Outdoor Safety
Force Predators

Outdoor Safety means learning to avoid the traps of Force Predators.

A man had jogged past her as she was walking over a footbridge, then lay in wait, pulled his knife, and pushed her into the bushes. The survivor said, "I remember all the publicity about the rapes and outdoor safety. Yet I never gave it a thought that I might be a victim. I didn't even consider whether it was wise to go on using the footpaths."
Excerpted from The Observer (UK) – 02 February 2003

She wasn't too worried about the man hanging around the basement laundry room. She recognized him as a neighbor from the building where she had lived for years. She often did her laundry in the middle of the night if she couldn't sleep. It was easier to get a washing machine. ... "As I was putting my laundry in the dryer, he turned off the light and closed the door," she said. The room went pitch-black. The man maneuvered his way behind her and tried to push her forward onto the floor. As she screamed and struggled, he smashed her against the dryers, cutting her face, and dragged her behind the row of machines. "I was screaming," she said recently. "Nobody could hear me."
Excerpted from The Journal News (White Plains NY) – 17 February 2004

• Don’t go alone to laundry rooms in apartment buildings.
• Use fire stairwells only in a true emergency.
• Be wary of going alone into public restrooms.
• Hold an elevator door open as you press the button for your floor. If the arrow indicates you'll go the direction you want, release the door. But if the arrow points the wrong direction, get out! Someone else (possibly in the basement or on the roof) has summoned the elevator, and there’s no need for you to go there. Wait for the car to return to your floor and inspect it before you get in. Also, keep your hand in your pocket holding pepper spray at the ready (see Pepper Spray & Devices). ... Always stand near the elevator door so you can get off immediately if someone you distrust gets on. Especially, don’t go to the basement or roof with him – push the alarm button (not “Emergency Stop”) and/or push other floor buttons for more opportunities to flee the elevator. If he chases you, start banging on doors as you run past and pull a fire alarm if possible.
• Parking lots have lots of hiding spots. Assume someone is always watching you.
• Avoid stairwells or elevators in parking garages. Instead, walk in the middle of ramps for outdoor safety.
• Shopping malls and ATMs are magnets for criminals. They know you have money.
• Parks and wilderness areas are ideal hunting grounds for predators - and ominous for outdoor safety - as shown in Camping and below:

A woman's body was found in the city park. The woman was strangled but in some sense the park itself colluded - its woods are deeper than a well pit. It is a peaceful place, but also full of menace. "You can totally disappear up here," said a man walking his dog. "You can say it's tranquil, but if you scream up there, no one's going to hear."
Excerpted from The New York Times – 28 May 2004

"You fool yourself when you move to a place like Clarence, suburban Buffalo’s wealthiest community," said Marty Powers, who regularly uses the bike path near which Joan Diver was murdered. "You moved there so you didn't have to worry about crime," he said. "You become disconnected in a way. It's "I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to know about it.' " ... Diver's death was the second homicide in the general area in as many weeks… But the "it couldn't happen here" attitude so prevalent could be hard to change. ... Powers said not everyone had gotten the message about outdoor safety. While cycling along the bike path near which Diver's body had been discovered the previous day, he noticed two women, running separately without many other people around. "One was wearing headphones, and one was talking on a cell phone," he said. ... Supervisor Kathleen Hallock says, "You can't protect everyone everywhere every minute of the day," she said. "You can't possibly."
Excerpted from The Buffalo News – 04 October 2006

A hiker discovered the bodies of the mother and daughter alongside the trail - each had been shot in the head. ... After the killings, a hiking group developed new rules for outdoor safety. Now, they hike in two groups — fast and slow — and carry two-way radios. “The wilderness still speaks to us," one hiker said. "We’re just more cautious. As you hike a few miles in, you leave the craziness of the world behind. This reminded us that the craziness of the world is everywhere...”
Excerpted from The Everett Daily Herald – 27 October 2006

The young woman was sitting at a picnic table in a park with her boyfriend when a group of four boys walked up and asked for a cigarette. "The next thing I remembered," she said, "was seeing the gun." ... For the next 30 minutes, four teenage boys took turns raping the woman. Her boyfriend was beaten and ordered to keep his head down on the picnic table as the ordeal unfolded.
Excerpted from The Richmond Times-Dispatch – 18 July 2005

It’s impossible to fully anticipate the panicky chaos of a sudden threat forcing you to make split-second outdoor safety decisions. Nonetheless, understanding your options now will help your Intuition choose an option then.

Enhancing Your Options
Pepper Spray & a Noisemaker visibly ready will greatly enhance your first option – Posturing as a tough target – and probably deter a predator immediately. Your fifth option – Fighting – is enhanced as well.

For convenience, learn self-defense ONLINE:

KRAV MAGA, a practical self-defense system used by many police forces worldwide, teaches you to defend yourself, enhances your survival instinct, and can be applied under extreme stress. It's not flashy, just very effective. I highly recommend it. The Krav Maga TV - Online Training videos are especially convenient to learn at home when your schedule allows or if you don't live near a training center.

Find Outdoor Safety for parking lots, city streets, suburban byways, country roads, and secluded paths by going to:
• Outdoor Safety - Overview
• Friendly Predators first try to get near you to isolate and trap you, then attack you. Never forget that and you’ll never fall for a stranger’s lure.
• Force Predators (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE): ambush zones revealed.
• Predator’s Favorite Targets: how not to be one.
• Spotting Danger ahead of time, and sensing if someone is about to draw a weapon - and what to do before it's too late.
• Facing Danger: if you're already targeted in a robbery, purse snatching, rape or kidnapping attack, choose among the five outdoor safety options: Posturing, Fleeing, Outsmarting, Surrendering, or Fighting.
• Rescuing a Victim Safely: how best to be a hero.
• Dog Attack: facing an attack on you or a loved one.
• Pickpockets: stopping masterful thieves from stealing you blind.
• Recap of this section.
• Pepper Spray & Devices for Outdoor Safety.

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