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In my job, I review criminal and psychiatric files of imprisoned sex
offenders who are approaching their release date. I decide if they are
likely to re-offend based on certain criteria and then civilly commit
them to a sex-offender treatment facility if I decide that they are at
significant risk to re-offend. I have read hundreds and hundreds of
files, and have taken note of some of the mistakes women make. Let me
preface this by saying that a woman is NEVER EVER EVER at fault for being
raped
or attacked, but there are definitely ways to reduce your risk of being a
victim.
Here are the most common mistakes women make that could result in them
getting kidnapped, attacked, and/or raped:
1. Getting into the attacker's car when he pulls a gun and orders you
to get into his vehicle.
Most attackers don't want to shoot you. They want you to get into the
car so that they can drive you to a deserted place and torture you.
Don't comply. Run screaming. It is MUCH more likely than not
that he will just move on to an easier target.
2. Pulling over when a man drives alongside of you pointing at your
car pretending something is wrong.
If this happens, drive to the nearest well-lit and populated gas station and
look the car over yourself (or ask an attendant). Never pull over.
Believe it or not, many women have fallen for this for fear of their car
spontaneously exploding in the middle of the road. Not likely.
3. Not locking your doors while driving.
I have read several cases where the attacker simply walks up to a
woman's car while she's at a traffic light and jumps in with his gun or
knife drawn.
4. Opening your front door when you have not positively identified who
is there.
If you don't have a peep hole, get one. I've seen countless cases
where the attacker gains access to his victims simply by knocking on their
door. Don't let an attacker get into your home. He then has a private,
relatively soundproof place to attack you.
5. Not being alert in parking lots.
If you go to the grocery store at night, don't be shy about asking for an
escort to your car. Too many women are abducted from parking lots or
even raped in the parking lot. Look in your back seat before entering
your car. Cars provide endless hiding places for attackers, both
inside them and in between them. Be aware of your surroundings by
looking to the left and right and behind you with your head up all the time.
You may appear paranoid and look funny to others, but an attacker will think
twice about approaching someone who appears so aware of what's going on.
6. Trusting a clean cut, honest looking stranger.
I see mug shots of every sex offender in the state of Florida. They do
not look like monsters. They often look like they could be your
friendly grocer, bank teller, waiter, neighbor, clergy, doctor, etc.
They are every age between 15 and 90, and probably beyond. Only a
small minority actually look scary. I just read a case yesterday of a
man with only one leg who beat up his victim with his crutch before he raped
her. Who would have ever thought that a one-legged man could be a
rapist?
I don't mean to make anyone uncomfortable with this, but I am at work right
now reviewing files, and realized that this email is a way I can reach many
women at one time. I have the dirty job of reading all these files, and
it makes me feel good to know that I can share some inferences from what I
have learned. This is not an exhaustive list of what not to do, but
just some things that I have observed more than just a few times.
Pass this on to the women in your lives..."
Be careful out there! Guys, forward this to your ladies.....
Recently on Inside Edition there was an article about several new scams to
abduct women.
In one, a man comes up to a woman in a Mall or Shopping Center and asks if
she likes Pizza. When she says she does, he offers her $100.00 to shoot a
commercial for Pizza, but they need to go outside where the lighting is
better. When the woman goes out of the mall she is abducted and assaulted.
Another ploy is a very nicely dressed man asks a woman if she would be in a
Public Service announcement to discourage drug use. The man explains that
they don't want professional actors or celebrities, they want the average
mother to do this. Once she leaves the mall she is a victim.
The third ploy, and the most successful, a very frantic man comes running in
and asks a woman to please help him, his baby is not breathing.
She runs out of the mall following him and also becomes a victim. These have
been happening in well-lit parking areas, in daylight as well as night-time,
all over the country. The abductor usually uses a van to abduct the woman.
'Inside Edition' set up a test in a Mall and 10 out of 15 women went out of
the Mall on the Pizza and the PSA scam. And all of them went out of
the Mall on the baby scam.
Please pass this along to your friends and family as now that it has been
shown on nation-wide TV there are bound to be copycats of this. The third
one, I think, is the scariest. You might resist pizza or becoming a
commercial celebrity...but who would be able to resist a frantic father
asking for help for his child?
I'm sure that one would get me.
I was going to send this to the ladies only, but guys, if you love your
mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, etc., you may want to pass it on to
them, as well. Send this to any woman you know that may need to be
reminded that the world we live in has a lot of crazies in it....better safe
than
sorry......
A woman was shopping at the Tuttle Mall in Columbus. She came out to
her car and saw she had a flat. She got her jack, and spare out of the
trunk. A man in a business suit came up and started to help her. When
the tire had been replaced, he asked for a ride to his car on the opposite
side of
the Mall. Feeling uncomfortable about doing this, she stalled for a
while, but he kept pressing her. She finally asked why he was on this
side of the Mall if his car was on the other. He claimed he had been
talking to friends. Still uncomfortable, she told him that she had just
remembered something
she had forgotten to pick up at the mall and she left him and went back
inside the mall. She reported the incident to the mall security and
they went out to her car. The man was nowhere in sight.
Opening her trunk, she discovered a brief case the man had set inside
her trunk while helping her with the tire. Inside were rope and a
butcher knife. And, when she took the tire to be fixed, the mechanic
informed her that there was nothing wrong with her tire, that it was flat
because the air had been let out of it.
PLEASE BE SAFE AND NOT SORRY! JUST A WARNING TO ALWAYS BE ALERT AND
USE YOUR HEAD!!!
Pass this along to every woman you have access to. Never let your
guard down.
Barbara McLeish
Ministry of Attorney General
Security Programs Division/Firearms
2nd Fl 2881 Nanaimo St
Victoria BC V8T 4Z8
Phone: 250-356-6515 Fax: 250-356-9169