With the stupidity going on for the past few months with mobs of leftist idiots attacking cars and passengers this primer would be some good advice for us motorists. I shamelessly clipped this article from "Art of Manliness"
You’re sitting in your car at an intersection listening to the 80's
on Sirius XM. Suddenly your door swings open and a gun is shoved in your
face.
“Out of the car!” a voice yells.
You’re getting carjacked.
While rare, carjackings have been on the rise in recent years in
cities across the United States (more on why in a bit). So it pays to
have a plan for how to avoid becoming the victim of this crime, and what
to do if you can’t.
To put together both prongs of said plan, I researched this area of
tactical know-how, including talking with my buddy Mike Seeklander,
owner of the
American Warrior Society and a self-protection and tactical training expert, and share key insights on preventing and dealing with carjackings below.
Before I started researching this article, I thought carjackings were
mostly a trope from 1970s action movies. The news didn’t seem to cover
many reports on this crime.
But statistics indicate that carjackings have actually been on the rise in many U.S. cities for the past decade.
Chicago,
Memphis,
Nashville,
Baltimore, and
New Orleans are just some of the cities that have reported a dramatic increase in carjackings in recent years.
Criminologists have a theory as to why the prevalence of carjackings
has been going up: Cars today are simply harder to steal without a
driver already at the wheel. The fact that modern cars come equipped
with anti-theft technology, and will only start when a keyfob is in the
vehicle, has made stealing parked cars much more difficult,
time-consuming, and dangerous for would-be thieves than it was in the
days of simple hot-wiring. So instead of stealing parked, unoccupied
vehicles, criminals are taking already running cars from drivers at
gunpoint. It’s a lot faster and easier than stealing a car the
old-fashioned way.
So carjackings are up. What can you do to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of this crime?
Step one is to educate yourself about the world of carjacking. You
need to know where carjackings are most likely to occur and how they
typically go down so that you can formulate a plan on how to avoid this
situation in the first place. So here’s your dossier on the criminal
world of carjacking:
- Most carjackings occur in high crime areas (duh), but Mike says
they’re also increasingly happening in the safer, wealthier parts of
town too: “That’s typically where the nicer cars filled with nice things
are at so that’s where criminals go.”
- Carjacking is a crime of opportunity. Carjackers prefer to work at
night and in dark areas. Parking lots and intersections with poor
lighting are favorite spots. Carjackings do occur, however, in driveways
or near the entrances into gated communities.
- Carjackers typically strike when the person is getting into their vehicle.
- 92% of carjackings happen when the victim is alone in the car.
- 90% of carjackings involved the use of a weapon, typically a firearm.
- Carjackers generally are under the age of 21.
Below we discuss how to counteract the
factors that make someone more vulnerable to this crime, in order to
make yourself far less so.
Maintain situational awareness. We’ve written extensively about situational awareness here.
The key points are 1) paying attention to your surroundings (get off
your phone!), 2) look for anomalies in your environment, and 3) have a
plan for if something goes wrong.
Situational awareness doesn’t mean being paranoid, just staying in a state of calm attentiveness.
Park in well-lit and well-populated areas. As
mentioned above, carjackings are crimes of opportunity. Carjackers will
steal a car if they think they’re more likely to get away with it, and
they’re more likely to get away with it, if there’s no one around and
it’s dark. Don’t give carjackers the opportunity. Park your car in
well-lit and well-populated areas. Avoid parking next to big vans or
other objects that will obscure the view of witnesses. The goal is to
park in a place where lots of people can see you, and your own
visibility is high.
Get in and out of your car with purpose. Carjackers
typically prey on drivers that appear weak or are distracted. So don’t
look weak or distracted. Get in and out of your car with purpose. When
you’re walking to your car, keep your head on a swivel. Before you get
in the car, look inside it—scanning both the front and back seats. As
soon as you climb in the driver’s seat, lock the doors, and get moving.
Don’t fiddle on your phone or the radio. Same goes for when you’re
getting out of the car. As soon as you stop, get out, and get moving to
your destination. The more time you sit in your car looking at your
phone, the more time you give a carjacker to stick you up.
Keep your doors locked, and your windows rolled up.
Your goal is to make it as hard as possible for someone to carjack you.
Leaving your doors unlocked and windows down makes you an easy victim.
As soon as you get into your car, make it a habit to lock the doors. And
as great as it would be to roll the windows down on a beautiful spring
day and crank up “Santeria” by Sublime while sipping a Surge, keep your
windows rolled up in high-crime areas of town. You don’t want to provide
easy access to thieves.
