What Would You Have Done?
Several years ago on ‘ Inside Edition’ there was an article about several new scams concerning the attempted abduction women.
In one, a man comes up to a woman in a mall or shopping center and asks if she likes pizza. When she says she does, he offers her $10,000 to shoot a commercial for pizza, but they need to go outside where the lighting is better. When the woman goes out of the mall she is abducted and assaulted.
Another ploy………a very nicely dressed man asks a woman if she would like to be in a public service announcement to discourage drug use. The man explains that they don’ t want professional actors or celebrities; they want the average mother to do this. Once she leaves the mall she is a victim.
Yet another………and most successful, a very frantic man comes up to a woman and asks her to please help him, his baby isn’ t breathing. She runs out of the mall, following him like a sheep to the slaughter and she becomes a victim.
Acts of violence especially against women have been happening in well-lighted parking areas as well as daylight all over the country, no area is immune to this type of crime.
Inside Edition set up a test in a mall and 10 out of 15 women fell for the pizza ploy and the public service announcement scam. ALL of them went out of the mall on the baby scam.
CLOSE TO HOME……a woman was shopping in the Tuttle Crossing Mall in Columbus, Ohio. When she finished shopping she returned to her car to find that she had a flat tire. She got her jack and spare out of the trunk. A man in a business suit walked up to her and offered to help her change the tire. When the tire was replaced he asked her if she could give him a ride to the other side of the mall. Feeling uncomfortable about this, she stalled for a while, but he kept pressing her for a ride. Finally she asked him why was he on this side of the mall when his car was on the other side. He claimed that he had been talking with friends. Still uncomfortable, she told him that she forgotten to pick up something in the mall and she went back inside. She reported the incident to the mall security and they went out to her car. The man was nowhere in sight. Opening her trunk, she discovered a briefcase he had set inside her trunk while helping her with the tire. Inside the briefcase was a butcher knife and a rope. When she took the tire to be fixed, the mechanic informed her that there was nothing wrong with her tire, that someone had merely let the air out of it.
AWARENESS of ones surroundings and circumstances are the key to staying safe. These examples serve to show us that you cannot be too careful when out in public places. We must stay alert at all times. Please pass this information along to your loved ones, their lives may depend on it.