Protect Yourself: What to Do If You Fear Attack in Your Car
First, listen to what all the experts tell you: your car, truck, or SUV is not worth your life. If someone tries to take your vehicle from you in a carjacking, especially when the criminal does it at knife or gunpoint, let the thief take it while you get away. Unless you are very fortunate, you are much more apt to be injured in trying to fight to keep your vehicle than if you get the heck out of there.
You also face the issue of how a weapon you may try to use can be turned against you. Stun devices, guns, and knives have been pulled out of the trembling hands of a victim and used to hurt that person who acquired them for protection. People who commit crimes regularly may be accustomed to street fighting, but average people usually are not. Because of this, we don’t usually possess the skills necessary to effectively defend ourselves in a physical, perhaps even mortal battle with a perpetrator.
Along these same lines, never attempt some fancy move you saw in a movie or in last week’s “Law and Order” episode. You could get hurt as easily as the perpetrator of the crime. Understand that while the law always allows for self defense, what you perceive as a life or death situation has to rise to what a reasonable person acting in a reasonable state of mind would do under similar circumstances. What may leave you in a panic might now strike law enforcement or the judicial system quite the same way.
If you have children, drill with them on what they should do if something happens when you are out driving. Instruct the oldest child, for example, to take charge of getting the younger ones out of the vehicle promptly in the event of a carjack situation or an accident. Also make it clear that doors should stay both closed and locked; when riding downtown and in public areas, the windows should be up as much as possible, too.
Next, one of your best defenses against a problem is getting attention. A charged cell phone can work well to call authorities or an onboard emergency communications system like OnStar.
But, if you are in imminent danger yet still trying to keep control of the vehicle, the use of the cell phone may not be your most advantageous move. Instead, consider whether it is appropriate to start honking your car horn or maneuvering your vehicle as quickly yet safely as you can toward more people or – better yet – a police station. Get your car, truck, or SUV into a brightly lit parking lot where other people are located. Once you do, whoever is in hot pursuit may change his mind quickly about the easiness of his mark.
If you think you are being followed, you probably should not drive directly home unless there are enough people there to offer you assistance. The same holds true if you decide to head for a friend or family member’s house unless you can alert them ahead of time by phone so they can contact police.
In my first experience, I had a car appear out of nowhere to ride my tail along a winding country road. When I pulled over to let the car pass me, the other vehicle actually just pulled around in such a way as to block my path. There were multiple young men in the car, and through their open window, I could smell alcohol and marijuana as well as something else that smelled strangely chemical. As soon as I heard glass break as one of them smashed a bottle against the other car’s door and saw them start to exit the vehicle, I hit reverse quickly and got out of there.
A moment later, it seemed like I had left them in my dust. With just enough time to think, I knew I had not caused a problem for them so there was no reason for their hot pursuit. Yet, by the time I realized this, the vehicle reappeared, coming up fast in my rearview mirror. Without a cell phone and without houses nearby, I knew I had to keep moving.
Because I did not want this strange crew following me to my rather remote apartment, I swiftly detoured to head toward the only public place I knew to be open in the vicinity. No sooner did I pull up under a big light where several bar patrons were in the parking lot when the other vehicle did a sharp turn back out of the lot. The car waited up the street for sometime, but I stayed where I was until the vehicle finally departed. My next stop was at the closest sheriff substation to report the incident and provide as many details as I could.
On another occasion, I managed to get lost coming out of Manhattan and discovered I was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in a very bad area of New York. Abandoned warehouses and long-shuttered shops lined narrow streets. As I sat there waiting for traffic to move, I noticed a small group of men, shabbily dressed and with makeshift tools like a tire iron in their hands.
At what these men were actually angry remains a mystery. As I watched them, I saw them go to a car in which there was only an old woman. While she stared straight ahead at traffic, she failed to notice that the man with the tire iron had his hand on her door handle. Something told me her door was unlocked and that she was about to get a very nasty surprise. Not knowing what else to do, I honked my horn loudly. In my rear view mirror, I saw the old woman finally notice the man, yank her door shut again, and immediately lock all her doors. I had already checked to be sure all my doors were locked and windows shut, too.
I should have realized I might become the next target because I had drawn attention to myself in my attempt to protect the older woman. It also appeared that if I was expecting my fellow motorists to rescue me, I might be sadly mistaken. While everyone seemed to be eying the three men warily, no one was about to take any action unless they were challenged directly.
Just as one of the men swung what looked like a reinforced golf club at one of my tail lights, I laid on the horn again. Surprised, he jumped back although his two friends advanced toward the front of the car. As the one on my right began to bellow some strange words, the man on my left began to shake the tire iron at me as if ready to put it through my windshield. As he was about to strike, I sounded the horn once more. An old car at the time, it had the kind of horn that commands attention. Every time I touched the horn, in fact, the men would back off a bit.
I was very fortunate because my horn blowing happened to get the notice of a police car that had been sitting rows behind me in traffic. Just as the first officers were coming toward the source of the horn blowing, a backup patrol car appeared in the intersection ahead of me. The attacking trio took flight with police in pursuit. I was able to drive away with just a crunched tail light and a severe case of jitters.
I have wondered many times what might have happened had I not acted as I did. In the first case, I was able to get myself somewhere that made me a less attractive victim. In the second, I successfully got the attention of authorities while keeping my would-be attackers from doing something worse.
