In a parking lot one Saturday
By Dara Doak

In a parking lot one Saturday afternoon, while Tammy was teaching  a Between the Threat and the Bang class, I was dealing with a situation.
 
It was mid-afternoon and I had treated myself to a leisurely late lunch at a new restaurant in my area.  As I was preparing to leave,  a man came into the restaurant that immediately got my attention.  It was a NQR moment.  Something was Not Quite Right.  It was probably the plastic tub he was carrying, the kind that you see people selling candy out of at busy intersections supposedly for the benefit of some obscure charity.   He walked over to the cash register and started talking to the cashier.  I went to the ladies’ room, and when I came out, he was gone.
 
I stopped in at another business next door, browsed a bit, then left the building to go to my car, which was parked about 25-30 feet away. By this time I had forgotten about the man, but was actively scanning the parking lot and area around my car, because it’s a habit.
 
I had covered about half the distance  to my car, when another car about half a block across the large parking lot pulled away to reveal a person.  It was the man from the restaurant.  He saw me at the same time and started walking toward me.  Thoughts flashed through my head:  “No way I’m turning my back on you and going back into the store.  It’s just as far as my car.  He’s twice as far from the car as I am, I can make it to my car and be locked inside before he gets to me.”  I walked faster.   He picked up speed, too.  So I walked faster… and so did he.
 
About 10 paces from my car, I realized that  I wasn’t going make it before he closed enough distance to be a threat.  I was on the edge of panic, but pulled myself together.   I can handle this. I locked eyes with him, still moving toward the car, and was about to raise my left hand and bark ‘Stop’, at him when he  raised his hand in a wave as if to say, “Ok, lady, I get the message,” and altered his angle of approach so that he would pass me several feet away instead of coming straight toward me.  I kept looking right at him because he was still coming to close.  He waved his hand, again, then fixed his attention on someone or something behind me and off to my left.  I kept my eyes on him while quickly getting into the car, starting it and pulling away in the opposite direction.
 
I learned several things from this encounter:

It was mid-afternoon in the middle of a parking lot with people around, and this guy made me feel like prey with his first step toward me.     He got too close a lot faster than I imagined possible.   Even with my training and a gun on my hip, I nearly panicked. Because of my training and advance planning, I quickly pulled myself out of panic and took charge of the situation.  In the very moment that my attitude changed, he got the message that I was not prey and immediately set his sights elsewhere.  
 
My take-away:  From the very first moment that you feel like prey, take charge and do it aggressively.

Saved from being kicked in the face!
by Kristy

I had a patient who suddenly got quite combative last night.  He'd been taking off his oxygen mask, and as I was reaching for it to put it back on, he tried to kick me in the face.  I moved fast enough that he missed my face, but he caught me right under the collarbone.  This was a big strong guy, and he kicked hard.  His other leg had just started moving towards me when I yelled "STOP!" in that tone. He froze just long enough that I was able to jump out of the way of that other foot. Apparently I was pretty loud because all the other nurses came running from the nurses' station down the hall to see what was going on.  
 
It may not have been exactly the kind of situation we were practicing for in Between the Threat and the Bang, but what we practiced certainly helped keep me from getting kicked a second time.

Woman in distress fake-out
by Laurie

Just thought I would pass this on to you. I work for Oklahoma Breast Care Center and I drive a big mobile van all around Oklahoma. We have to stop frequently to get diesel fuel and often stop at a station at I-35 and NW 10th Street.  In the last few weeks I have been approached by two different women on two different occasions saying they have broken down and are looking for gas money. Their cars looked fine to me!!!  I just tell them NO! and they drive off.

Sunday Story
Why I never really put my purse down in the grocery store
(or any other store for that matter)

by Dara Doak

Just thought I would share this incident as a reminder to be careful while you are out shopping this holiday season.  This could happen anywhere.  I just happened to be at the local Walmart Neighborhood Market grocery store.
 
Some jerk thought he would help himself to my purse today.  I’m habit of keeping my head up and scanning my surroundings everywhere I go.  Some call it paranoia; I call it refusing to be a victim. Even with that level of awareness, my purse was almost stolen today.    It pissed me off, especially since my SDA license, which I had picked up less than 24 hours earlier, was in it.  
 
I went straight to the grocery store after church  to get something for lunch (the larder is pretty bare right now).    It is my habit to rest my purse on the cart as I push it down the aisle, but it is always attached to my body somehow,  usually on a long strap across  my body, but today I kept my wrist through a short strap instead.   I probably looked like an easy mark: middle-aged woman with a purse in the top basket of the cart.  However, any time I reached for items on a shelf, I picked it up, put it on my shoulder with the long strap and turned toward the shelf so that my purse was between me and the cart.
 
I was in the bread aisle, which is on the side of the store  where the lunch meat and cheese is.  It’s a very wide aisle, and there are display cases down the middle of it between the bread shelves and the cold cases on the wall.  It’s also a fairly easy shot down the aisle and out the front door.
 
About half way down the bread aisle, I stop my cart and reach to pick up my purse.  Just as I lift it out of the cart,  I see movement out of the corner of my left eye (bread shelf is on my right).  I turn around to see a very tall man walking briskly up the aisle away from me.  He doesn’t look around or stop or slow down.  I have no idea where he came from. He could not have approached from the direction I was facing when I stopped the cart, because he was very tall and the cases are short enough I would have seen him coming.  I suspect he was coming up behind me and did an about-face when I picked up my purse, which was the movement that caught my attention.
 
After that, I carried  my purse on across  my body on the long strap, as I should have been doing all along, and put just enough room between the cart and the shelves for me to stand between them.   I was all over that store, crossing paths with other shoppers multiple times, and never saw the man, again.  
 
I am certain that he was looking for an easy mark, and thought he had found one.  Except for a quick flash in my peripheral vision, I didn’t see it coming, and I look for this kind of thing all the time. If I had not religiously followed my ‘don’t ever put the purse down’ rule, I am certain that it would have been out the door in a flash.
 
So, I’m making changes in how I carry certain important items.   I will still carry a purse, but the important items won’t be in it.  Ladies, you might want to think this through for yourselves.   

Gentlemen, please pass this on to the women in your lives.