I think we could all stand to pay just a little bit more attention to what is going on around us while out in public.
I Recently read, in my local paper, about a woman who lost her purse while pumping gas. She explains how she pulled into the gas station in a very busy part of town, and with many other people around. Her gas tank being on the passenger side of the car, she parked appropriatly. She exited her vehicle and proceeded around the car to begin pumping her gasaline. She finished pumping her fuel and reentered her car. She then notice that her purse was missing. When she originally exited the car, she took only the one credit card she needed to pay at the pump and left her purse sitting on the passenger seat. A bit frazeled she went into the gas station store and spoke to the manager. Together they observed the security tapes of the pump area. There it was, all captured on video.
When she originally pulled into the pumps, a small sedan followed her in and parked at the opposite pump to her drivers door (remember her gas tank was on the passenger side of her vehicle). After she exited her vehicle and proceeded around her car, and inserted her credit card into the pump, a passenger from the sedan parked opposite of her, exited the passenger side of his car, and while squatting down low, opened her car door, entered her vehicle through her drivers door, removed her purse and closed the door very softly. All this was done in less than 30 seconds!
Now I can tell you how to combat this type of theft, but that would be assuming that you were an idiot. What I would really like to drum home to you, is that by just paying a little bit more attention to what is going on around us, this type of activity would not have been possible. I would however, suggest that you always carry your key chain out of the car when refueling, and preferrably have a Key chain pepper spray attached. If this woman had caught this man in mid theft, it may have come in handy. Another good tool would be a portable personal alarm attached to her purse, that would have activated when it was moved. That really would have dumbfounded him.
I thought doubely hard about this crime when I found myself parked at the gas pumps, in a similar manner, just a few days after I read about my neighbors victimization. While pumping my own gas, a woman drove into the gas station and stopped a couple of islands away from me (the station was not to busy) and proceeded to ask me directions. As she was a bit of a soft talker, and me being slightly hard of hearing, I left the close vacinity of my vehicle and walked over to her vehicle to give her directions. After giving her directions and making sure she understood them, I realized that I had left my car unlocked and if some one had wanted to enter it while the woman distracted me by asking for directions, they most easily could have. I was lucky that she really did only need directions.
My point is that we all could stand to be just a little more aware of the situation around us. I know we like to think that it can never happen to us, but there really are people out there that are willing to take what is rightfully yours if the oppourtunity is given to them. I’m also not advocating that we all become paranoid of everyone around us. I’m just reminding everyone that An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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