Gas Station Self Defense

[Dusty Rivers]

if your city has drugs, you got crime potential

It seems that almost every city in the country has drug usage. If that is the case, then your safe city has the potential for sudden crime. I live where no one locked their homes or cars. Last month there was a crime wave of someone entering unlocked homes. Now the radio stations are advising everyone to start locking their doors.

Don't stick your head in the sand. If you look like a potential victim you are a potential victim. Don't be afraid, just aware and prepared.

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

As a teen I used the nozzle, and a Zippo lighter to make a group of would be attackers change their minds about attacking me. I would much rather have a gun these days. I quit smoking over a year ago, and the very same lighter now sits with the candles, in kitchen drawer.

 

[TimSr]

Don't stick your head in the sand. If you look like a potential victim you are a potential victim. Don't be afraid, just aware and prepared.

Part of not sticking your head in the sand is a realistic evaluation of potential risk, and knowing that it is far safer for me to fuel up at midnight in my hometown than to do it near my workplace at 7:30am.

 

[agtman]

Don't stick your head in the sand. If you look like a potential victim you are a potential victim. Don't be afraid, just aware and prepared.

Part of not sticking your head in the sand is a realistic evaluation of potential risk, and knowing that it is far safer for me to fuel up at midnight in my hometown than to do it near my workplace at 7:30am.

Well, "potential risk" only means you're playing the probabilities, i.e., gambling.

Moreover, the bad guy has a say in how and when he'll strike, and it will never be part of your calculus of the risk.

Midnight at a gas station at one location might, in the bad guy's view, be as good as 7:30a.m. at another.

 

[chicharrones]

I pass through some weird areas at weird times when I travel the state for work. I have had plenty of people approach me for money or possible trouble. Years ago before I got my CHL, I did chase off a person harassing me at a gas pump by pulling the gas nozzle out of my car and aiming it in his direction. He was enraged, but he did leave the gas station after that.

Nowadays, my usual gas up procedure is to get out of the car with my keys, phone, and concealed gun. I lock the car and while the pump is going, I walk around my car looking at the tires, lights, etc. While doing that , I'm scanning anything around me. It seems that walking around my car doing an inspection, while watching others, tends to keep others in their place. Maybe because I keep moving? Not sure.

Since gas pump skimmers were mentioned, I had that happen to me to in a couple small towns I was passing through. The first time it happened, the criminals did in fact purchase things on my card as I didn't catch on immediately. The second time I suspected it of happening (felt like the first time) I took photos of the pump and station and cancelled that card that day.