to back himself into an accident. Besides showing the roué she's not interested this tactic puts distance between her and Lothario in case he's tempted to try more forceful means. A few months ago she called to say the U-Turn maneuver worked for her.
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(RRM writes)
Your ideas and suggestions were very good and hope that will help other people.
Thanks for sharing,
RRM
(I appreciate your vote of thanks,
DesertDave)
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