Car Security
Overview
This Overview links to all aspects of Car Security: driving safety tips, parking lot safety, carjacking, ambushes, and road rage. Here's an example of the lessons you'll learn:
Visiting affluent Palm Springs CA, Gene Mata of Bear Island MI was driving with his wife, Linda, on the main street looking for the motel they’d reserved in advance. Feeling lost, they pulled to the curb to ask a young man for directions.
Linda fully lowered her window as the young man leaned on the windowsill and began pointing ahead with one hand. They didn’t notice his other hand sneaking inside to unlock the car’s rear door.
Suddenly whipping open the rear door and leaping inside while lifting his shirt to reveal a handgun tucked in his belt, he demanded, “Start driving or I’ll kill both of you.”
Poof!!! In an instant, their dream vacation became a nightmare. But Linda, shocking both the thug and Gene with a maneuver she’d once learned from a TV news report, burst from her seat, bolting out the door screaming as she fled. Now the police will be quickly alerted.
Poof!!! In another instant, the thug’s spur-of-the-moment
carjacking/kidnapping began crumbling. Now he panicked. Putting the gun
to Gene’s head, he screamed, “Drive, damnit, or I’ll blow your head
off!” Gene obeyed – but knowing better than to follow this punk’s
script, he had a trick up his sleeve as well. “This car has airbags”, he thought, “for the front seats only.” And only Gene had a seat belt on.
Accelerating to 40 mph, Gene spotted a gas station with empty space all the way to a brick wall beyond it. That wall became his target. As he started turning into the driveway, the thug got excited and began crowding forward between the bucket seats while holding the gun inches from Gene’s head. “The wall’s too far away,” Gene thought. So he jammed on the brakes, sending the punk slamming headfirst into the dashboard. The car skidded to a stop just shy of the wall as Gene jumped out and fled.
Afterward, Gene said he’d felt enormous relief when Linda instantly bolted from the car. He no longer had the extra burden of protecting her and could better maneuver without her.
Incidentally, crashing a car at speeds above 10 mph is very risky – even with seatbelt and airbags – but the alternative may well be far worse.
ALL CAR SECURITY PAGES
• Driving Safety Tips: FAQ survival strategies.
• Parking Lot Safety FAQ
• Emergency Button in a parking lot & at home.
• Avoiding Carjacking: car safety tips for being alert and prepared.
• Escaping Carjacking: the best strategies.
• Car Ambushes: escaping from traps.
• Road Rage: avoiding a lunatic.
• Recap of Car Security.
• Security Products - Personal Devices
• Pepper Spray & where to buy pepper spray
• Personal Security Alarm: (screamer or noisemaker)
