Serious Self Defense Post

[Water Dragon]

This is probably an urban legend, but the message is extremely relevant. After all, awareness is the first step.

FW: Good Advice For your safety-do not pick up strangers no
matte r how nice they are!


You just never know when/if a small bit of info. can make a large chunk of
difference in your life. Heads up ladies...

This may very well save your life or the life of your loved
ones - please read
Here is some info for you to pass on....there are alot of sick people out

there
Not everyone is trustworthy as you will read below!
This is scary!!!! Men, if you open this, please make sure the ladies in
your life are informed.

About a month ago there was 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, and 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,
and 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 it 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 it would have been if she had
children with her and had them wait in the car while the man fixed the
tire, or if she had a baby strapped into a car seat. Or if she'd gone
against her judgment and given him a lift.

I'd like you to forward this to all the women you know. It may save a
life. A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle. I was going to
send this to the ladies only; but guys, if you love your mothers, wives,
sisters, daughters, etc., you may want to pass it on to
them, as well. Send this to any woman you know that may need to
be reminded that the world we live in has a lot of crazies in
it....better
safe than sorry.

PLEASE BE SAFE AND NOT SORRY! JUST A WARNING TO
ALWAYS BE ALERT AND USE YOUR HEAD!!!
Pass this along to every woman you have access to.
Never let your guard down.

[norther practitioner]

Yeah, I've heard a few different versions of this one. there is no doubt that there are screwed up people out there. Always be careful, always have fun, and always be humble (unless you are kicking it with a chica).

[MonkeySlap Too]

Not so long ago there was a woman out here who was dragged into a van outside an upscale shopping center in broad daylight and raped.

Awareness is the key to self defense.

Now the dunderheads out here want to release a serial rapist because he is 'cured'.

I suggest we let him move in with the people who want him released.

For that matter, maybe the Al Queda guys can live with the British journalists who are so worried about them.

I digress...

[wushu chik]

Yeah, it's pretty sad when people have to brutalize others to get their rocks off!! I am glad she used her head!! Most people would have just jumped in the car with him and said OK....duh...

It's good to let people in on what's going on aroun them...but the sad thing is, most people have the "It wouldn't happen to me" attitude about it!!!

Such as life!

~Wen~

[Stranger]

read "The Gift of Fear"

Our animal instincts are just below the surface, and with proper conditioning you can become more in tune with them. Environmental awareness, sensory training, etc. are all part of a wholistic approach to combat training (IMHO).

[Ryu]

The woman had lots of smarts. Thank God for her. She really came through there, and listened to her inner voice (big key). I wish I could give her a thumbs up actually.

.... I also wish I could run into Mr. Briefcase, and use his duct tape to attach his balls to his face.


Sorry.

Ryu

[Radhnoti]

There are numerous websites that refute urban legends such as these, I got this from about.com:

Another Close Call at the Mall
Dateline: 07/29/98

By David Emery

The folks at Tuttle Crossing Mall in Columbus, Ohio thought they'd put the nasty rumors behind them way back in April, when phone calls about the horror story then being passed around on the Internet finally began to dwindle.

As the story went, a female shopper returned to her car in the mall parking lot and found that she had a flat tire. As she set about changing it, a man in a business suit approached and offered to help. The woman accepted, and they changed the tire together without incident.

At that point the helpful businessman asked her for a ride to his car, which he said was parked on the other side of the mall. This made the woman uncomfortable and slightly suspicious, so she politely declined. He became insistent. Fearful of his intentions, the woman told the man she had more shopping to do and rushed back into the mall, where she immediately reported the incident to security.

Later, when she went back to her car, the good samaritan was nowhere to be seen. The flat tire still needed repair, so she drove to a garage, where a mechanic pointed out to her that someone had slashed the tire with a knife. It was also discovered that the man had left his briefcase in her trunk.

"She opened it," the story concludes, "and the only things in it were some rope and a butcher knife!"

Well, it's an urban legend, of course, and hardly a new one at that (see Shopping Mauled by Barbara Mikkelson for its pedigree). But for weeks after the story began circulating on the Internet, Tuttle Mall personnel fielded inquiry after inquiry from frightened patrons and scoop-hungry media types, most of whom seemed to assume the story was based on a real-life incident.

"It's not true!" was the constant refrain at the mall switchboard during those weeks. The security office stated that no such incident had ever been reported. Columbus police investigated and found no evidence to substantiate the story.

"It was nothing but a false, stupid, ridiculous, sick rumor," a Tuttle Mall security officer told me earlier this week. He said he was glad when the rumor finally died down towards the end of April; and seemed audibly perturbed when I informed him that it's back.

Sad to say, several new and improved versions of the legend started making the email rounds earlier this month. Judging from the number of inquiries I've received, it's a bigger hit than ever.

