Avoid carjacking

As a follow-up to our previous post, Carjacking defense technique, check out Crime Doctor's Carjacking Facts page. Remember, the purpose of the carjacking is to jack your car - steal it with the keys inside it. If someone attempts to push you into your own car at gun or knifepoint and remove you from the scene, it's an abduction or kidnapping, and should be handled differently.

A few important points:

1. Your life, or that of your children is more important than your car - that's what car insurance is for! If you have a choice, get out of the car, and give it up. It's not worth getting killed over.


2. If you feel you're going to be abducted, fight like hell, and get away, even if you may be wounded or killed. One of the first questions I am asked at women's self-defense seminars is, "What if they have a gun?" And my answer is that if you run, you will probably survive, but if you leave the scene with a kidnapper, you may never be seen alive again. The goal of an abductor is to get you somewhere that he can rape, mutilate, and kill you in privacy. If you run, you will force him to make a choice: do I want to shoot and risk get caught, or get out of here and probably get away? Easy call.


3. Most carjackings seems to happen when doors are unlocked, windows are down, or someone gets out and isn't paying attention, so don't do those things. Lock your doors, roll the windows up (use the AC), and remove your keys from the ignition when out of the vehicle, and never leave it running.


4. Before you do anything else, make sure you're safe, then make a mental picture of the thief and direction of travel. Call 9-1-1, and try to calmly tell them what happened, your location, vehicle description and tag number, and the carjackers descriptors. Very important: make sure you note if the bad guy(s) have weapons, and let the call taker know.