Many new cars have a feature that locks the doors automatically when
you start the car. Mike recommends turning that feature on so that you
don’t have to think about locking your doors when you get in your
vehicle.
Don’t travel solo when driving in a dangerous part of town.
92% of carjacking victims were alone in their car at the time of the
crime. While it’s not possible to have a buddy with you every time you
get in the car, if you know you’ll be driving in a dangerous part of
town, take a co-pilot along. Again, carjackers are criminals of
opportunity: if you’ve got a friend with you, it means the carjacker is
likely outnumbered, diminishing his chances of success, and making him
think twice about targeting your vehicle.
When stopped in your vehicle (like at a stoplight), be sure you can see the tires of the car in front of you.
This will put enough space between you and the car in front of you to
allow you to steer and drive away if some bad dude tries to jack your
car. “Also, have a plan every time you’re at a stop light. If you had to
drive away, have an idea of where you’d go,” says Mike. “[And] don’t be
afraid to ignore sidewalks and traffic lines or hit a traffic sign. In a
life or death situation, all surfaces become drivable.”
Be on the Lookout for Bump and Runs
One underhanded tactic that some criminals use to carjack is called
the “bump and run.” The carjacker and an accomplice will intentionally
bump their vehicle into the rear of the victim’s car. Thinking he’s been
involved in a fender bender, the victim will get out of his car to
assess the damage and exchange insurance information. That’s when the
carjacker will threaten the victim and steal his car. The carjacker
zooms away in your vehicle, his accomplice drives away in his, and the
victim is left stranded.
If you do get rear-ended, pull your car over into a well-lit and
populated area. You want as many people as you can to see you. If there
isn’t a good place to pull over, keep driving (with your flashers on, so
if the person who bumped you is an average citizen, they know you’ll be
stopping) until you find one. If you suspect the bumper is likely a car
thief, call the police, and stay in your car with doors locked and
windows rolled up until the police arrive.
Despite all the precautions you’ve taken,
you’ve got some rando pointing a gun at your head and telling you to get
out of the car. What do you do?
Just give them your car. Most carjackers just want
your car. So give it to them. Your life is more important than your
Honda Civic. Cars are replaceable; you aren’t.
Get kids out of the car first. If you have kids in
the car, make sure the kids get out before you do. “Don’t let some bad
guy get behind the wheel of the car if your kids are still in the car.
Just tell the carjacker that they can take the car, but that your kids
have to get out first,” says Mike. If the kids are old enough to get out
by themselves, tell them to get out and as far away from the car and
the criminal as possible. If they can’t get out of the car by themselves
(e.g., a toddler or an infant), turn around to the backseat and get
them out. Again, children should never be in the car without you.
Do NOT get in the car with them. If your carjacker
tells you to move over and stay in the car with them, or demands that
you get back in after he’s taken over the driver’s seat, do whatever is
needed to avoid complying. Your attacker is likely taking you to a
“second crime scene.” You don’t want to go to a second crime scene.
These are places that are entirely hidden from public view where violent
criminals kill/rape/beat their victims. Crime studies show that a
victim’s chances of survival go down once they get to a second crime
scene. So if you’re told to get into/stay in a carjacked vehicle,
fight to resist like your life depends on it — because it probably does.
Control whatever weapon your attacker is
using and unleash violence on them. Mike recommends keeping a pepper gel
or foam as a first line of defense. “You want to avoid a pepper spray because it could mist back on you. You want something that shoots directly on the criminal and stays on them,” he explains.
Use improvised weapons. Gouge eyes, stomp feet, knee nuts.
If you’re armed, Mike recommends practicing how to handle your
firearm in your vehicle. “Handling a firearm in a closed environment
like a car seat poses some challenges,” he says. “You’ll need to
practice how to get access to your firearm and how to aim and fire it.
You’ll also need to practice how to manage your firearm if you have
passengers in your vehicle so that they don’t get injured. They need to
know what to do in the event you have to use a gun in your vehicle. And
this takes practice.”
Many firearm training centers offer classes on how to handle a
firearm in a car. If you carry a weapon, Mike recommends taking a class.
Also, just practice with a “red gun” or other type of training gun.
If your defenses fail and the carjacker puts you into the trunk,
you know how to get out.
As mentioned above, carjackings are rare but rising. Using some
common-sense rules, you can avoid being a victim. But if you do get
carjacked, you’ll know how to handle it.