Here's a specimen:


I received this email from a friend and since I care about all of you I wanted to share it. It is just a reminder to be aware when you are out and about. There are a lot of creepy people in this world, I am sad to say.

A woman was shopping at the Tuttle Mall in Columbus. She came out to her car and saw she had a flat. She got her jack, spare out of the trunk. A man in a business suit came up and started to help her. When the tire had been replaced, he asked for a ride to his car on the opposite side of the Mall.

Feeling uncomfortable about doing this, she stalled for awhile, but he kept pressing her. She finally asked why he was on this side of the Mall if his car was on the other. He had been talking to friends, he claimed. Still uncomfortable, she told him that she had just remembered something she had forgotten to pick up at the mall and she left him and went back inside the mall. She reported the incident to the mall security and they went out to her car.

The man was nowhere in sight. Opening her trunk, she discovered a brief case the man had set inside her trunk while helping her with the tire. Inside was rope and a butcher knife! When she took the tire to be fixed, the mechanic informed her that there was nothing wrong with her tire, that it was flat because the air had been let out of it!

The moral of this story...learn to change your own tire, call someone you know and trust to help you or call mall security in the first place to assist you .

Please Be Safe....and not sorry. Although this happened in Columbus, it could happen anywhere there are NUTS around. Just a warning to always be alert.

Pass this along to every woman you have access too. Never let your guard down. Good story for women to know about -- although with the NUTS in today's world, everyone needs to be careful (not just women).


Other current versions – including variants set in Milpitas, California and Savannah, Georgia – feature the familiar text with slight modifications. The message typically circulates with headers such as "FYI - Ladies Beware!" or "Be safe, Beware..." One version concludes with the warning:

People, it is unfortunate that in today's world, we can trust no one. This woman was smart and lucky. The next one of us (male or female) might not be. Trust no one! Be safe!
"Trust no one" is the moral of a good many popular urban legends. Another classic example can be found in The Kidney Snatchers, a chilling tale of dismemberment at the hands of a global cabal of organ thieves. The persistent message is that it's a dangerous and terrifying world out there, one in which any stranger, well-dressed or otherwise, might be concealing a knife (or a scalpel) in his briefcase with which to do us bodily harm.

Apocryphal stories like these – essentially fairy tales for adults – tap into deep-seated, universal fears that are at once rational and irrational. There are dangerous people in the world, to be sure. Wisdom dictates behaving cautiously around strangers at times. These are givens. On the other hand, it's surely a rare and unlikely occurrence to be accosted at the mall by businessmen carrying briefcases loaded with murder weapons.

Just because they take the form of cautionary tales with a moral message doesn't mean these stories have anything truly useful to teach us about the world. "Trust no one" is hardly a practical credo to live by. We can't conduct our lives as if every stranger is a potential axe-murderer because, among other reasons, it simply isn't true.

No, if urban legends teach us anything at all, they teach us about ourselves and how we perceive the world. They're a window on human psychology.

Consider the mall story. It's improbable and demonstrably untrue, yet has been widely taken for fact and circulated from friend to friend to friend across the country and around the world as a somber and sincere warning. It doesn't prove that that there are madmen lurking in parking lots everywhere, nor that our lives are in peril when we accept the help of strangers. It doesn't prove that every time we set foot outside our homes we ought to be afraid.

What it proves, by its very existence, is that we are already afraid.

[Akuma]

"Trust no-one Mr Mulder"

[Ryu]

excellent post.


I'd still want to attach his balls to his face whether or not he's a fictional guy. :D

Ryu

[Stranger]

Yes, this particular story is an Urban Legend. It is included in a book I have called "The Choking Doberman". Waterdragon even acknowledged that he was uncertain whether or not the tale was true.

Even if the events never took place, the message is still true. Often when faced with a threatening situation, there is an attempt by our "animal instinct" to warn us. People shouls be more aware of "that sinking feeling in their gut" or the"hairs raising on the back of your neck" or "[insert any physical symptom of anxiety]"

We have "evolved" to the point where we rely on our intelligence at the expense of ignoring our instinct. With mindful traning, we can begin to reacquaint ourselves with this dormant instinct. The Gift of Fear is a very popular work addressing the subject.

Ted Bundy pulled a scam very similar to the BG in the above urban legend in order to get his victims. We can still learn from this legend, even if it is untrue.

JUST BECASE SOMEBODY IS PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE, WELL DRESEED, OR MANNERLY DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE "GOOD" OR "SAFE". (Ted Bundy was considered to possess all of these traits yet he lured women to their death).

[rubthebuddha]

ryu -- the attaching of the balls -- is that before or after you feed him his own jimmy?

[Ryu]

Um, that's after I believe.

Ryu