When Mom is the Target: Protect Yourself from Theft

September 8th, 2008 Posted in General Parenting, Health

Last September, I got a call from a number I did not recognize. Sometimes I’ll let unknown numbers slide over to voicemail since I’ve got just about everyone I’ve ever known or done business with in my phone, but today I answered the phone.

My wife was hysterical on the other end of a Good Samaritan’s cell phone.

She was at the grocery store with our daughter, 9-months old at the time, unloading the shopping cart into her car. Just minutes before she strapped our little one into the car seat and quietly slid her purse onto the center console of the front seat…

Moments later, she looked up to see one man yelling at another man slinking across the parking lot with a familiar looking purse. At first, my wife felt bad for the poor lady that must have just gotten her purse stolen. That only lasted a brief second before she noticed that the front passenger door of her car was ajar.

The purse snatcher ran away, jumped into an old beat up car with two girls in the front seat and took off with at least $500 worth of cash and property. They also took off with my wife’s trust, freedom, peace of mind. Not to mention nearly all of the photos of our Daughter’s 9th month, which were on the digital camera in the purse.

Luckily I was at home for lunch, just a mile or so away from the grocery store where it happened, and was able to get there quickly. After a long talk with the police and many thank you handshakes with the Good Samaritan who chased the robber away and let my wife use his phone, we made it back home.

Later that afternoon, I got another call on my cell phone from an unknown person who found a purse on the side of the road with my business card inside. The situation sounded odd, so we called a friend to come to our house to stay with my wife while a buddy and I went to collect the purse. It turned out that we met the second Good Samaritan of the day who returned the purse with license and credit cards included.

To wrap up the saga, two girls and a guy were arrested a few weeks later for stealing purses and robbing a store. They looked eerily like the ones who got us so we did have some type of closure.

The Seven Habits of Highly Protected People

What happened to her probably couldn’t have been avoided, she kept a low profile with her purse, was unloading her cart quickly and was parked in a busy area. Unfortunately, when you unlock the back doors/hatch in our car it unlocks ALL the doors, giving the robber the opening.

What can you do? Here’s what the police told us as well as a few additional ways you can be protected.

Your stuff is not as important as you or your child, let it go.
Only keep in your purse (or car) what you need. My wife is a pretty smart cookie and didn’t have her check book in there, but she did have a well over $100 that she was going to deposit, a cell phone, camera, gift certificates, watch and more.
Know your surroundings and keep an eye out for unscrupulous characters. It’s better that a harmless person think you’re not friendly than a crook think you’re an easy target.
Trust your instincts and ask for help. If it’s a nice sunny day and you’re parked right in front of the store but have a weird feeling, ask a clerk or bag boy to walk you to the car. Again, it’s better to feel silly and be safe than to ignore your instincts and get in a bad situation.
Lock your doors. While it may be very inconvenient, my wife may still have that purse if she had unlocked all the doors, opened the hatch and then re-lock the doors (hindsight is 20/20).
My wife’s mom got us a great little tool that we have attached to our daughters car seat. It’s called a Personal Defense Alarm and is designed to send out a 130db screeching siren if the safety cord is pulled. You can get the one shown here at Amazon.com for $9.99. That way, when she is putting our daughter in her car seat (when they’re at their most vulnerable), she can just pull the cord to send the would-be criminal running.
Don’t lose trust in others. On the day we met the one criminal, we also met two Good Samaritans who went out of their way to help another in need. Keep up your guard and evaluate the situation, but always remember that for every one bad person, there’s a whole lot more good people in the world.