We’ve compiled pieces of the following good advice from various sites on the internet in an effort to promote safety for women. We hope you will find it useful.

Safety Tips

• The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!
• If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back taillights and stick your arm out of the hole and start waving like crazy. Pull every wire you can find in the trunk. Try anything and everything. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.
• Something like 99% of us will be exposed to, or become a victim of, a violent crime. Women are easy targets for random acts of violence. Here are some of the most important points to remember, as expressed by the an FBI officer:
  • Lack of Awareness! You must know where you are and what is going on around you.
  • Body Language! When you walk down the street, keep your head up, swing your arms and stand straight up.
  • Wrong place, wrong time! Do not walk alone in an alley, or drive in a bad neighborhood at night.
• Women have a tendency to get into their cars and sit there performing various tasks - checking their handbags, making a list, refreshing their makeup, etc. Do not do this! A predator may be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you to drive away to a destination of his choice, not yours! As soon as you get into your car:
  • Lock the doors
  • Roll up the windows
  • Drive away immediately
• In a parking lot, or parking garage:
  • Be aware! Look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat before you get in.
  • If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vehicles while the women are attempting to get into their cars through the driver's entry door.
  • Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle and the passenger side. If a male, or a car full of men, is sitting in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the building from which you just exited. If necessary, get a guard or policemen to walk you back out to your car. It is always better to be safe than sorry and better paranoid than dead!
• Always take the elevator instead of the stairs. You may consider using the stairs as a “healthy choice,” but stairwells are horrible places to be caught alone in and are a perfect crime spot!
• If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, always run! Statistically, the predator will only hit you as a running target 4 in 100 times. And even then, it most likely will not be a fatal shot, or hit a vital organ. Run!
• Women almost always try to be sympathetic - stop it! It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well-educated man, who always played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked “for help” into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim. The rest, unfortunately, is history!
• There is a story of a young woman, "who came out of the mall and was walking to her car when she noticed two older ladies in front of her. Then, she saw a police car come towards her with police officers in it, who said hello as they slowing cruised by. As she neared her car she saw a man a few rows over calling to her for help. He wanted her to close his passenger side door. He was sitting in the back on the driver's side and said he was handicapped. She noticed that all eight handicap spots in the area were empty. He continued calling until she turned and headed back to the mall. The “handicapped” man began cursing at her. In the meantime, she wondered why he didn't ask the two older ladies or the policemen for help, and why he was not parked in any of the empty handicap spots. As she got back to the mall entrance, two male friends of hers were exiting, and she told them the story, and turned to point at the car in which the man had been sitting. She then saw the man getting out of the back seat into the front and the car sped away. Don't get caught in this trap."
• Another story describes a "woman standing by the mall entrance passing out flyers to all the women going in. The woman had written the flyer herself to tell about an experience she had, so that she might warn other women. The previous day this woman had finished shopping, went out to her car and discovered that she had a flat. She got the jack out of the trunk and began to change the flat. A nice man dressed in business suit and carrying a briefcase walked up to her and said, "I noticed you're changing a flat tire. Would you like me to take care of it for you?" The woman was grateful for his offer and accepted his help. They chatted amiably while the man changed the flat, and then put the flat tire and the jack in the trunk, shut it and dusted his hands off. The woman thanked him profusely. As she was about to get in her car, the man told her that he left his car around on the other side of the mall, and asked if she would mind giving him a lift to his car. She was a little surprised and she asked him why his car was on other side. He explained that he had seen an old friend in the mall that he hadn't seen for some time and they had a bite to eat and visited for a while. He got turned around in the mall and left through the wrong exit. Now he was running late and his car was clear around on the other side of the mall. The woman hated to tell him "no" because he had just rescued her from having to change her flat tire all by herself, but she felt uneasy. Then she remembered seeing the man put his briefcase in her trunk before shutting it and before he asked her for a ride to his car. She told him that she'd be happy to drive him around to his car, but she just remembered one last thing she needed to buy. She said she would only be a few minutes; he could sit down in her car and wait for her; she would be as quick as she could be. She hurried into the mall and told a security guard what had happened. The guard came out to her car with her, but the man had left. They opened the trunk, took out his locked briefcase and took it down to the police station. The police opened it - ostensibly to look for ID so they could return the briefcase to the man. What they found was rope, duct tape, and knives! When the police checked her "flat" tire, there was nothing wrong with it; the air had simply been let out. It was obvious what the man's intention was, and obvious that he had carefully thought it out in advance. The woman was blessed to have escaped harm. How much worse would it have been, if she had gone against her judgment and given him a lift!"
• Remember, never let your guard down - use your better judgement, not your emotions! And, please be safe, not sorry.