The Busy Woman’s Pocket Guide to Safety
By
Carla M. Thompson
Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2011 by Carla Michelle Thompson
The Busy Woman’s Pocket Guide to Safety Copyright © 2009 by Carla Michelle Thompson/Ladies First Publishing, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise — without prior written permission, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
For information about this title or to order other books and/or electronic media, contact the publisher: Ladies First Publishing, LLC PO Box 772 Garden City, MI 48135 http://www.thebusywomanspocketguide.com 734-326-2544
ISBN: 978-0-9843287-0-3 Printed in the United States of America Cover and Interior design by: 1106 Design
This book is dedicated to my mother Deborah Edison, who is one of the busiest women I know and who still took time to teach me how to be safe. Thank you, too, to my husband, Andre Thompson, who encouraged me to write this book.
Table of Contents
A Place To Live
Out and About
Traveling Safely
Miscellaneous Precautions: Thinking Safely
WOMEN NEED THIS BOOK. Yes, women. According to the US Department of Justice:
• Females were more likely than males to be victims of rape or sexual assault.
• Female victims knew the offenders in approximately 70% of assaults against them. Offenders known to the victims were most often identified as friends or acquaintances.
• Robbery was the crime most likely to be committed by a stranger compared to other violent crimes against women.
In short, women are more vulnerable in these areas. And we should be constantly thinking about how we can be safer. Most of us are busy — very busy. But we can’t afford to be so busy that we don’t think about how to be safe. Too many women have been robbed, beaten or assaulted when a little watchful foresight might have prevented the unfortunate from happening.
This book is designed to show women who are squeezed for time how to keep themselves safe from being robbed, beaten up or assaulted. I know how tough it is to find the time to think about safety. Believe me, I have been through that meat grinder and I continue to go through it. I have a job that consumes a lot of hours. I’ve also had plenty of practice — I’ve lived in Detroit most of my life, I’ve lived in apartments, worked midnight shifts, taken evening classes and traveled abroad. I’ve had plenty of reasons to focus on how women can think about being safe. I know how to watch out for myself. I have learned how to be alert in unsafe situations and how to keep from being injured or assaulted.
In fact, the need for women to think about their safety is the reason I wrote this book. There are lots of books and publications showing you safety tips. This book is different. This book gives you tips that I picked up just in the process of living my life, but using these tips will also help you focus more on being safe in general as you go through your day. Nobody can write enough safety tips to cover every situation you’re likely to run into. The tips here, and you’ll find plenty of them, are examples of how to think about safety as you live your life. Though I can’t claim that this book will inoculate you against all harm, I can say that the things I encourage you to do in this book are time-tested tips I’ve used for years and (knock on wood) I’ve never been robbed, attacked or stalked.
Please note: A few pointers will be repeated because you can get double duty out of them. Most importantly, these tips should become a part of your everyday way of approaching any situation. The goal is to always be in a safety frame of mind.
A Place To Live
YOUR HOME IS YOUR central place of peace, your refuge from much of the world. Here is where you should feel the safest. When you live alone, you often have to be extra cautious.
It doesn’t matter who you are or how busy you may be. We all need a place to live. Find one that gives you better odds of being safe. There are several different angles from which to approach your safety at home. Following you’ll fi nd five very important ideas:
Picking a Safe Place to Live
• When I lived in apartments, I generally chose a unit that was directly in front of the parking lot, near the entrance. It’s noisy, for sure, but the more traffic near where you live, the safer you’re likely to be. Traffic means lots of people, and lots of people means getting to you or your place is going to be a lot tougher for bad guys who might be trying to sneak up on you.
• When approaching the place you live, always look around the parking complex as you drive into the parking lot. Look out for people walking aimlessly or just hanging around. Be particularly suspicious if you see people wearing dark clothing or who have hoods or caps covering their face.
Coming Home: No Attached Garage
Just because you’re arriving at your place, doesn’t mean you should let your guard down. Plenty of women have been attacked right where they live. Below are several precautions you can take if where you live has only a covered parking space or an unattached garage. The key is getting into the house as quickly as possible while being alert to what’s going on around you as you walk into your home.
• Practice the same technique you used when you were approaching the lot. Look around the parking lot and be wary of people walking with no particular purpose or dressed in dark clothing or clothing that hides their face. If you see someone who doesn’t look right, look them in the eye while you’re in the car so they know you’ve seen them. If these people are wandering aimlessly, turn around and slowly circle the block. Then return to see if the person is still there. Probably, whoever it was will have moved on.
Remember that sometimes people hanging around can be good for you. I had a neighbor once who loved to party and threw some kind of bash almost every night. Yes, it was noisy. But he always had lots of traffic nearby, and knowing that a lot of people were within sight and shouting distance, I felt safer.
• Never use your cell phone when getting out of your car in the dark. You’re a lot less likely to be a victim if you look like you’re alert.
• Have your keys in your hand before you leave the car. You don’t want to be standing outside your door fumbling for your house keys. This will make you an obvious target.
• If you are out at night alone and you’ve got piles of groceries or other bags you’re taking in, depending on the distance between your car and front door as well as your comfort level, you may want to lock your car before you take your groceries into your apartment. Then when you reach your door slide the bags inside the door — fast. If you need to make another trip to your car, shut the door and look around. Keep in mind if your car is not close to your apartment you should lock your apartment door and your car doors when you leave because someone could sneak into your apartment or steal your car while you are going back and forth.