12.24.2005

That's Hot!

Pardon me for the quote. My older sister has been saying that Parisism for over a week now. Driving me bonkers!!!

Since she is a new character in my ever increasing cast of bloggy goodness, I shall call her OC. Read below and you will find out why.

OC works in a part of H-town we all call Gunpoint. For those of you native, you know to keep the doors locked in that area. The rest of you, this is normally known as the Greenspoint neighborhood. As one HPD narc officer put it, they don't rush to crime scenes there anymore because they have everybody's fingerprints. Maybe you need to add a new set from OC's car door.

A few days ago, she was working late at the business and was one of the last to leave. She's a smart cookie, and was in contact with a friend via Nextel. That saved her life, and I am never gonna say a bad thing about walkie-talkie phones ever again. From a vacant building to her Sequoia in the parking lot, she began to have a bad vibe. Intuition or whatever, she just didn't feel right. Can't blame her, if I was there, I'd probably be drawn at the low ready from door to door.

As she relates, OC did everything right. She kept to well lit areas, had her keys in her hand, and head on a swivel. She got in and motored up. OC was about two lights from the job when it happened. Sitting at a stop light, she was just waiting for the green. Light traffic and she was up front, first to go. Some Tango of Middle East descent, she stated, actually climbed in the truck like nothing was going on. Before he could even close the door and buckle up, she had some OC sprayed point blank in his face. He fell back like he was shot and it was off to the races for my sis. She cannot remember if she ran the red light or not, but she does remember getting a faceful of blowback spray.

This happened to someone who has never been in a personal defensive situation. Ever. About the most she has ever witnessed is being the number three car in a Christmas Eve pileup several years ago. She did not remember clearing the intersection and navigating the streets for those next five minutes. She was trying to reach for the Nextel to contact her friend, but was having trouble seeing. He realized something was wrong because he was trying to contact her through all this. OC did manage to contact him and let him in on the deal. The met back at work and he got her cleaned up and calmed down.

Through all this, she did forget one thing...lock the car doors. Big mistake, yes. Something as simple as that led to a near carjacking. She also forgot that SA (situational awareness) does not stop once you are buckled up in the car. You have to be aware of your surroundings wherever you are and no matter what you are doing. There was no verbalization and no other contact with the Tango. She did nothing more than react to the situation. That points to a serious flaw in her style of driving. She has now taken my advice and is on a constant watch whenever she drives.

She promised me that she would come to the range to work on some self defense tactics. I want her to get more familiar with firearms and with other types of defensive products like OC and knives and tasers. We shall see how that goes.

1 comment:

Jerry The Geek said...

Just tracked you down from your comment on Cogito Ergo Geek.

Like the blog. You bring some unique commentary to the RKBA ring, and you write well. Especially, you write LONG essays. I consider that a noble virtue.

Added you to the blogroll.