This is such a scary situation! I am so glad that this robber only wanted jewelry or this story could have ended totally different. We go about our day to day lives not even realizing and not preparing for situations like this. There are people out there that sit all day learning your routine so they know when they can strike. This teen came out ok but if the robber had other intentions she would have become an ultimate victim.
What can you do to prepare:
- Vary your routine
- Never get in such a habit that someone can predict what you do. Mix it up. Go a different way. Come home early sometimes. Take a different day off. If they don't know what to expect they will be less likely to target you.
- Talk to your kids.
- This is real, this stuff happens. Elizabeth Smart is still dealing with the court case years later from being kidnapped out of her own bedroom. Talk to your kids about what to do if this happens. If this ever happened, the worst time for your child to think about what they should do in this kind of situation is when its happening. Aggressors will be more likely to run before they will turn and fight if there is likely they will be caught. Aggressors target those they think they can overpower. Teach your kids they don't need to be victims. Screaming and fighting back has more chances of keeping them safe then sitting there quiet with their back turned as they are attacked.
- Teach your kids that bad people lie and not to trust them. If they say they won't hurt you they most likely will. If they say keep quiet and they won't do anything, this is also a lie and they probably will. If they don't all the better but act as they will and benifit from the fortune if they don't. You can't trust someone who is in the act of causing harm. So teach your kids to not trust them. If they say don't scream they should be screaming. If they say don't fight they should be fighting for their lives. Aggressors target victims not other aggressors.
- Pay attention to your own house.
- Each night before you go to bed you should be checking doors and windows. Leaving porch lights on. The more difficult it is to target you the less likely it will happen. Also just because you are a sleep doesn't mean your house is safe. If you have had babies you trained yourself to hear them in the middle of the night if they wimpered a little. Don't lose that edge. You can sleep and still pay attention if you know you need to. You will sleep much better knowing you have a plan in place to respond if something ever did happen.
- Be ready to respond.
- If you are no more ready to respond then your kids to a threat or attack, then everyone in your house is a potential victim. You need to think and plan ahead. You need to ask yourself what would you do? Do you have a defensive plan in place to handle a threat? Are you ready to use it? Just getting a gun or a baseball bat is not a plan, its a risk for something worse to happen. If you don't know how to use that gun or bat and feel comfortable enough to use it without thinking, you will most likely be ineffective and even worse cause the attacker to escalate thier threat.
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