The warm spring and summer weather might be bringing women outdoors to enjoy the weather and seasonal activities. Yet, the seasonal change also creates an open invitation for more and more women to be robbed, assaulted, raped or worse according to the Justice Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Criminals target women and law enforcement officials have created warning tips to arm them with options to keep them safe according to ABC News.
For most women, taking a self-defense class or arming themselves with a weapon and even carrying assault disabling pepper spray are good steps to take in stopping an attacker from robbing you or creating physical harm.
Here are several key tips that will prevent women from becoming one more crime statistic this spring or summer.
• Keep Eyes and Ears Open, Hands Free: When walking focus on your surroundings and keep your cell phone conversations to a bare minimum. Also, do not walk long distances with your arms filled with packages. This presents the best opportunity for a robber to snatch and grab your purse and any other valuables you may have on you.
• Change Your Walking/Jogging Routine: If you are jogger do not use the same running or walking route. An attacker that is planning to rob or assault you will watch for patterns of behavior that are predicable. Change it up and keep in mind some safe places like a home, store or safe building to head to if you sense an attacker approaching.
• When Shopping in a Store: Keep, your purse strapped in front of you in the shopping cart and always keep your keys in your free hand, so you are prepared to take off. Keep your cell phone in your purse.
• Park Close to Cart Rack: This prevent attackers from sneaking up on you since it is a high activity location for store customers returning their shopping carts.
• Take the Elevator Instead of the Stairs. While jogging up the stairs in your office building might be healthy and chic, be safe and take the elevator. While in the elevator stand in front of the doors so that if someone makes you feel uneasy you can easily exit the elevator.
• Lower Side View Mirrors: When entering your home car garage keep your side view mirrors facing the ground in order to catch a potential robber from sneaking into your garage while the door is closing
• Lock Windows and Close Blinds: Criminals love to have a bird’s eye view of what is happening inside your home so deprive their prying eyes the opportunity to do window shopping at your expense. Also, open blinds alert them about your absence from the home.
• . Keep Outside Lights on at Night. Criminals love to take advantage of the dark, so be smart and spend the extra pennies to keep your house and your family safe.
• Lock Door Connecting House and Garage: This is an effective way to keep a criminal from gaining easy access to your home once he has broken into your garage.
• Change Night Light Pattern: A would be robber who is intent to burglarizing your home will watch for which light goes off last. That will typically be the bedroom light, and it reveals where you are for the remainder of the night. Instead, change it up, so that your night light patterns are not predictable.
Bottom line, be suspicious and do not give the criminal the advantage by making assuming the best of a male in a vehicle sitting alone near your car, especially at night or if the lot is deserted. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe return to the store or building and speak to the security guard. Better safe than sorry.
Remember these statistics. According to according to studies conducted by the Justice Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention some 1.9 million women are physically assaulted annually in the United States, and 15 percent to 25 percent of all American women will report a sexual attack or rape at some time in their lives. Do your best to not become one more crime statistic.