It was only 5:00 PM on a cold night when she left the department store at the other end of the mall from where she had parked her car. It was dark outside already.
As she leisurely made her way thru the mall, half window shopping half thinking about her date with her new boyfriend, she suddenly got one of those feelings. You know the kind. It was the kind of feeling where the hairs bristle on the back of your neck from fear. You feel like someone just gave you a glass full of ice water down your back. Kind of frightening!
She quickly turned around to see nothing obvious-only scores of other shoppers. Only now she was on alert.
As Bonnie left the mall she started thinking about her plan. Where are my keys? Where’s my pepper spray? Did I leave my telescopic baton in the car? Where is the damn car anyhow?
She walked with her head up and with confidence reaching for her keys and pepper spray. Now armed with the spray in one hand and her keys as a weapon in the other, she approached her car.
Suddenly out of nowhere she heard the voice of a male 8 feet behind her asking her for directions. Before he could get another word out of his mouth she spun around and yelled at the top of her lungs “BACK OFF” and pointed the pepper spray at him.
She was loud enough that people 60 feet away in the parking lot looked up to see what was going on. The assailant ‘wanna be’ saw this and took off before Bonnie could even get a good look at him.
Lessons to be learned are:
— TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS. Better to be safe than sorry.
— HAVE A PLAN. Take some self defense classes and learn how to react. They are everywhere. Self defense DVD’s are great.
— PRACTICE. In your mind run thru what you are going to do and how you will do it. Practice with your non lethal self defense weapons so that using them is second nature.
— ALWAYS CARRY. Have some kind of non lethal self defense weapons handy at all times. “Walk softly and carry a big pepper spray.”
Sometimes fate is not on your side. Isn’t it better to be prepared and win than fall victim to some goon and suffer the consequences? Practice does make perfect!
Chances are very good that you are reading this because in some way crime has touched your life or you want to be proactive and protect yourself, family, home, or business from the ravages of crime. That is the first step.
Jack Krohn owns “Security Solutions” and has written over 400 articles on self defense and home security problems.